Water heater operation question

[TruckinRazor]

I have a 2014 Eclipse Attitude 32IBG, We used the trailer once so far. We set up camp at a RV resort with Water and Electric hook ups. We tested the water heater by pressing the button once and some time later tried the water out of the hot side and it was so hot it almost burned my hand. So I thought ok it works. The next time I tried to use it I pressed the button and waited some time 10 minutes and the water was only luke warm.I thought ok doesn't work now...great. I then forgot about it until the next day. I tried again and same result. When I press the button the light stays on about a minute then it would go out.Since the resort had showers i decided to worry about it when i got home.
Does anyone know if the light is supposed to stay on while the heater is on?
Any indication as to if it's on Propane or Electric?

[TruckinRazor]

Arch Stanton wrote:
Still not heating up?
Again, make sure the tank is full of water and the propane supply valve is on, then go out and open the access door and have someone else turn the heater on. You should hear the ignitor fire a couple of times, providing a spark, and then the flame ignite. The flame should be clean, and strong, no soot and not much, if any, yellow to it. If it doesn't light, start following the troubleshooting procedure in the paperwork. As I said, it doesn't take long to have hot water with these things, about 10 min to warm and 15-20 to full on hot.

It works good, appearently my girlfriend and I have a very short attention span, After turning it on a few hours later I caught a red light out of the corner of my eye come on up in the cabinet while watching tv... I thought what the heck is that. Well after a second I remember what it was for and sure enough...hot water! Lol
Thanks!!

[Arch_Stanton]

Still not heating up?
Again, make sure the tank is full of water and the propane supply valve is on, then go out and open the access door and have someone else turn the heater on. You should hear the ignitor fire a couple of times, providing a spark, and then the flame ignite. The flame should be clean, and strong, no soot and not much, if any, yellow to it. If it doesn't light, start following the troubleshooting procedure in the paperwork. As I said, it doesn't take long to have hot water with these things, about 10 min to warm and 15-20 to full on hot.

[TruckinRazor]

It's an Atwood and appears to be propane only.

[Old-Biscuit]

Arch Stanton wrote:


Thanks, O/B.

The last Water Heater I had in my other RV was an Atwood, it had an Anode and was also aluminum. Came that way new. I will pay attention to the threads, been playing with these things for around 30 years and have managed to avoid wiping out the threads so far, but I have a set of NPT thread chasers if something should go wrong.

Atwood has never used an anode rod in their water heaters.
IF your previous water heater was an Atwood and it had an anode rod in it.....dealer installed not Atwood. And the dealer probably charged you for the 'upgrade'.

[TruckinRazor]

Old-Biscuit : I'm home today and will run out to the storage unit to look at the heater type, or atleast grab the owners folder that came with the trailer, I have a few other issues.

I have the Dometic thermostat and if it loses power or you change the temperature to quickly it will run the AC AND HEATER AT THE SAME TIME, unless you do the "reset" procedure...PIA!

[Arch_Stanton]

You do not need an anode rod for an Atwood....that's why there wasn't one. The tank is an aluminum alloy and that's why it has a nylon drain plug. Putting an anode rod in is a waste of money and the steel treads on anode rod can gall up/seize in the aluminum threads of tank.

Check Atwood website.......NO anode rod.

Just because an item is available via aftermarket doesn't mean it is needed, better or an improvement.

Thanks, O/B.

The last Water Heater I had in my other RV was an Atwood, it had an Anode and was also aluminum. Came that way new. I will pay attention to the threads, been playing with these things for around 30 years and have managed to avoid wiping out the threads so far, but I have a set of NPT thread chasers if something should go wrong.

Aqualholic that is a weird one, indeed.
Your water heater has an electronic ignition it fires a spark like a spark plug to get the propane lit. Somehow, you've got a problem between the two 12v circuits. I'd start looking at the ground of the stereo.

