Atwood Water Heater

j-d wrote:
Is that WH with the new Board and ECO a Suburban? Or an Attwood? I thought (at least) Attwood had a fusible ECO (brown wire) to prevent exactly what happened to you.

It is an Atwood and you're right, it does have a fusible link. It burned the outer sheath but I shut it down before it burned to the link. Just a little burned plastic on the board and some soot up the side of the rv. The link would've most likely stopped the fire from progressing had I not shut her down.

Is that WH with the new Board and ECO a Suburban? Or an Attwood? I thought (at least) Attwood had a fusible ECO (brown wire) to prevent exactly what happened to you.

down home wrote:
Spiders and other critters like the tube.
Clean every season as per manual. Soot build up of itself and oxidation of the metal may be a problem. All those parts are available pretty cheap.

I second this. I just replaced circuit board and ECO as my water heater wasn't working and poof it ignited. Luckily I went out to check the flame, as it'd been a couple months, and found yellow flame coming out of intake flue and exhaust nearly burned up my RV. Quickly turned off water heater and went back to basics trying to adjust flame and still no improvement. When I ran a pipe cleaner through the burner tube and flue, out came a spider and web. A little shop vac cleaning and it works perfect now.

Spiders and other critters like the tube.
Clean every season as per manual. Soot build up of itself and oxidation of the metal may be a problem. All those parts are available pretty cheap.

What they said! Check pressure and make sure the soot is cleaned out of the tube. Secondary air is the air that's drawn in with the flame to make it draft. A sooted exchanger will decrease the secondary air flow. There's not much chance of it being wrong but you can check to be sure the orifice is the right size and not damaged. They are usually jeweled and can't be drilled or altered. Make sure the orifice is absolutely clean. That makes a difference with the air/fuel mixing. Webs, dirt or anything else that prevents the orifice from blowing perfectly straight into the burner will decrease the amount of air that gets drawn in with the gas. Craig

Sooting means that there is plenty of fuel available and that the air or exhaust is choked. A thorough cleaning is advised.

I have had good luck blowing compressed air through all the tubes and passages

Remove the burner tube and spark electrode assemble
Then run a piece of wire thru the combustion chamber and out the exhaust. Attach a rag to the end of wire and pull it back thru the 'U' tube.

That will clean out any spider webs. nests etc. inside the 'U' tube which can also be the cause of your sooting.

At 9 years, you might check propane pressure. Regulators are not expensive and do get stiff with age.