WoodGlue wrote:
World of warning to everyone who has an 2013 or before Atwood or Suburban WH, please use the old fashioned way of making sure your water tank is full before you start to heat it. Unless and until you are able to contact Atwood and confirm with them that your specific 2104 NEWER MODELS is one of the new generations of "idiot proof" WH's.
The water heater information should be on the included warranty paperwork and then go outside and inspect your unit and write down the specific numbers before calling Atwood.
Thanks newman, I appreciate the backup.
WoodGlue
Talked to Atwood this morning.
1. The "new" 120 element has been installed as OEM since 2006/07
2. There is NO sensor or anything that can determine DRY FIRE on 120
3. The 120 element is designed to dry fire no more than 10 to 15 minutes. IT IS DESIGNED TO NOT BURN UP FOR THAT FIRST FEW SECONDS/MINUTES THAT THE RV'ER HAS MISTAKENLY DRY FIRED AND CATCHES HIS MISTAKE. If he does NOT catch his mistake, AFTER that time it will burn out. THAT explains why I have replaced numerous burnt out Atwood 120 elements even tho some of you think the new design will stop that. It will NOT according to Atwood tech services
4. The ONLY sensor on the Atwood is the standard ECO that IF the 120 element lasted longer than 15 minutes would heat the casing to the limit of the ECO and once the ECO opened the power to the W/H would be shut off, BUT, once the tank cooled down and the ECO closed again, then the 120 would reheat again and the odds are the element would then burn up in that 10 minutes.
5. As I stated, you cannot run a Atwood 120 with an empty tank. Atwood will NOT warranty a dry fired destroyed burnt up 120 element in the warranty period.
6. Atwood stated to NEVER run water into the tank if you have dry fired. Turn off the 120 and wait a few hours and then fill the tank. If you run cold water into the tank with the 120 element red hot, then the inner burner tube will collapse from the steam and heat.
7. I checked our stock of Atwood 120 elements. EVERY one has a pink tag on it that states to NEVER dry fire and that it will burn out in minutes if dry fired. WHY would they state this if Atwood believes that their 120 elements cannot be damaged by dry fire???? Believe what you want, but I work on scores of Atwood water heaters every year and the 120 elements DO burn out by dry firing.
8. The diffrence between a Suburban 120 element and a Atwood is, the Suburban element is silver and the Atwood has kind of a Army dark Green coating which according to Atwood is the dry fire inhibitor.
9. There is NO difference bewteen 2014 and older models on this issue going back to 2006/7. Doug