Arctic Fox 811 Suburban Water Heater No-Light

[Troutguy]

Hey all,
My Suburban water heater won’t light ......no igniter clicks.....totally silent. I’ve had this camper for 11 years and the WH has always lit and performed flawlessly. Now....I found that the on/off switch has been left on since I put the house batteries in about a month ago. The gas has been turned off since last fall and the batteries were removed at that time and the tank is empty, however I did put the batts in a month ago.
I checked the fuse panel and none of the fuses were marked as Water Heater or equivalent. I haven’t pulled any of the fuses as it looks like I’ll have to pull them all to check. It’s too early to call Northwood and to make matters worse ......the power to the house went out last night and isn’t scheduled to be repaired until 11:30 tonite! The power outage has nothing to do with the AF problem.

Thanks,
TG

I’ll post a pic of the water heater in a little while as my I-Pad doesn’t have a flash.

[Old-Biscuit]

Thanks for the UPDATE!!

Love it when it is just something simple.....no harm/no foul and no $$$ spent :B

[Troutguy]

OK....Problem solved! When I was working on this thing In my pole barn I failed to see that there is a second reset button. Then button on the right is the reset for the 12V side of the heater ........I flat out did not see it!! The button on the left is for the 110V side of the heater.....that’s the only one that I saw as we had a power outage at my house for over 15 hours and I just was working with a flash light in a very dark barn, also the the camper was not on my truck and lowered all the way down and the 12V button is under the small sheet metal shield below the pressure relief valve.

Today I loaded up the camper on the new Dually and got it outside in the sun above eye-level and what jumped up and bit me right on the butt cheeks but the second reset button.......Duh!! I hit the correct reset button, went inside to turn on the igniter, and after a5 second wait.....click...click...click and that wonderful “whoosh” sound of electricity meeting propane and oxygen. COOL!!
With that admission of guilt aside I’d like to thank all of you that offered assistance and even schematics. I’ve always said that we should all learn something new everyday and today I was humbled. I hope that this small lesson can be utilized by someone else and the big thing to be learned is DONT LEAVE YOUR WATER HEATER’S ON/ IGNITOR BUTTON IN THE ON POSITION WHEN YOUR’RE NOT USING IT.........:S

Thanks Again,
TG

[ardvark]

Do not replace the board. That is usually the first thing folks do and since you have not established power that is the last thing you want to do. Boards are testable and according to the manufacturer 80% of all boards returned under warranty are good.

Do you have a meter? If you do verify power to and through the stat to the board. Very simple, red meter probe to stat terminal, black on to ground. You can do that with a light tester, but a meter will give you more information regarding voltage.

Also verify power through fuses using a meter or light tester. Do not just look at them.

[SidecarFlip]

When I owned my Lance, I inadvertently left the DSI unit on one winter layup and it expired as well, no 'zap' no light, nothing. I had to replace it. The Lance had a neon light on the DSI module with a switch. My new TC has the DSI on light and switch inside the camper now.

Could be yours expired as well...

Guess you'll know when you troubleshoot it.

[Troutguy]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Reset the High temp t-stat.....'PUSH To RESET' on cover above gas valve

Right side is the 'gas' set (left side for 120V AC set)

DC comes from fused source to ON/Off switch
DC goes from switch to DC Junction Box (backside of WH Tank or on wall near by)
DC goes from junction box to the set of t-stats
DC from t-stats goes to Circuit board (backside of WH Tank)
Module then sends DC to gas valve solenoids AND spark electrode

Use a voltmeter and trace the DC path (or even a simple light.

On Edit: DC Wiring

Biscuit,
Thanks for the electrical schematic and test advice! Hopefully I can work on it this weekend.

TG

[Old-Biscuit]

Reset the High temp t-stat.....'PUSH To RESET' on cover above gas valve

Right side is the 'gas' set (left side for 120V AC set)

DC comes from fused source to ON/Off switch
DC goes from switch to DC Junction Box (backside of WH Tank or on wall near by)
DC goes from junction box to the set of t-stats
DC from t-stats goes to Circuit board (backside of WH Tank)
Module then sends DC to gas valve solenoids AND spark electrode

Use a voltmeter and trace the DC path (or even a simple 12V Test Light)



On Edit: DC Wiring

[Troutguy]

SidecarFlip wrote:
If it's DSI you probably need a new igniter module.

It is a DSI unit which I forgot to mention......Thanks for your reply. I’m just now getting into the WH Manual.

[SidecarFlip]

If it's DSI you probably need a new igniter module.

[Troutguy]

deltabravo wrote:
The WH is probably on the water pump circuit or the circuit that provides power to the cabover area.

Does the red light on the WH switch panel ever light up?

Someone in this group might have ideas as well. It gets a lot of traffic

The red light on the switch doesn’t light but I don’t think that it ever has. Currently I don’t have power in my pole barn as I’m using my portable generator to power my house and the barn is about 150’ away and am using genny for my house fridge and sump pump.
The water pump does work in the camper though. I’ll check your suggestions after we get a little more daylight.

Thanks

[deltabravo]

The WH is probably on the water pump circuit or the circuit that provides power to the cabover area.

Does the red light on the WH switch panel ever light up?

Someone in this group might have ideas as well. It gets a lot of traffic