[Aquaholic502]

We have the 28aklg and the same water heater. When we first got ours we had a littel issues also. I found out I had to adjust the flame on the water heater as it was not burning good and would go out. This is when the light comes on and stays on. When running goog light should come on for a couple seconds and then shut off. The issue I have now with the water heater is when im listening to the radio and the water heater comes on the radio freezes and stops playing. Then I have to shut off and restart the radio lol.

[Old-Biscuit]

Arch Stanton wrote:
I have a new Eclipse Attitude 32AKLG and unless you upgraded the water heater I believe the standard unit is propane only, no electric element. Our heater is an Atwood. Ours is propane only. I always make dang sure the water tank is full before firing up the burner. Takes about 15 for it to heat up nicely.
Also, my propane-only unit came with a plastic drain plug, no sacrificial anode attached to the plug.
I changed that out right away.

You do not need an anode rod for an Atwood....that's why there wasn't one. The tank is an aluminum alloy and that's why it has a nylon drain plug. Putting an anode rod in is a waste of money and the steel treads on anode rod can gall up/seize in the aluminum threads of tank.

Check Atwood website.......NO anode rod.

Just because an item is available via aftermarket doesn't mean it is needed, better or an improvement.

TruckinRazor
IF your WH is an Atwood and you only have one switch then it is a propane only.
That is why need to post Brand/Model.
Two different WHs and they have different controls etc.

[Arch_Stanton]

I have a new Eclipse Attitude 32AKLG and unless you upgraded the water heater I believe the standard unit is propane only, no electric element. Our heater is an Atwood. Ours is propane only. I always make dang sure the water tank is full before firing up the burner. Takes about 15 for it to heat up nicely.
Also, my propane-only unit came with a plastic drain plug, no sacrificial anode attached to the plug.
I changed that out right away.

[TruckinRazor]

Old-Biscuit wrote:


No..not like fridge
Water heaters have separate switches..no 'auto' select
One ON/OFF switch for electric element
One ON/OFF switch for propane

With only one switch inside I suspect you have a Suburban Brand and the electric ON/OFF switch is located in the outside compartment

That has to be it then, the propane was turned off after the first day and if the switch is outside then we never turned it on.
Thanks I will check that when I get home.

[Old-Biscuit]

TruckinRazor wrote:
It has always had water in it when hooked to electric, So I don't believe the element would have been "dry,on". So the one switch inside is not like the fridge? That only has one switch aswell.

No..not like fridge
Water heaters have separate switches..no 'auto' select
One ON/OFF switch for electric element
One ON/OFF switch for propane

With only one switch inside I suspect you have a Suburban Brand and the electric ON/OFF switch is located in the outside compartment

[TruckinRazor]

It has always had water in it when hooked to electric, So I don't believe the element would have been "dry,on". So the one switch inside is not like the fridge? That only has one switch aswell.

[Old-Biscuit]

TruckinRazor wrote:

Strabo wrote:
Make sure propane is on also unless your using electric to make hot water, in that case you dont use the propane switch on the wall.

How do you have it setup, propane or electric?

To better explain, I just switched from a Jayco to this Eclipse and everything is completely different. On the Jayco both propane and electric switches for the water heater we nect to each other and you could choose. This Eclipse has one switch and I'm assuming it switches itself to whatever is available? If no electric is detected then it uses propane? Does this sound right or is the propane switch somewhere else?

Sounds like it is a Suburban......inside switch is for propane operation and then in the outside compartment is a switch for electric element..lower right hand corner. If that switch is ON and no water in WH Tank...need new element. They don't last very long without being immersed in the water in tank.

Sounds like it was working on propane....light comes on when igniting then goes off.
Water takes about 20 mins to get hot.

Good luck!

[TruckinRazor]

Strabo wrote:
Make sure propane is on also unless your using electric to make hot water, in that case you dont use the propane switch on the wall.

How do you have it setup, propane or electric?

To better explain, I just switched from a Jayco to this Eclipse and everything is completely different. On the Jayco both propane and electric switches for the water heater we nect to each other and you could choose. This Eclipse has one switch and I'm assuming it switches itself to whatever is available? If no electric is detected then it uses propane? Does this sound right or is the propane switch somewhere else?