hot water heater

[dandmoneil]

Hi There,



Have a 2007 Cruiser CF29Ck....wintering in Mesa...hot water heater has been woking fine for past two months...now won't light....Yes I do have propane and the electric element works.

With the outside door cover open I can see

it attempts to light...makes a clicking sound (ignitor) for a few seconds...see the little sparks where it should light and a slight thud...but no flame. It does this 3 times and then shuts down and the red light comes on the control panel. There is a smell of gas.



Any suggestions??



P.S. ...with the panel off inside the trailerI had a look at the back of the heater and noticed the base that the heater was sitting on was really sagging....did any one have this happen to yours and if so how did you go about reinforcing it??



Thanks in advance for any info you can give me !!

[GeorgeG]

There is a fuse in the outside door. It is connected to a Tstat terminal. Check and make sure it is ok.

[cwit]

clean contacts on conections, corosion kills them fast. I just hook and rehook all conections.

[dandmoneil]

...found fuse.....looks good....no blackened or burnt section.Thanks for the tip.

[dandmoneil]

Looked at contacts....cleaned and rehooked....tried again. Still tries to ignite (ticking sound/sparking) that is followed by a noise like a door closing.......maybe this is a valve that is not fully opening???...

[scott]

This sounds very similiar to what a lot of us have described as a furnace problem. The end result was air in the lines. Have you changed your tanks lately or has the regulator recently switched you from an empty tank to a full tank? You might try to kick the furnace on to see if it lights just to rule out air in the lines. I know that sounds a little silly, it's probably warm in Mesa.

[Chrisnan23]

Light the stove it is easier. If there is air in the line it will do this but the thud has me concerned, like you, that the valve may not be opening enough.

[JerseyBill]

Could be theThermocouple...If it has gone bad, and they often do, it will not allow the valve to open. I just ran into this issue with the water heater in my house. Pretty cheap and easy to fix.

[Jersey Guy]

...wouldn't it be a cold water heater?

[62dno]

I had a problem with my 10 Gal Water heater sagging and breaking the flimsy 1/4" plywood base and supports as well. To fix it I emptied the Water heater and then propped it up level with some temporary wooden supports. This then allowed me to remove the existing base andI fabricated a sturdy box out of 3/4" plywood which serves as botha sealed storage area for the 30 amp power cord keeping it accessible from the outside and a base for the Water heater to sit securely on.

[coolbreeze1]

My hwh did the same thing, would try to light but wouldn't. After the red light came on I reset the switch and waited a few mins and tried it again. It tried to light but it took 3 tries. before it lit.


Coolbreeze1

[dandmoneil]

Thanks for the information on re-construting the flimsy base.....appreciate the info....will do this whenI get home in April .

[dandmoneil]

Conclusion to my problem with hot/cold? water heater......called in techie fom RV World travel Center next door....saw problem....loosening a few screws he removed the igniter...cleaned it up with sand paper.... reinstalled...ignition.!!!! Turns out the adjustment was too rich allowing it to carbon up...thus unable to light because spark was poor.

Solution ..adjusted gate to give a better burn.(bluish flame versus yellow....live and learn!!!

P.S.....the thud I was getting was the valve shutting down when it didn't light.

Thanks again to those who replied to my concern.

[Lloyd]

Boy, isn't that a good feeling when everything is working right again?
Glad to hear you're up and running.

[Chrisnan23]

Great news, noe get out there and CAMP!!!!!