Hot water heater issues please help

[Angel202250]

My hot water is electric and gas OK it’s never worked right all the time but it works some of the time and there’s a switch on the outside to turn on and off ,I’m assuming that is the electric switch. My converter went bad so I changed it and I had hot water for three days on electric because I wasn’t running the gas then it quit working again.

So yesterday I came home and said what the hell I want to try to gas part again. So I did and it lit first try! It has never done that before and it stayed lit. So I got to take a hot shower or half of a hot shower I don’t think I let it heat up long enough. I left it on overnight no issues I go to work the at 6 AM and I forgot to shut it off before I left. I left work early because there was a family emergency and I came home and I the Carbon monoxide/LP gas detector was going off. I didnt smell anything. But I shut the hot water heater and the furnace off until my light went back to green and I turned my furnace back on because I knew it wasn’t that I had been running it without any issues after I had it worked on.

Gas company came to the routine check for leaks and said I didn’t have any but I was not running my water heater at that time so I don’t think they checked my water heater. All I went out there today light it again to see what would happen my carbon monoxide /LP gas detector went off again but I still did not smell anything I went outside and tried to tighten the gas pipe and to check for a leak. I Sprayed soapy water on it and I seen a few bubbles but I couldn’t tell if it was just the soap or a leak, so I tried to tighten it and it only turned a very little bit. So I turn the hot water heater back on hoping that I had fixed the problem but that wasn’t so.

I need to mention my carbon Monoxide/ LP Gas detector is brand new I’ve only had it for a couple months. I called the gas company to have them come out and check for leaks again and they said call a plumber. Lol.

My question is had anybody else had this issue with their hot water heater? when it’s on electric it will not heat up and when it was on gas it would not light right away it took forever to light and when it did light It didn’t stay that lit for long. I can tell when it’s going to stay lit and when it’s not when it’s not going to stay lit there is a clicking noise when it’s going to stay late there is no noise.

Can somebody please tell me what I might need to do to fix it? I want to add that I am a widowed woman with five little dogs and I don’t want to leave my hot water heater on and then my little dogs die from Some kind of gas poisoning while I am at work or all of pass in our sleep from it.Thank you in Advance.

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by Angel202250

My hot water is electric and gas OK it’s never worked right all the time but it works some of the time and there’s a switch on the outside to turn on and off ,I’m assuming that is the electric switch. My converter went bad so I changed it and I had hot water for three days on electric because I wasn’t running the gas then it quit working again. So yesterday I came home and said what the hell I want to try to gas part again. So I did and it lit first try! It has never done that before and it stayed lit. So I got to take a hot shower or half of a hot shower I don’t think I let it heat up long enough. I left it on overnight no issues I go to work the at 6 AM and I forgot to shut it off before I left. I left work early because there was a family emergency and I came home and I the Carbon monoxide/LP gas detector was going off. I didnt smell anything. But I shut the hot water heater and the furnace off until my light went back to green and I turned my furnace back on because I knew it wasn’t that I had been running it without any issues after I had it worked on. Gas company came to the routine check for leaks and said I didn’t have any but I was not running my water heater at that time so I don’t think they checked my water heater. All I went out there today light it again to see what would happen my carbon monoxide /LP gas detector went off again but I still did not smell anything I went outside and tried to tighten the gas pipe and to check for a leak, I Sprayed soapy water on it and I seen a few bubbles but I couldn’t tell if it was just the soap or a leak, so I tried to tighten it and it only turned a very little bit. So I turn the hot water heater back on hoping that I had fixed the problem but that wasn’t so. I need to mention my carbon Monoxide/ LP Gas detector is brand new I’ve only had it for a couple months. I called the gas company to have them come out and check for leaks again and they said call a plumber. Lol. My question is had anybody else had this issue with their hot water heater? when it’s on electric it will not heat up and when it was on gas it would not light right away it took forever to light and when it did light It didn’t stay that lit for long. I can tell when it’s going to stay lit and when it’s not when it’s not going to stay lit there is a clicking noise when it’s going to stay late there is no noise. Can somebody please tell me what I might need to do to fix it? I want to add that I am a widowed woman with five little dogs and I don’t want to leave my hot water heater on and then my little dogs die from Some kind of gas poisoning while I am at work or all of pass in our sleep from it.Thank you in Advance.

OK, we are going to go over some things in a few posts but first thing I'm going to do is to edit your OP into paragraphs. It's really hard to understand as written right now.

[wmtire]

See answers in red

Originally Posted by Angel202250

My hot water is electric and gas OK it’s never worked right all the time but it works some of the time and there’s a switch on the outside to turn on and off ,I’m assuming that is the electric switch. My converter went bad so I changed it and I had hot water for three days on electric because I wasn’t running the gas then it quit working again.

