Can I replace a DSI HWH with something (anything) else?

[stevennlv]

I have a fairly new unit, 2017.

It has a DSI hot water heater. I hate it with a passion. It is nothing but problems and headaches.

About this time of year, for the last two years, it starts to develop DSI faults. Last year I watched some YT vids and was able to get it to clear after a couple of days of headaches.

I cannot get it to clear this time. I have done everything I can think of and tried a bunch of stuff off the web and I cannot get it to clear.

I have cleaned the combustion chamber and the igniter. I have replaced the anode rod and flushed the tank. I have let it set with the gas shut off at the tank for hours. I have followed all kinds of suggestions, like resetting / restarting things in a specific order (ie furnace and stove before HW) to "clear air out of the lines"(?), resetting breakers, etc. About the only thing I have not tried so far is disconnecting from shore power. (Would that make any difference?)

All I know is that every year, so far, like clockwork it goes to **** after about 12 months of operation and this year I can't fix it; which means unless I get some brilliant advice here then it's a trip to the shop.

If it's a trip to the shop I'd just rather replace the entire thing with something far more reliable and easier to maintain.

Does such an animal exist (easy to care for HWH) and I can swap one of them out for the hunk of junk I have now?

I'm in a Outdoors, Black Rock 20rd, 2017 with a Suburban DSI HWH.

[stevennlv]

wa8yxm wrote:
There are serious advantages to DSI water heaters... but one problem which you seem to have (DSI Faults)

I had to replace the control board on mine.

But to answer your question.. YES. you can replace it There are basically 3 types of water heaters (or 4)

1: Propane only manual pilot light. these have to be manually lit and many folks have problems doing that. and they burn gas all the time (pilot. not much but some).

2: DSI.

3: Tankless (Also DSI however often a better quality).

I appreciate the info. Being inexperienced and this being my first DSI I just thought they were junk. But most folks here, and from stuff I've read on the net most other people too, seem to think otherwise.

The regulator and pig tails got here today. But the stupid mounting bracket won't be here for 7-10 days. So I'm on hold until then.

From my reading it could still be a control board problem even if the electric heater still works. They are supposedly on "separate circuits".(?)

But, as I've learned on this project smelling even faint gas around your tanks is not normal. So I want to replace the regulator any way. Hopefully that will fix this too.

If not I *may* try doing the board myself. I have mobility issues due to multiple spine injuries. Bending, reaching and twisting into odd, small spaces is not good for me at all. So depending on where my control board is I may not be able to get to it to swap it out.

But, one thing at a time. The regulator first. If I have to do the board too from what I've read it's no more difficult than changing out a card in a PC; something with which I am very familiar. If I can get to it.

I'll let everyone know what happens with the regulator. If I have to do the board too and can get to it from what I've read I'll go with a dinosaur.

[wa8yxm]

There are serious advantages to DSI water heaters... but one problem which you seem to have (DSI Faults)

I had to replace the control board on mine.

But to answer your question.. YES. you can replace it There are basically 3 types of water heaters (or 4)

1: Propane only manual pilot light. these have to be manually lit and many folks have problems doing that. and they burn gas all the time (pilot. not much but some).

2: DSI.

3: Tankless (Also DSI however often a better quality).

[stevennlv]

4x4van wrote:
To the OP; what do you mean by "DSI fault"?

There is a little red light next to the switch that is labeled "DSI FLT". When things do not work as intended that light comes on.

When I search for that I get a bunch of returns on a DSI Fault that tell me to clean various parts of the system (combustion chamber, etc). When that does not fix it there are a million suggestions on troubleshooting, like turn the stove on before the water heater to "clear air out of the line" or to turn off the electric heater and either bleed the tank or wait for it to cool before turning on the gas water heater b/c if the water is already hot the thermostat/control-board(?) will prevent the gas from igniting if everything is already hot, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

Last year I had to fiddle with all that junk for about a day, maybe two and the fault finally went away and everything worked for a year.

As I get deeper into describing everything, people asking me questions here and I continue to research based on info folks have suggested here I too am starting to think the problems is at some point in the gas supply.

So the new regulator and pig tails will be here tomorrow. I ordered them first thing this morning.

Wish me luck, b/c if this don't fix it I'm going to have to take it to the shop.

[4x4van]

I've been RVing for 30+ years, 3 motorhomes (first was a pilot type WH, 2nd & 3rd DSI type). Only failure of a WH occurred on my first, a non-DSI type, and it was solved with a control board. Occasionally, I get an ignition failure; I simply turn it off and back on, and it lights up. Methinks something else is going on.

To the OP; what do you mean by "DSI fault"? If mine fails to ignite, the LED next to the switch comes on (indicating an ignition failure). Turning it off and back on usually solves it and the WH is back in business. I do know that on my 2nd RV, after sitting unused for awhile, I sometimes had to try it several times simply because it took a bit to get LPG through the lines to the unit (same with the fridge); running a burner or two on the stove sped the process up.

