Atwood on demand water heater

sandstormfam · 06-23-2016, 11:25 PM

Just found out tonight that the Atwood on demand water heaters models OD045, OD050, and OD050CW have a recall. I'm not sure if my serial number matches or not but I was curious if anybody has dealt with this yet? Are they replacing them, fixing, or what? I'm wondering if I can swap it out for a tank model. I've taken my trailer out twice since we bought it and I'm not very impressed with the tankless water heater, as we mostly dry camp, and don't find the tankless is very good for on-off-on-off showering. I was thinking about changing it out for a tank model.

Alpine207 · 06-25-2017, 10:48 AM

Did you get the Atwood to work or switch to tank? We do a lot of dry camping and I'm struggling with the Atwood.

sandstormfam · 06-26-2017, 11:58 AM

I haven't been able to get it to work properly. I've had it in two different shops and they've spend hours on the phone with Atwood trouble shooting it. They run the techs through the same protocol and it's the same thing over and over - scalding hot water, or nothing. The thing is obviously broken and I'm done spending money "diagnosing". The Atwood tech support is just a scam and they make you waste your time so you stop perusing a fix. I don't have that kind of time.

We just don't use the hot water at this point. I'll be installing a tank system in the near future.

Alpine207 · 06-26-2017, 03:37 PM

I had to take the water saver device out of shower head to get sufficient flow to keep the water heater "On". I also can only use the hot water valve, if I try to mix in cold water, the hot water heater cuts out.

I adjusted the burner to give me warm water with only the Hot water valve "On"; this is the only way that I can get it to work.

sandstormfam · 06-26-2017, 03:50 PM

Sounds like yours works the way it's supposed to. High flow and you can roughly control the heat through the main gas valve.

I can't adjust the valve on the burner down enough to get the water warm, it's either scalding hot, or the burner shuts off and wont stay lit. There's no sweet spot in between. I've increased the flow as well and still works the same.

Alpine207 · 08-02-2017, 08:34 AM

You're right. I had mine working once, now I can't get the modulating valve to turn the temperature down to warm without it not starting the heater. If I turn the temperature up with the modulating valve it will start, but water is too hot. I can't seem to turn modulating valve below 45% and have the heater start and run.

mlmay12 · 11-13-2017, 02:56 PM

Same with mine, gave up on warm showers. I finally have an appointment end of this month to see about swapping out for a Truma. Waited 3 months for an appointment. Atwood is junk, called them and they essentially said they can't do anything even with it under warranty.

Alpine207 · 12-28-2017, 09:03 AM

Mlmay12 - I'm looking for an update; did you take the Atwood out or get it to work?

mlmay12 · 12-28-2017, 12:10 PM

Nope, had an appointment for 10 weeks then just before it I decided to try it once more. Spent some time setting max and min marks on the handles where it turns the hot water on and off. figured out a system where it was usable by turning hot knob to max and cold to just below where it would cut off. Found it somewhat usable at that temp. Turn off while soaping then repeat process turning water on. Decided to spend the $2K somewhere else for now. If it gets unusable I may get it done later. Drilled a hole in the cover over the reset button on the water heater as this seems to trip when traveling to make it easier to reset.

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