Water Heater

[Riobha]

OK- the electric element in the water heater in my 2016 ST 290QB has worked fine for the last 3.5 months.
Today, after doing dishes, I tried to shower. No hot water...so I hollered to my S/O to turn on the propane water heater toggle. She turned off the electric & turned on the propane.
I took my shower & when I was done she turned off the propane switch & turned the electric back on.
Long story short...now neither one of them works!
We are hooked up to city water, so, that is not the problem. We have plenty of propane, but, it doesn't sound like it is even trying to light.
We are still under warranty & we bought the fancy-dan extended warranty, but, we are work campers & we are out in the middle of BF Egypt!
Anybody have any [useful] thoughts?

[matherne]

is the there a fuse for the controls?

[Stan]

You could try removing the plug on the control board from the outside of the rig and reseat it. It may be a loose connection. Might also check on the back of the switch box in the interior panel.

[markandkim]

Originally Posted by Stan

You could try removing the plug on the control board from the outside of the rig and reseat it. It may be a loose connection. Might also check on the back of the switch box in the interior panel.

This is the number one problem with these units. They twist the wire harness about 4 times just before plugging it in. Remove and take out one twist and re install. It helps. Bad connectors and ground connection a close second. Frustrating sometimes.

[Riobha]

OK...I'm going out right now to check the plug...but, in the mean time, does anyone know where this fuse might be located? My manual tells me to check it, but, it doesn't tell me where it is!
And I get the impression it is not on the electrical box.

[markandkim]

Control fuse is located on the front of the circuit board. But that is not the problem you are having, because it is working intermittently.

[Riobha]

I checked the fuse under the bundle of colored wires...it looks fine. I unplugged the bundle untwisted it one time & plugged it back in.
It is NOT working intermittently! It worked & then it stopped working.
However, when I opened it up, I found this...[see pictures]

[Riobha]

sorry the pictures are sideways...
btw- this was the first time we used the WH on propane.

[markandkim]

Fuse is just under the plug on the board.

See how twisted the wire harness is? Listen to what I said earlier.

Also looks like the gas tube may be clogged and you had some back burn. Check that frequently.

[CampMacKay]

I would check the "thermal" fuse, it looks like it has been heated up in the pictures. The one side near the top looks cooked. See the fuse in mine is clear the full length. A couple wires look burnt as well. First thing I would do is check for an obstruction in the burner tube.

[TxCowboy]

If it is something more than a loose wire, you might need some warranty work.

We had the water heater circuit board on our Hill Country go out not long after we took delivery. Called XRoads and they told us to call Atwood directly. You can go directly to the Atwood website and look up mobile techs in your area who can do the warranty work for you. You'll have to pay for the mobile tech service charge but we didn't mind because we didn't want to haul the unit back to our dealer for the service.

Took the tech less than 20 minutes to diagnose the bad board and replace it.