[allen8106]

OK, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's not the hot water heater. But maybe the propane tank pigtails. When our 5th wheel was two years old we had an issue with the furnace not running. An old guy camping a few slots down from me suggested swapping out the propane tank pigtails. He gave me an old used one he had and what do ya know the dang thing fired right off. Once I got home I changed both propane tank pigtails out for new ones and haven't had a problem since.

The pigtails have a high flow shut off valve in them that causes the propane flow to shut off in the event of a catastrophic failure. These high flow valves can and will go bad.

[time2roll]

2017? Don't these components have an individual warranty beyond the initial 12 months? Has it been professionally serviced for the faults encountered?

I think I cleaned the burner once on mine in 15 years due to poor ignition. Otherwise absolutely no trouble.

[stevennlv]

OK, so IDK anything about this stuff. We all have to learn sometime.

I was researching regulators and I found a very interesting comment from someone who bought a Fairview @Amazon. They said that with their old regulator there was always a faint smell of gas around the tanks. After they installed the new regulator that went away.

I have that problem too. I've done several leak tests and have never been able to find the source. I thought it was just normal.

So I have a new Fairview regulator, mounting bracket and two 12" braided steel pig tails on the way for $100.

I've watched the install vid. This is a project I can do.

If this does not fix it then it's a trip to the shop.

I'll report back to hopefully help the next person.

[BarneyS]

stevennlv wrote:

jplante4 wrote:
clicky

I went to Furrion's home page. They don't have the heater listed as a product that is available. It is only listed as an article, with a link to their media release announcement about it, in a section listed as "test".

Found them here for $537. I have never dealt with this company so cannot vouch for them.
Barney

[stevennlv]

garyemunson wrote:
What is happening with your water heater? Can you hear the gas valve open when it is trying to heat? Can you hear a snapping noise from the spark ignition? The Dinosaur replacement boards seem to be a lot tougher than the OEM control boards. I've had to replace bad factory boards on a couple of our RVs over the years. Never had to go back and replace a dinosaur board.

I don't have any help so I can't be outside next to the heater with someone flipping the switch. When I am inside the only sound I hear is the switch clicking.

When it did this junk at the same time last year I did all the cleaning then had to play around with turning everything off and on in different orders maybe 2-3x and then it started working and worked for a year.

But not this time. I even went ahead and disconnected from shore power just b/c I hadn't tried it yet. It didn't make any dif.

If it's going to come down to replacing a control board that is a trip to the shop for me. It's beyond my skill level and I have a warranty.

Is there any tests I can do to determine if the problem is the regulator or the control board?

Also, when I was going through my trouble shooting I had a different problem for a minute. I was turning everything off and on, etc. One thing I read is that the water being hot in the tank when you are trying to fix this can cause the DSI to not "turn on"(?) and throw a fault. It was recommended to turn off the electric heater (which works, but not as well as the gas when it works).

So on several occasions I bled the HW tank so it would fill with cold water. At one point I thought I had run out of propane on the first tank b/c the furnace was not coming on. (My furnace just does not fire up if it is sucking on an empty tank.) So I flipped tanks and it was no problem. Then when I went to fill the propane tanks it turned out that first tank was only half empty.

----------------
Edit: Did I just answer my own question? Would the electric water heater still work if it had a "bad" control board?

[Chris_Bryant]

Suburban SW6P. - the p stands for pilot-
http://www.adventurerv.net/suburban-gallon-water-heater-sw6p-p-82.html

[garyemunson]

What is happening with your water heater? Can you hear the gas valve open when it is trying to heat? Can you hear a snapping noise from the spark ignition? The Dinosaur replacement boards seem to be a lot tougher than the OEM control boards. I've had to replace bad factory boards on a couple of our RVs over the years. Never had to go back and replace a dinosaur board.

[stevennlv]

newman fulltimer wrote:
This time of year the diaphram in the propane regulator gets stiffer so on a bad regulator it makes it harder for appliances to work

I was wondering about things along this line.

I did not go into all my troubleshooting. It has been extensive.

One of the times I was turning things off and on in different orders I ended with the DSI fault cleared but the furnace would produce no heat. The furnace would come one when the temp dropped and it would blow air, but no heat. So I turned lots of things off and on again until the fault came back and my heat worked as expected.

The regulator that I have now is a Cavagna Group 52-A-890-0007 Automatic Changeover Type 924N .

I can't find any reviews on it other than the three on the Amazon page saying it's junk and you should not buy it.

After looking at some reviews I was looking at a Fairview RV Camper LP Propane 2 Stage Automatic Changeover Regulator .

Evidentially they use a lot of really super cheap parts on this thing. Last year, when it was only one year old, I had to replace both the pig tails within a month of each other b/c they both started leaking where the hose was mounted to the coupling for the tank. The folks in the parts dept said they should have lasted a lot longer than a year.

Should my next troubleshooting step be to replace the regulator?

[newman_fulltime]

This time of year the diaphram in the propane regulator gets stiffer so on a bad regulator it makes it harder for appliances to work

[stevennlv]

jplante4 wrote:
clicky

I went to Furrion's home page. They don't have the heater listed as a product that is available. It is only listed as an article, with a link to their media release announcement about it, in a section listed as "test".