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dano73's avatar
dano73
Explorer
Mar 23, 2015

Water Heater Wont Fire On Gas

I have a 2002 5er with a 10 gal atwood water heater. It works fine on ac, but about a year ago stopped working on gas. Everything else in the trailer works fine on gas, fridge and stove. It sparks fine and tries to light, but goes into lockout mode after 3 attempts. I have replaced the thermostat and eco, there is voltage at the solenoid and I hear that distinctive click when the heater is turned on. I also replaced the board today with another known good one, but it did the same thing, 3 attempts and lockout, which I tried multiple times. I cleaned all grounds and used those grounds to check voltage at the solenoid, and they worked. I also cleaned the nozzle in alcohol, still no go. Any ideas?

15 Replies

  • dano73 wrote:
    There are no webs in the burner tube. I don't see a thermocouple, is it part of the igniter electrode?


    Yes, it probably is part of the ignitor. When the flame hits it there is a millivolt signal sent to the card.
    I went through all that with mine. I checked all the connections, cleaned everything, replaced the ignitor and in the end my board had to be bad. I replaced the whole water heater as I didn't want to chance buying more parts for an old water heater. You say that you replaced your card with a known good card but maybe it isn't good?
  • There are no webs in the burner tube. I don't see a thermocouple, is it part of the igniter electrode?
  • You might check for cob webs in the burner tube, spider webs will not burn, I use a small round brush. Also the thermocouple might be bad, if it is just dirty you can carefully polish it with steel wool.
  • Idk would the thermocouple be part of the ignitor electrode?