Could use a little help

[youroo]

Originally Posted by boondocking

Is that a new feature on the newest water heaters?

Did you get a answer? All I have seen can "Dry Fire" on Gas or Elect! Youroo!!

[Scrapper]

I believe the on-demand water heaters have that feature. I don't have one so I may be wrong. I do know many household on-demand units are like that.

[boondocking]

Originally Posted by youroo

Did you get a answer? All I have seen can "Dry Fire" on Gas or Elect! Youroo!!

No
I don't believe there is such a feature in any RV water heater.

[youroo]

Originally Posted by Scrapper

I believe the on-demand water heaters have that feature. I don't have one so I may be wrong. I do know many household on-demand units are like that.

The OP has a Suburban Gas/Elec that they are asking about,Not on-demand! Brookstone is the one who said "Heaters won't fire unless filled with water"? Youroo!!

[Royston]

Originally Posted by Briyoung

Yes all valves are running in line with hoses

You say all valves are running in line?? May not be your issue but for normal use hot & cold should be in line and bypass closed

[DonMar]

There isn't a day that goes but that I learn something on this site kudos to all

[BandJCarm]

Originally Posted by Briyoung

You are my hero! The cross over valve was wrong, now have hot water. I wish I could repay you with a few beverages! Thank you!!!

Too late. They already did the same for me, two years ago.

And if I'm not too far off, also for 32,082 other folks in between.

Had I waited till today to buy my camper, I would have clearly been too senile to make it work.

[Villagerjjm]

I hate to say it, but your electric element may be damaged by the dealer. It is possible that they turned on the electric by accident with no water in it. Check the valve on the bypass line again. Use the reset buttons on the heater itself.

[JohnD10]

Originally Posted by youroo

The OP has a Suburban Gas/Elec that they are asking about,Not on-demand! Brookstone is the one who said "Heaters won't fire unless filled with water"? Youroo!!

I'm pretty sure that Brookstone meant that as a joke.

He just forgot to put this there...

[tomkatb]

We were unable to get the gas water heater to come on in our new Cedar Creek 34RE. TRied everything, no go. Electric worked however as we were plugged in. Decided to contact the dealer.

When we arrived home and were not connected to the electricity the gas water heater worked like a pro.

The water heater is the 12 gallon Suburban. I believe that it automatically goes on electric when plugged in if the electric switch on the unit is on or not. I could not get both to come on which I though it should. Going to test some more in June when we take off for a month. Gas would not come on.

I am confused.

Going to test more.

[JohnD10]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

The water heater is the 12 gallon Suburban. I believe that it automatically goes on electric when plugged in if the electric switch on the unit is on or not.

I know the refrigerators do that, but I've not heard of a water heater that does.

If you open the LP tank too fast sometimes it was cause a sort of 'vapor lock'.

That might be what happened...

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by wmtire

Pics/diagrams always seem to help.

By definition, a picture is equal to a kiloword.

Larry

[Royston]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

We were unable to get the gas water heater to come on in our new Cedar Creek 34RE. TRied everything, no go. Electric worked however as we were plugged in. Decided to contact the dealer.

When we arrived home and were not connected to the electricity the gas water heater worked like a pro.

The water heater is the 12 gallon Suburban. I believe that it automatically goes on electric when plugged in if the electric switch on the unit is on or not. I could not get both to come on which I though it should. Going to test some more in June when we take off for a month. Gas would not come on.

I am confused.

Going to test more.

I have the same water heater as you. Switch inside is for the gas and switch in the actual unit (accessed from outside) is for the electric (120v). I have found that when you are connected to a shore supply or generator AND both switches are on, the electric will heat the water (electric priority), however DW was showering one day and I noticed the gas came on so presumably both electric and gas heating the water to try an maintain water temp.

I don't know for sure but perhaps the thermostat for the electric is set a little higher than the gas (well in my unit at least) so once up to temp the gas will not cut in if electric is on - just my thoughts

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by Royston

I have the same water heater as you. Switch inside is for the gas and switch in the actual unit (accessed from outside) is for the electric (120v). I have found that when you are connected to a shore supply or generator AND both switches are on, the electric will heat the water (electric priority), however DW was showering one day and I noticed the gas came on so presumably both electric and gas heating the water to try an maintain water temp.

I don't know for sure but perhaps the thermostat for the electric is set a little higher than the gas (well in my unit at least) so once up to temp the gas will not cut in if electric is on - just my thoughts

Both electric and gas operate completely independently. Either one can be on/off at the same time. Please look at the wiring diagrams in the Service and Training manual I attached to Post #20 of this thread. You will see that there are no connections between them.

If you have both gas and electric turned on and take a shower, the water in the HWH will drop a lot and both gas and electric will come on to reheat the water. The HWH will recover faster with both operating than if just one is operating.

BUT, as you alluded to above, while both the gas and electric system's thermostats are both "130 deg F" thermostats, there is a manufacturing tolerance to them. Therefore, if you have both gas and electric turned on and the water in the water heater is simply cooling down slightly due to heat losses to the ambient surroundings, either electric or gas could come on first to reheat the water; it all depends on which thermostat has a slightly different setting. In this case, you would only see one of them come to reheat; the other would not. But you can't guess which one, except by watching YOUR particular HWH to see which.

[RLW]

My gas WH won't light. I've tried multiple times, checked all that has been posted (petcocks/bypass), flipped Gas switch several times on/off after each cycle of 3 tries, the gas reset breaker (black circle cover) under the unit cover has never kicked off. I can hear a click noise from the unit outside, about 15 seconds apart, 3 times. Then I reset the toggle switch inside the camper and do it again. I smell gas outside from the unit but it just won't light. Have probably tired it 15 times. My propane tank is full. I've ran the furnace and 3 stove burners making sure there is gas in the line, then turn those off and try again. No luck. QUESTION: is there a fuse for the spark igniter... I hear the click 15 seconds apart for 3 times, but it is not a multi-snapping sound like you'd think you would hear from an igniter. Pictures attached.

I had the gas working once a couple of weeks ago, then took it on my first maiden voyage, plugged into electric (using the electric WH) at an RV park for a couple days and have not been able to light the gas since. The electric WH works great.

[Royston]

RLW - you may want to have a good look inside the burner tube, spiders (stink bugs too) are attracted by the smell of propane. If spiders make a web then this will prevent the gas flowing where it should and lighting. It could also answer why the sparker is every 15 seconds or so, it should be more like every second. I had this issue wit my Coleman road trip BBQ, one side worked fine and the other would not light, I could smell propane but it would not light - found a small spiders web in the burner tube, cleaned it out and it worked fine.

[Skyliner]

Not only spider webs but the smallest sliver of rusty metal flake can disrupt the air and propane flow thru the burner/venturi. Nothing says you can't try to ignite the burner with a fireplace lighter either to rule out bad sparker or sparker set too far away from venturi. Could also be a bad or dirty thermocouple. I find moving the thermocouple close to the flame output helps a lot in addition to cleaning it.

[MNtraveler]

Very simply, the reason the water heater did not "fire" is because the water in the tank was already hot. Due to the bypass valve being open, the hot water was (mostly) not being drawn from the tank so it stayed hot in the tank. Also as I recall from post #1, the electric hot water was also on so that may have been plenty to keep it hot when not being used really.

[aspayne]

You said you had warm water. Check the shower faucet handles to make sure they are off. If shut of at sprayer then it let's not and could water mix and will not get hot.

[cavie]

Originally Posted by Briyoung

Yes all valves are running in line with hoses

If you have 3 valves, the middle one should not be inline with the hose. If you have an outside shower be sure both hot and cold are turned off.