old Atwood water heater help

EDITED - Ignore my previous post. I was thinking of an auto ignition..

Try here,

http://www.atwoodmobile.com/manuals/waterheaters/MPD%2093756%20SP%2011.19.07.pdf

Scroll down to the "Pilot Operation" Bottom right on page 3. It talks about it step by step

Hope this helps

John

TucsonJim wrote:
Can you provide the model number?

First of all, do you have propane? Check by turning on a burner on your stove and make sure it lights. Do you have at least 12VDC on your battery.

Turn on a few lights in your rig to make sure they are brightly lit. Even better, measure the battery voltage to make sure it's at least 12V.

If you have a water heater switch inside the rig, make sure it's turned on.

Push the blue knob in and rotate it to the pilot position. You should also hear the igniter sparking.

If all is well, it should light right up. Hold the blue knob in for another 30 seconds or so, and then rotate it to the full on position.

Nope, don't need 12 volts for that one. And, no auto start either. Make sure you have propane.

Light the stove to get air out of the lines.

Then go to the water heater. Turn the control to the pilot position. I ;think; on that one you hold the blue knob in to start the pilot. (If not, then there is another knob somewhere you must depress.)

While holding down the right knob use a grill lighter to light the pilot. The pilot will be over near where the two small lines enter that big hole in the water heater. It may take awhile to get it to fire the first time.

After (hopefully) you get the pilot light to fire you must continue to hold the knob down for oh, a minute, maybe two. Then slowly release the knob. The pilot should stay lit. Then rotate the knob to the run position and away you go.

If this doesn't work let us know and we will go from there. That's a old unit and there could be a few things you might have to fiddle with to get it to work.

Have a nice Day.

Doesn't it have these directions printed right on it???

Did you follow the instructions posted on that label?

It's a manual pilot.....has to be lit with a lighter. Long BBQ one works great.
It uses a White Rodgers gas valve.....so turn blue knob to 'pilot' and hold against stop. Light the pilot flame while holding blue knob until thermocouple is heated up. Then turn blue knob to ON

If pilot flame will not light off then could be bad thermocouple.
IF pilot flame will light but not stay lit when knob released could be bad thermocouple or the ECO (high limit probe that comes out the back of gas valve) has tripped/failed. They are only good for one time operation and are not replaceable......have to replace gas valve.

Clean up thermocouple with a light sanding and make sure connection at gas valve is tight.
Otherwise replace it. A Jade pilot assembly (pilot with orifice and thermocouple)
That doesn't fix...then gas valve

This is assuming you have good propane flow thru pilot orifice and main gas orifice.

Thanks all for the help. The label is helpful but doesn't address actually lighting the pilot. The books the previous owner gave me said it had an electronic ignition but after looking at it I knew that wasn't the case. Since this is my first trailer I wanted to be sure I had it right before trying for the first time. I'm not trying to spend $$ fixing things that I break. A new battery and 2 tanks of propane is enough $$ for now.

Looks like the same one as in our old Zinger—very manual. Don’t try to light without water in the heater—the tube will scorch and can affect the taste of the water. The knob turned all the way counter clockwise is off. Turn all the way clock wise into a spring back position while holding a long butane lighter in the tube. If the pilot lights it should be a small blue flame. Hold the knob against the spring 15 seconds longer, then release. If the pilot stays lit, you’re good to go. Turn the knob back to where the indicator on the knob and on the base of the gas valve line up, about ½ half way back. The main flame should light in this position. If the pilot won’t stay lit you most likely need a new thermocouple. If that happens, PM me, and I’ll see if I’ve got an old one that I no longer need, and I’ll send it to you. The thing that I liked about this heater that we don’t get with our current spark start one is adjustable temperature. That’s the lever on the back of the gas valve and it looks like it is set to most cold. As I recall, hotter is to the left. You may have to move it to the left to get the main flame to come on.

I have the same one and Caveman Charlie has it right thats how I light mine, works great.

Cantdrive55 wrote:
Thanks for the help with this. I finally got the trailer out and camping. While sitting in my yard I was able to light the water heater and it ran fine. When at the campground, we hooked everything up and lit the pilot. The heater took right off. It sounds like a jet plane when running but other wise it worked fine, I thought. About 15 minutes later I go out and cannot hear the jet plane any longer so I take a look and it's out. I re-light and back normal for another 15 minutes. I turn down the temperature setting a little and watch it this time. With the main cover open, it never goes out but when I close the cover, the whole thing including the pilot goes out after a few minutes. I checked for air restrictions, there are none. Everything is clear. Why will it only run when the cover is left open? (there were no leaks and the lines were purged of all air)

Humm,,, Don't know for sure. I think the first thing I would do as take a tank of compressed air and blow everything out. 15 minutes is almost enough that you might be getting the water up to temp and then it is shutting off normally. However, the pilot should stay lit. I have seen cases where when it shuts off it goes "poof" just a little and maybe that is blowing your pilot out. Blow through everything with compressed air and try again. P.S. Don't blow air down into the orifice. You may damage the controller if you do that.

As stated above, blow out the burner tube etc with compressed air. Also, take a small brush to the pilot orifice and get crud off of it. I believe there is a flame adjustment for the pilot if I'm not mistaken. I used to light my old one with my propane turbo torch which I always carry with me. Works great.

I have that water heater... it really sucks. The pilot easily blows out when the main flame shuts down (water temperature reaches setpoint). I have to sand the flame sensor a little bit before every trip.

I just installed a Hott Rodd into the drain plug port on my unit. Tested it at home, works great. My first trip out this weekend coming.. hopefully I will have hot water! I do not use the propane water heater often since it is a PITA to manually light it, and then it sits there wasting propane the entire trip keeping the water hot. I would love a propane / electric model with an inside ON / Off switch.