Hot water tank on/off switch

[rickvikki]

Hello everyone: What should be a simple job is not 😞
We just changed the on./off switch for propane hot water because it was no longer lighting up when in the on position, but the little red light above would still go out when propane ignited. Now the light on the switch glows in the on position and little red light above stays red and propane igniter is clicking to fire up but never does. Now this would be too much of a coincidence that propane will not ignite anymore for some other reason than changing the on/off switch. Any ideas as to what is going on?

We have a Tiffen Phaeton 2006 DP, 40ft.

Thanks, Rick

[wa8yxm]

rgatijnet1 wrote:
The switch only has two wires and is powered by 12 volts. Try just shorting the two wires together and see if it makes a difference.

Why sir, you sound just like Atwood cuss-some-more non-service.

The switch has 3 wires and if you connect them all together it will blow the fuse,,

three wires
HOT (provides power for switch and control board)
Switched Provides power FROM switch to control board
GROUND: for the light inside the switch.

(There is another thread in one of the forums about this 3 wire issue)

If you use just two wires, the switch will not light. The water heater will not work or the fuse will blow (Depending on which two).

[dougrainer]

FIRE UP wrote:
Well Gang,
I'm a bit confused. The OP states his light in his water heater switch for "Propane" is not working and, has attempted to repair it. And, another poster has stated that "everyone has the same switch" so, I knew I had the same switch but, something was not "clicking" right in the brain when reading this and associating that switch with the propane side of the water heater.

You see, if you look at the picture below, it's of my "One Place Panel" (as it's called for Winnebago/Itasca owners), you'll see a red(lighted) switch in the upper left corner of the picture. But, also notice, that switch controls the "110VAC" side of the water heater, not the propane side. If you look just a bit below that switch, you'll see the water pump switch and, a PROPANE water heater switch. It, is not a lighted switch. There ARE, little LEDs below that propane water heater switch that indicate whether or not the water heater is functioning normal or, the pilot light is out. But, the switch itself is not illuminated.

So, we must have a different setup than the OP. No biggie, just wondering.
Scott

Yes, you do have a different set up. THAT is Winne's installed switches, not the W/H makers switches. That is why I asked for a pic. Tiffin used the W/H supplied switch panel. Doug

[FIRE_UP]

Well Gang,
I'm a bit confused. The OP states his light in his water heater switch for "Propane" is not working and, has attempted to repair it. And, another poster has stated that "everyone has the same switch" so, I knew I had the same switch but, something was not "clicking" right in the brain when reading this and associating that switch with the propane side of the water heater.

You see, if you look at the picture below, it's of my "One Place Panel" (as it's called for Winnebago/Itasca owners), you'll see a red(lighted) switch in the upper left corner of the picture. But, also notice, that switch controls the "110VAC" side of the water heater, not the propane side. If you look just a bit below that switch, you'll see the water pump switch and, a PROPANE water heater switch. It, is not a lighted switch. There ARE, little LEDs below that propane water heater switch that indicate whether or not the water heater is functioning normal or, the pilot light is out. But, the switch itself is not illuminated.

So, we must have a different setup than the OP. No biggie, just wondering.
Scott

[dougrainer]

Did you buy this Tiffin new? Tiffin never installed a lighted LP remote switch that would light in the ON position. The only time the light would light is when the LP failed to ignite. Can you post a pic of the switch assbly? Tiffin has used a few different ones over the years and they also used both Atwood and Suburban Water Heaters and the switch assbly's look different. If you had a "lighted" switch, the WHITE would usually be the ground to the bulb side of the switch, and the Gray and Red are the completed 12 volt to the water heater. That means IF you reverse the Gray and Red on the switch, there will be constant 12 volts to the bulb(output spade) of the switch and the light will stay on. Usually on a 3 spade lighted switch, the GROUND (negative) spade will be a different color than the other 2 spades. So, look at the 3 spade terminals and see which spade is a different color than the other 2. THAT spade is the ground spade and you hook up the white wire to it. Doug

[rickvikki]

I have three wires, red in the middle and grey one side and white the other side. have tried switching grey and white leaving red in the middle. same results?

[DSDP_Don]

Rick.....It's common for the light bulbs on the switch to go bad and aren't replaceable. The additional wire is to power the light bulb. Did you buy the IDENTICAL switch and then attach the wires correctly. It sounds like you placed the wires on the switch wrong, causing the power that feeds the light to feed the water heater.

[crasster]

Pics may help. 🙂

[rickvikki]

oops red in the middle, grey on one side and white on the other 🙂

[rickvikki]

It has three actually, grey in the middle, red on one side and white on the other side

[rgatijnet1]

The switch only has two wires and is powered by 12 volts. Try just shorting the two wires together and see if it makes a difference.

[rickvikki]

But the hot water was igniting this morning before replacing switch?

[n7bsn]

Almost everyone has the same switch.

I doubt your problem is the switch, I'm check the control board.