By having an electric switch on the outside, this identifies your Make/model of water heater as a Suburban, and we will proceed under the assumption that is what is is. Forest River uses different brands of water heaters, but we are going to say you have a Suburban.

So yesterday I came home and said what the hell I want to try to gas part again. So I did and it lit first try! It has never done that before and it stayed lit. So I got to take a hot shower or half of a hot shower I don’t think I let it heat up long enough. I left it on overnight no issues I go to work the at 6 AM and I forgot to shut it off before I left. I left work early because there was a family emergency and I came home and I the Carbon monoxide/LP gas detector was going off. I didnt smell anything. But I shut the hot water heater and the furnace off until my light went back to green and I turned my furnace back on because I knew it wasn’t that I had been running it without any issues after I had it worked on.

This is concerning and we don't want to just ignore the detector

Gas company came to the routine check for leaks and said I didn’t have any but I was not running my water heater at that time so I don’t think they checked my water heater. All I went out there today light it again to see what would happen my carbon monoxide /LP gas detector went off again but I still did not smell anything I went outside and tried to tighten the gas pipe and to check for a leak. I Sprayed soapy water on it and I seen a few bubbles but I couldn’t tell if it was just the soap or a leak, so I tried to tighten it and it only turned a very little bit. So I turn the hot water heater back on hoping that I had fixed the problem but that wasn’t so.

I need to mention my carbon Monoxide/ LP Gas detector is brand new I’ve only had it for a couple months. I called the gas company to have them come out and check for leaks again and they said call a plumber. Lol.

You may want to call a mobile RV technician that will come to your location.

My question is had anybody else had this issue with their hot water heater? when it’s on electric it will not heat up and when it was on gas it would not light right away it took forever to light and when it did light It didn’t stay that lit for long. I can tell when it’s going to stay lit and when it’s not when it’s not going to stay lit there is a clicking noise when it’s going to stay late there is no noise.

OK, there are so many things here. The fact it takes long to ignite can be cause by a clogged burner flue, misaligned electrode, and other things. The clicking noise is the Direct Spark Ignitor(DSI) making sparks at the electrode to ignite the gas. The explanation of this is too long for this post but this thread link below explains it:

https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...ore-36197.html

Can somebody please tell me what I might need to do to fix it? I want to add that I am a widowed woman with five little dogs and I don’t want to leave my hot water heater on and then my little dogs die from Some kind of gas poisoning while I am at work or all of pass in our sleep from it.Thank you in Advance.

Here again, this is where I think paying a mobile RV tech to come and look at things (both electric and gas) would pay off. He needs to also look at your winterization valves to make sure they are correct (which can cause the short periods of hot water). You do sound like you may have multiple issues. This thread link below explains the winterization valves.


https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...st-103381.html

[chaps2018]

Yup, what he said.

[Reverse_snowbird]

I don't think your propane problem has anything to do with your replacing the converter.
If the water heater won't run on electric only, it's possible that the heating element is burned out. Running the water heater on electric without water in the heater will cause that to happen, as will age.

The gas company was not kidding when they told you to call a plumber. Plumbers work on gas lines and water heaters. A mobile rv mechanic will be able to do that also. It may be as simple as tightening a line, or your heater may need to be replaced.
I don't want to scare you, but in addition to killing your dogs with a propane leak, you also risk blowing up the rig, your dogs, and you...because propane is highly explosive. PLEASE call someone to help you fix the problem.

[Iwritecode]

OP hasn't returned since posting this thread.

[NavyLCDR]

Even though this is necromanced thread, I will point out something for those that may read this. The OP says the CO/LP leak detector alarms when the water heater is lit. And yet they are trying to track down a gas leak. If the alarm is only alarming when the gas is burning, that is not the LP leak detector alarming, that is the CO detector alarming and trying to chase down a gas leak in that situation is the wrong action to take.

The LP/CO Detector will have different beep codes when alarming (and some have different lights). One beep code will be for LP gas and the other beep code will be for CO, and they should be listed right on the front of the detector.

In this situation, what the OP really needed to do was find the source of the Carbon Monoxide while the water heater propane was burning. In my case, I took the burner out of the water and washed out the combustion chamber with a water spray. There was some ash/soot type deposits that came out with the water and since then I have not had another alarm - which was CO, not LP leak.

[chaps2018]

Originally Posted by Angel202250

...the Carbon monoxide/LP gas detector was going off. I didnt smell anything. ..

Just a reminder that you will not smell carbon monoxide. Hence the guidance above to trust the Carbon Monoxide detector!

[Openroadorer99]

My electric part stopped working one day.
I, like usually. Just dove in without finding the real cause.
I replaced the electric heating rod, it looked a bit covered, in crud, even though i replace the anode every year. I didnt ohm's test it, just replaced it.

Well, turned out the switch burnt out, not the element. Very cheep switch on my 6 gallon tank. When, and it will happen again, the switch goes, it will be replaced with a good non cheap one.