Suburban Water Heater Wiring Issues

G and D wrote:
If the reigniter is dangerous and should be removed how is the pilot relit?

The original Suburban control module does the reignition. It also controls the gas valve. It limits the number of retries, then shuts down so you aren't pouring gas out while trying endlessly to reignite.

The typical problem with a modified design is that the replacement unit does not properly perform all the safety functions. Some are wired so that the gas valve is always open when the WH is below temp. The thermostat is wired to turn on the gas line. That works if the gas successfully lights, but not if it fails. If the gas does not light, you are pouring gas out ....

I don't know the specs on that reigniter. Perhaps it performs all the safety functions of the original design, but perhaps not. It's not an area where I'm comfortable making changes. I had a WH that threw flames 6" out the side of the RV when turned on. It was a blocked gas line - wasps. There are enough safety concerns without trying to redesign the WH system.

My preference would be to take it back to stock. I certainly wouldn't keep it as is until I was certain that the reigniter was designed to perform all the safety functions of the original design - specifically, it must at a minimum turn off the gas if it fails to light. Even if I knew it did that, I wouldn't be certain that it did everything else needed to keep me safe - so again, I'd want the originally designed control.

Edit: Older WH's were manually lit and had a pilot light. They had a device that allowed gas flow only when the pilot was lit. If the pilot went out, the gas to the pilot also shut off after a minute or so due to the absence of heat. Reigniters were sold that did nothing more than attempt to relight the pilot when it detected the absence of heat. Gas flow continued to the pilot for a short while after the pilot went out, and the reigniter could get the pilot lit before the gas shut off.

Those reigniters did not control gas flow - that was done with the heat detection of the original system, so installing those was safe. Those reigniters are cheap, but aren't suitable for an RV WH originally designed with an electronic reignition system. Such systems do not have the gas shutoff system as they don't have a pilot light.

It may well be that there are reigniters sold that can safely replace the original control system. I probably shouldn't have said your system is unsafe - I suppose it could be. I don't know anything about the design of your modified system - but I'd hate to learn later it wasn't safe. Please be very careful if you decide not to fix the original system.