Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 09-21-2011, 10:11 PM   #1
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Alaska
Posts: 6
Water Heater Problem

Hi Everyone:

I have posted here before, & the help I received was great! Now I have a new problem.. I have a 26 ft Travel Trailer, and we hooked up at a RV park to stay for a couple months & it worked fine. We moved to a new site, re-hooked up everything and noticed that the Hot water heater was not working properly after towing the trailer up the Alcan to Alaska.

It will not work "at all" on electric mode. When on propane mode it fires up but will not stay lit. All connections look good and have no corrosion. The manual repeatedly talks about cleaning all connections when replacing the circuit board.

Could the circuit board be the problem?

The water heater:

Atwood
Model # GC6AA-10E

It has an electronic ignition on a combination propane/electric water heater. I can not tell if it has a screw in or bolt on heating element.

Thanks for any help that anyone can give us. It is fall here in Alaska and termination dust is in the mountains. It will be cold soon enough and warm water might be nice.

Lori
Rvinlori is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-22-2011, 07:08 AM   #2
Site Team
 
KyDan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Louisville, KY
Posts: 10,505
It sounds like you have 2 problems--
The electric element is totally separate from the gas controls and burner.
If you have no hot water on electric it could be a burned out element or a tripped
circuit breaker in your panel or a tripped over heat button on the HWH tank.

Are you SURE the HWH tank is full of water??
This is very important. Pull the little handle on the pop off valve located
near the top of the tank and see if water comes out.
Be careful not to get too much water on all that electrical stuff in there!
Just a trickle will show it's full and that's all we want to know.

I'm guessing you've read the manual and pushed the rubber covered reset on the
tank itself??
Time for a meter. Check for 120v ac at the element connections with a meter.
If you have voltage at the element but no hot water it's definitely burned out.

Once upon a time I had a HWH that would not work on gas and I pulled off the
wires that plug onto the control board and re-plugged them back on several times.
This "shined up" the connections and the board started working and never acted up
again.
Maybe you will be this lucky!! It's worth a try. Otherwise it could be a bad thermocouple
and or something else including the board.
If it's trying to light but not staying on I'm guessing something wrong with the
thermocouple. Some folks have simply re-positioned it more into the flame and
found it worked.

Others here may have better suggestions.
Good luck!!
__________________
Peace!
Dan & Rita D
2017 Nissan Titan 5.6L King cab 4wd
2016 Evergreen Everlite 242RBS
29' empty nest model. Blue Ox WD hitch
(1 queen bed, large main cabin and huge bathroom)
Camping days 2010-53, 2011-47, 2012-41, 2013-41, 2014-31, 2015-40, 2016-44, 2017-63, 2018-75, 2019-32, 2020-41, 2021-49, 2022-43, 2023-66
KyDan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-22-2011, 02:24 PM   #3
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Alaska
Posts: 6
Kydan.. Thank you so much for the information, we inspected our electrical & found a connection that had been severed. Not yet sure how it happened, but after repairing it, we now have Hot Water.. which will be a "good thing" since we will be in the trailer for the next couple months & temperatures are expected to be in the 30's at night next week..Thank you again for the information.. I love this forum..
Rvinlori is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-22-2011, 04:41 PM   #4
Senior Member
 
DAISY BOYKIN's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: SUNSHINE STATE
Posts: 1,768
Send a message via Skype™ to DAISY BOYKIN
Check the gas tube-----------

Check the gas tube that carries the gas (propane) to the burner. If a bug or spider gets into the tube, it will disrupt the gas flow. the tube is the tapered tube that goes from the gas orifice to the burner.

Also, as stated before, check the reset buttons on your H/W tank. There are two.

Good luck
__________________
Sid & HRH MISSY, SHIH TZU
2019 WILDCAT 28 SGX
2014 F-250 KING RANCH PS 6.7L/SWD/6R140/BFT
TST Truck System Technologies TM-507SE
DAYS CAMPED 2022 51 DAYS
[SIGPIC][/SI[SIGPIC]
DAISY BOYKIN is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-22-2011, 05:26 PM   #5
Site Team
 
bikendan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Goodyear, Arizona
Posts: 33,554
RVinLori, it's always advisable to post your year, brand and model of trailer, when asking for tech assistance.

saying 26' TT doesn't give much info. when we know what you have, other owners of the same trailer can be more helpful with your issues, since they know more about what you have.

it does help posting the brand and model of WH like you did.
bikendan is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Disclaimer:

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by Forest River, Inc. or any of its affiliates. This is an independent, unofficial site.



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:59 PM.