Atwood water heater problem

[CDNSENIOR]

More problems.Our atwood hw heater is not heating properly.The flame is a pale blue.I can not adjust the air flow with the slide on the inlet to make the flame hotter.I am thinking it might be the solenoid or the regulator(although the furnace seems to be working alright).Can anyone steer me in the right direction?

[CDNSENIOR]

Thanks to all who replied.The info was very informative.

[Clay_L]

If you carefully let a little water out of the relief valve into a cup and check the temperature you should see about 140 degrees unless you have one with a mixing valve. Then it should be about 160 degrees.

If the temperature is right then you probably have a cross feed from cold to hot somewhere. Either the mixing valve if you have one or a winterizing diverter valve are possibilities.

[cat199]

My flame is not perfectly blue either. My problems with Atwood water heater not getting hot water is the mixing valve on the back of the water tank. It mixes the cold water with the real hot water coming from the heater. The valve is suppose to give you extra capacity a 10 gallon equals 16 gallons. Because of the mixing. What happens is hard water will form calcium flakes at the mixing valve this blocks the hot water side of the mixing valve off--so all you get is warm or cold water. The fix is to remove the valve and clean the opening out. The easy part is cleaning the valve the hard part can be getting to the valve. Google Atwood mixing valve also check to make sure your model water heater has the mixing. Good luck.

[enblethen]

Open the outside access cover. The gas valve is in the lower right corner. There should be two black wires going to ground and two wires connected together that has a single wire from the circuit board.
The ground connection is on the back side of the mounting bracket. Awkward to get to with out removing the mounting bolt.

[CDNSENIOR]

am not sure where the gas valve coils are.

[enblethen]

Have you soaked and checked the orifice?
Did you check the gas valve coils?

[CDNSENIOR]

In reply to a Couple of previous posts.The color should be a much darker blue and we don't have an outside shower.Have cleaned orifice & the burner tube is clear.Still can't regulate air propane ratio.Thanks for the input.

[wa8yxm]

I think the flame is hot enough,

If the problem is the water not getting hot enough... Check your showers, both inside and out, also if you have the 3-valve bypass system, check the bypass valve.

[rockylarson]

CDNSENIOR wrote:
More problems.Our atwood hw heater is not heating properly.The flame is a pale blue.I can not adjust the air flow with the slide on the inlet to make the flame hotter.I am thinking it might be the solenoid or the regulator(although the furnace seems to be working alright).Can anyone steer me in the right direction?

What color are you looking for? What is wrong with pale blue? Not saying you don't have a heating problem, just wondering if it is the flame mix or not.

[wolfe10]

Propane issues that could result in this:

Opening tank valve too quickly-- flow severely restricted. Close vapor tap and open SLOWLY.

Propane regulator putting out low pressure. Check pressure with a manometer.

Crud in gas jet on water heater. Remove and clean in alcohol.

Spider web or insect debris in burner tube. Clean burner tube.

[Old-Biscuit]

Clean the burner orifice with alcohol

[enblethen]

Have you removed and cleaned the burner tube. It could be debris or critters.
Check the two coils on the gas valve. Disconnect ans separate the two coils. Insure they both have nearly the same resistance.
Check the ground wirte on the gas valve.
Check for discoloration on the ECO and thermostat connections.

[bullydogs1]

could be mixing valve..or check outside shower..make sure it is not on and you just have valve off at shower head..I have seen when this is on and shower head is off, the cold gets back into hot and thus your problem..particularly common with Fleetwoods.