Atwood water heater - no start

[rado2013]

hello
this weekend on our first outing of the year our Atwood 6 gal propane water heater failed to ignite. When the start button was pressed the red over temp/ignition fail light came on. There was no sound from the heater in terms of gas flow or ignition clicking, just a faint buzz from the control unit.
I cleaned all terminals(although they seemed to be fine anyway) and reassembled. No change. So after about 15 or more attempts we concluded that we would need to use the public shower.

A few hours later I decided to try again. When I pressed the on switch there was a single ignition click. So I tried again, and to my surprise it fired up. We used it one more time the next day and it performed normally.

So my question is, do you have any idea why it failed and what part may be failing? I am thinking that the ECO/thermostat are to blame and caused an over-temp lock out condition.

I don't want to throw a bunch of money at the problem, especially since it seems intermittent. I am also considering adding a Camco Hybrid Heat electric unit in order to provide a back upsystem.

Any feedback on the gas heater problem would be appreciated, as well as any reviews from folks who have the Hybrid Heat element

Happy camping

[Scrapper]

There's a troubleshooting guide in the library section for Atwood water heaters.
Forest River Forums - Downloads - Atwood Water Heater Troubleshooting Guide


Along with the users manual for 4, 6, and 10 gallon WH's.
Forest River Forums - Downloads - Water Heater - Atwood Water Heaters

[Scrapper]

Oops, forgot I had the service manual for all Atwood tank style WH's.

[rado2013]

thanks so much. that is very helpful.

[Newsy]

2014 Atwood Water Heater Model G6A-8E 6 gallon electric start onlyHad similar problems with ours...it was very intermittent from the day we bought it. Sometimes you had only lukewarm water and sometimes it didn't ignite at all. And you could hear the gas valve solenoid opening and could smell gas. Sometimes if would start on the second or third attempt (before the red fault light came on). Then later it didn't light at all.
First I tried a new igniter (spark probe 93868). It didn't make any difference. So next I tried cleaning all connections as manual suggested...no good. And after that I decided to replace the rest of the components in the ignition circuit...Thermal Cut Off 93866 and Circuit Board 93865. All of those components can be sourced from Amazon. But I chose to go with a local RV dealer as we had an upcoming trip planned 5 days away. That took care of problem. I've tried the water heater 5 times now and it ignites on first try and the water is extremely hot. Hope that helps someone!