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wolfwatcher's avatar
wolfwatcher
Explorer
Jun 01, 2015

Suburban W Heater sol. leaking gas

Let me clear that up. I can fire the gas water heater fine, heats, etc. Thermostat shuts flame off, but sol stays energized? I can unplug ground wire, clicks and gas flow quits. Plug back in, and gas flows. Every once in a while the gas switch will red light reset. Gas switch works fine mostly, but the gas leak after flame goes out has been consistant. This sol. stays energized with all switches on electric.
SW10DE. Maybe original, '99 Arctic Fox.
  • IF thermostat functions/shuts off propane then there would be NO Voltage to circuit board cause when t-stat OPENS it cuts DC (+)

    Only way for DC power to get to circuit board would be wiring issue/cross wire/short inside junction box on side of WH

    Have you measured the voltage?
    Measure coming from t-stat (red wire) and measure oing to gas solenoids (brown wire)

    Can't see how 120 AC would be suspect....separte junction box, separate wiring runs etc.
  • The service manual helps a lot. Of course, my vom and test light are 40 miles away, but that will be fixed tonight. I also noticed in the manual it mentioned the t-stat governs the voltage to the switch? Once I can track the flow I might be in luck. I will post findings tomorrow.
  • It really cannot be the circuit board, because it has no power to it when not operating. I would trace the brown wire back to the circuit board, and do a general inspection of all connections.
    I was also wondering about a weird backfeed from the 120 volt side- not sure about that though.

    There is a schematic in the service manual I have here.
  • wolfwatcher wrote:
    Thanks Chris. I can actually "operate" the sol. by removing/installing the ground, so it has voltage. Just not sure if the circuit board could somehow be keeping the sol. energized, or the switch somehow staying on? I am not finding a good schematic to figure it out. Yet.


    The wall switch has nothing to do with energizing the solenoid. The solenoid is controlled by the Ignition module. I would suspect the ignition module has water corrosion on it and this is bleeding the voltage to the solenoid wire. Doug
  • Thanks Chris. I can actually "operate" the sol. by removing/installing the ground, so it has voltage. Just not sure if the circuit board could somehow be keeping the sol. energized, or the switch somehow staying on? I am not finding a good schematic to figure it out. Yet.
  • Find out if there is indeed voltage on the gas valve circuit. If there is, find where it's coming from- has to be a short somewhere.If there is not, removing the wire simply jars the stuck valve, in which case it should be replaced.

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