Atwood Water Heater Problem
I’m having a strange issue with my water heater. The data tag is in the image below. The burner lights normally and has a good flame. I believe the water is getting as hot as it ever has. After ...
Forum Discussion
I’d be very cautious about running a WH for any length of time with the tstat and ECO switches bypassed to diagnose an intermittent problem. If this had been a solid failure, where the burner was going out and staying out when it should have been on, then yes, bypassing the switches briefly would tell you whether the switches were the cause or not.
That’s not how my WH was failing though. The burner was never turning off and staying off when it should have been on. The burner would go out, then immediately come back on. Until I started tapping on the igniter board, it only started failing at the tail-end of the cycle, when I was pretty sure the water was just about hot enough. Exactly when it would start failing wasn’t consistent, the time between off/on failures wasn’t consistent, and the number of times it would fail before finally turning off for good wasn’t consistent. The only thing that WAS consistent was the fact that when the burner turned off prematurely, it immediately came back on.
Considering how it was failing, I think it’s likely that had I bypassed the tstat/ECO switches after the first off/on failure, the burner would have turned on (which it should). Which would have told me what? Nothing, unless I let it run for ...............how long? How long would you be willing to let a WH run that is already very hot with the tstat and ECO bypassed? That’s where I think it’s getting risky. Tapping on the igniter board at least influenced the failure somewhat, but like I said even that wasn’t 100%.
The tstat/ECO switches were less than $10 including shipping. I’m also about 99.999% sure that even if I’d taken this problem to an expert RV tech for repair, I’d still be paying for the switches and the igniter board plus a couple hours of labor.
I only replied to point out that bypassing the tstat and ECO for an intermittent problem on a WH for anything other than a brief amount of time is first of all risky, and second may not conclusively identify the root cause.
:):)
That’s not how my WH was failing though. The burner was never turning off and staying off when it should have been on. The burner would go out, then immediately come back on. Until I started tapping on the igniter board, it only started failing at the tail-end of the cycle, when I was pretty sure the water was just about hot enough. Exactly when it would start failing wasn’t consistent, the time between off/on failures wasn’t consistent, and the number of times it would fail before finally turning off for good wasn’t consistent. The only thing that WAS consistent was the fact that when the burner turned off prematurely, it immediately came back on.
Considering how it was failing, I think it’s likely that had I bypassed the tstat/ECO switches after the first off/on failure, the burner would have turned on (which it should). Which would have told me what? Nothing, unless I let it run for ...............how long? How long would you be willing to let a WH run that is already very hot with the tstat and ECO bypassed? That’s where I think it’s getting risky. Tapping on the igniter board at least influenced the failure somewhat, but like I said even that wasn’t 100%.
The tstat/ECO switches were less than $10 including shipping. I’m also about 99.999% sure that even if I’d taken this problem to an expert RV tech for repair, I’d still be paying for the switches and the igniter board plus a couple hours of labor.
I only replied to point out that bypassing the tstat and ECO for an intermittent problem on a WH for anything other than a brief amount of time is first of all risky, and second may not conclusively identify the root cause.
:):)
