Water Heater Issue

I have an Atwood gas water heater on my unit and am having intermittent issues with it. It occassionally will not lite when we turn it on after being off for several weeks between trips. We try it occasionally and finally it will lite, sometimes after several days of trying. We usually only turn it on when we need hot water. So my question is, should we leave it on all the time once it starts working? Could I have a sticky solenoid valve? Does the unit sense pressure to ignite or does it try to lite first and then stop if it does not sense presense of gas? Any info would be appreciated.

SUBLDO

subldo wrote:

I have an Atwood gas water heater on my unit and am having intermittent issues with it. It occassionally will not lite when we turn it on after being off for several weeks between trips. We try it occasionally and finally it will lite, sometimes after several days of trying. We usually only turn it on when we need hot water. So my question is, should we leave it on all the time once it starts working? Could I have a sticky solenoid valve? Does the unit sense pressure to ignite or does it try to lite first and then stop if it does not sense presense of gas? Any info would be appreciated.

SUBLDO

Almost all of them do that very thing. One thing you can check is the air gap on the gas exchange tube. I found that mine was open too much. It is only suppossed to be open 1/8th". You can adjust it by just unscrewing the one screw and moving the slide. It worked for me. Also remember that the gas disapates from the line after setting even for a night. You probably have already cleaned the exchange on the water heater, but if you haven't, you may do that also. I hope this works for you.

ours last month started tripping the emergency cutoff from over temps and i found both thermostats were corroded and not making good case contact. purchased a kit for 19 bucks at our local rv place and it fixed the issue, the new one had an upgraded plastic seal thingy to limit water from getting in behind them

which also led to many false lights and a few cold morning showers

we generally leave ours OFF until we need it

if i fire it in the morning it stays pretty hot all day then re fire after diner
very rarely use the electric element unless we are at a the campground

Bill6750

thanks for the tip. I checked the gap on my water heater and it was about a 1/4 inch. I adjusted it and it seems to be working better. I've had the RV in storage for about two months, just got it out to get it ready for a rode trip we have planned. good thing I got it out early cause it seems my air conditioner is having issues. I was replacing the SDTV in our unit and running the generator using the air conditioner and the AC unit started making a louder than usual noise. I checked the voltage at one of my outlets and saw that the AC was down to 117 volts with the compressor running. Ocasionally the volts dropped below 116. So I made an appointment to take it to my dealer to have the AC unit checked put. I never had an issue wit it before so don't know what the voltage readings at an outlet were when ever the AC unit was working fine.

SUBLDO