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COxley's avatar
COxley
Explorer
Jun 06, 2015

Water heater

For reasons I won't go into I haven't used my rig in over a year. While getting it ready to go I find the water heater isn't working. When I turn the switch on, nothing, no sparking at the ignition no pilot out light, nothing. I checked fuses and replaced the spark probe but neither helped. The heater is an Atwood 6 gallon LP gas heater with electronic ignition, model number G6A-8A. Anybody have a suggestion? Thanks for any help you can offer.
  • Does it have 12V power supplied and is the gas on? I took mine apart and was checking everything, before I realized that the gas had got shut off accidentally. JMO
  • You may find some wiring that looks like it has a fuse in the wiring right in front of the HWT. This is actually a fusible link that is designed to melt if for some reason there is a fire in the burner tube, usually from wasps building in it. This would then cut off the flow of propane by cutting power to the solenoid.

    In my case I found the wiring to the fusible link had corroded and the link was no longer conducting through. After I cut off the wires and remade the connections to the fusible link, everything worked great again.

    I got that information directly from calling Atwood service technicians on the phone.
  • Artum Snowbird wrote:
    You may find some wiring that looks like it has a fuse in the wiring right in front of the HWT. This is actually a fusible link that is designed to melt if for some reason there is a fire in the burner tube, usually from wasps building in it. This would then cut off the flow of propane by cutting power to the solenoid.

    In my case I found the wiring to the fusible link had corroded and the link was no longer conducting through. After I cut off the wires and remade the connections to the fusible link, everything worked great again.

    I got that information directly from calling Atwood service technicians on the phone.


    Correct.......
    Thermal Cut-out is a one shot device..trips if temperature of 190*F or higher is detected in the outside compartment (typically from a blow back out of combustion chamber). When it trips it kills all DC voltage to WH circuits and shuts down firing.

    It connects to terminal of normal temp t-stat. (Brown wire)

    So if DC fuse is good then check for DC voltage at thermal cut-out device.
    If blown..replace after cleaning out combustion/exhaust chamber (run wire thru, tie rag to wire and then pull it back out)
  • Probably the Thermal cut off. You can pull the Thermal cut off off and just plug the brown wire in to see if that fixes the problem. There not cheap to replace, I spent $30 for a 2 pack of the things. I ran my water heater a few days before I replaced the Thermal cut off but its a good idea to get it replaced sooner then latter. I ended up routing mine a little different as it was hanging down very close to the flame tube and I assume that's why mine popped as the trailer was less then 6 months old and had only been used 3 times when mine went.
  • Thanks to all who replied, especially those who pointed me to the thermal cut off. When I pulled that I saw a melted/burned area so I bypassed it and my water heater now works. Too bad I didn't come to this forum before I spent money on a new spark probe.
  • I will clean out the burner tube and replace the thermal cutoff before I use the water heater. Thanks again for the help.

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