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GaryS1953's avatar
GaryS1953
Nomad
Jun 05, 2017

Atwood water heater G6A-8E Remote Switch

Hi All - 9 years ago when we got our used 1996 5er, the the Atwood Water heater didn't work. The remote switch with the red light DID light, but the burner would not ignite. After some research on this forum and others I ended up replacing the control board with a Dinosaur, and it has worked flawlessly ever since, until now. This weekend we took our first DRY camping trip, after installing solar. Everything went great, furnace and fridge worked great, and we had plenty of lights and power for the furnace, which ran a lot due to how cold it got. The Atwood water heater ignited normally, with red light initially coming on, then the whoosh of the igniter, then red light went off and shortly thereafter we had hot water. At some point over the weekend we noticed the water was only warm, not hot as normal, and upon further checking realized the water heater was not lit, AND THE RED LIGHT DID NOT COME ON. Since then multiple attempts to turn on the water heater have been unsuccessful, When I turn on the remote switch nothing happens, and the red light does not come on. I checked fuses and could not find any fuses that seemed like they affected the hot water heater, and as far as I know it is strictly propane and DC.

Could it just be a bad remote switch? Or is there a fuse or something else simple that could cause this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

4 Replies

  • Old-Biscuit's avatar
    Old-Biscuit
    Explorer III
    Jun 06, 2017
    GaryS1953 wrote:
    Old Biscuit- someone commented on an earlier thread that I'm "not a tinkerer", and he was right. I'm always afraid I'll screw something up even worse. That's a shame though because this is/was such an easy fix that a little tinkering would have taken care of it and I wouldn't have had to bother people here on this forum. I pulled off the inline fuse you mentioned, checked continuity, and the fuse WAS good. All I did was put it back in place, pushing the spade ion and off a couple of times to clean it a bit. Ten seconds later I was a little shocked when the igniter lit up. I'm very embarrassed, but it looks like all it needed/needs is a little clean up. I'll do a more thorough job in the next few days of cleaning ALLthe contacts. Thanks so much for your generous help,


    Glad you decided to 'tinker' :B
    Doesn't take much resistance to stop 12V DC
    Dirty connections and bad grounds are very common issues
  • GaryS1953's avatar
    GaryS1953
    Nomad
    Jun 06, 2017
    Old Biscuit- someone commented on an earlier thread that I'm "not a tinkerer", and he was right. I'm always afraid I'll screw something up even worse. That's a shame though because this is/was such an easy fix that a little tinkering would have taken care of it and I wouldn't have had to bother people here on this forum. I pulled off the inline fuse you mentioned, checked continuity, and the fuse WAS good. All I did was put it back in place, pushing the spade ion and off a couple of times to clean it a bit. Ten seconds later I was a little shocked when the igniter lit up. I'm very embarrassed, but it looks like all it needed/needs is a little clean up. I'll do a more thorough job in the next few days of cleaning ALLthe contacts. Thanks so much for your generous help,
  • ScottG's avatar
    ScottG
    Nomad
    Jun 05, 2017
    The red light may or may not come on for a moment, but it should not stay on. A continuous red light indicates a fault in the lighting sequence.
  • Old-Biscuit's avatar
    Old-Biscuit
    Explorer III
    Jun 05, 2017
    Your Atwood G6A-8E is a propane only water heater and uses 12V DC via a FUSED feeder circuit for power to controls and gas valve

    S/B a main fuse in DC Dist Panel that supplies DC to On/Off switch and then to/thru a 'thermal cut-out' (fuse in clear tubing) to/thru t-stat and then to circuit board.

    Have to have DC thru that part of circuit before anything else can happen

    With On/Off Switch turned ON......
    Check that you have 12V DC on Brown wire---just unplug thermal fuse from terminal on t-stat and check for voltage.
    If no voltage...thermal fuse probably blown (one shot device that blows at 190*F due to flame blow-back out of combustion chamber---dirty/obstructed)

    Unplug thermal fuse completely and plug brown wire spade onto t-stat terminal and check for operation.

    If WH fires off.......shut if down/clean combustion chamber and get another thermal fuse

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