Still having issues with the water heater

Mike L123 · 07-18-2012, 07:41 PM

Hello All! As a result of your earlier replies to my previous post I have gone through most of the suggestions, stopping short of running a wire through the orifice. I did spray the snot out of it and the spray was coming through clean and clear. I reassembled the gas tube, gas supply line etc. and the water heater ran fabulously for at least, oh, 24hrs or so. Then the whole thing kinda crapped out again with ongoing flame outs and no starts accompanied by the occasional big bang.

When I first posted I asked a rather innocuous question that nobody responded to so I re ask it here. Does the LED light on the display panel, or the subsequent wiring and pathways from there to the gas control valve or mother board have any bearing or weight on the actual workings of the water heater? The reason that I ask is that the LED is not responsive to the off or on position of the switch like it should, or at least used, to be. Basically, the only time I see the LED light now is on ignition attempt where it will flicker momentarily. For the most part it does not light up at all which I thought was simply a misbehaving or burnt out LED. Is there a relationship between the light off/on and the gas valve working properly? PLEASE, NO FLAMES, I am as dumb as a board when it comes to electrical gremlins other than when the magic smoke escapes from the wires.

Still struggling with cold water - Mike and Carol

campingcpl · 07-19-2012, 08:33 AM

Here is something that could be or maybe not something to look at. The light is connected to the switch which turns the water heater ignition on and off. Maybe and this is just drawing at straws here, there could be a short in the switch which is causing the ignition to turn off and on and is causing the light not to work properly. I think I would try replacing the switch and see if that makes any difference since you have tried just about everything short of replacing the water heater.

The switch would be a cheap fix and can easily be checked if you have a 12v toggle switch laying around. Good luck!

Englishman · 07-19-2012, 09:42 AM

if the light is between the gas and electric switch then it only comes on when there is a fault or if the gas bottle is empty.

wmcclay · 07-21-2012, 12:08 PM

Does your heater work ok? You could have a propane flow or pressure problem. Check for a kinked or pinched gas line to water heater. You might have the gas pressure checked. Led, I thought was supposed to come on after a lighting attempt and failure. Working after cleaning make a guy wonder. Good luck

JD_Moe · 07-22-2012, 06:56 PM

Just had mine in under warranty for same type of problem. The ceramic on th igniter was cracked. Replaced igniter and I working fine.

Mike L123 · 07-22-2012, 09:15 PM

Thanks all for your continued interest in helping me solve this issue. Yes, we still have the same problem with the failure to ignite although it seems to be occurring a little less. It is not a wind driven issue as it fails with or without any kind of wind - even in a dead calm day. it seems that if we just turn the DSI switch off for several minutes after the first attempt and then flip it on again it will usually fire right away.

I am convinced that the LED on the DSI rocker is simply foobarred as it lights up less and less often and doesn't appear to have any correlation to the fire/no fire of the water heater.

JD Moe - I will definitely follow up on the cracked ceramic thought - thanks for that.

Cheers All! We will keep you posted.

Mike and Carol

Geoffwhite18 · 07-23-2012, 08:30 AM

Sounds like a bad ground sonewhere. Somehow its grounding through the switch. If its flickering when it ignites then its getting power from the igniter somehow cracked insulator or a bad ground wire would be my guess

SAABDOCTOR · 07-23-2012, 09:13 AM

can you see the ignitor? if you can turn the gas off and have some one switch on the the switch inside while you watch the spark remember gas off or

see if you get a good clean blue spark or a fieble yellow one. if it is the yellow oneyou may have a bad ignitor circut or the ceramic is cracked. and the spark is jumping to ground in the wrong place. every thing ealse on gas works good? it is interesting that you cleaned it and it worked fine for a bit any thing in the line or tube. dirt bugs or some debriss left over from assembly when new? the led in my camper goes on when the ignition is working once the flame is on it's own the the led goes out. but that is mine. so i bow to an expert. do not asume the grounds are clean by eyeball remove them and clean them with a little emory paper. good luck

Mike L123 · 08-02-2012, 08:21 PM

Hey All! So here is an update for your information. Like a true ghost in the machine, everything is working just fine now. Nothing has changed other than the cleaning of the gas orifice as I posted earlier. The darn thing has just been flawless even through massive gusts of wind, pouring rain and all other kinds of weather mayhem that we have been experiencing here. I am off work for a couple of days finally and I will still have a look at the igniter ceramics as well as the LED switch in the control board. The LED has definitely died as we have not seen so much as a flicker from it for at least a week or 10 days.

Thanks again everyone. I will post if there is anything new or exciting on this matter.

Cheers!

Mike and Carol

**JRTJH** · 08-03-2012, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike L123

Hey All! So here is an update for your information. Like a true ghost in the machine, everything is working just fine now. Nothing has changed other than the cleaning of the gas orifice as I posted earlier. The darn thing has just been flawless even through massive gusts of wind, pouring rain and all other kinds of weather mayhem that we have been experiencing here. I am off work for a couple of days finally and I will still have a look at the igniter ceramics as well as the LED switch in the control board. The LED has definitely died as we have not seen so much as a flicker from it for at least a week or 10 days.

Thanks again everyone. I will post if there is anything new or exciting on this matter.

Cheers!

Mike and Carol

Glad it's working for you "finally" Always good to be in "hot water" intentionally.....

As for the LED. On the Suburban switch, the LED is a fault indicator. It comes on temporarily during ignition, then goes out (if the ignition is successful) if the ignition fails, the "brain" will call for two additional ignition attempts during which the LED will flicker momentarily during ignition. If ignition is successful, the LED goes out. If ignition fails, the LED will remain on as an indicator that the heater did not ignite as called for.

On mine, the LED will flicker on the first attempt to light, then when operating normally, the flame will shut off when the heater is hot. When using hot water, the igniter will start the flame again but the LED does not flicker or light during these ongoing ignition events.

So, your LED may flicker or it may not. To find out if it works, turn off your gas, and try to light the hot water heater. It will fail the ignition and the LED should light. If it does, the circuit is operating normally. If it does not light, then the control board on the hot water heater would be your suspect failed part. LED's either work or not. If it lights, the LED is good. If it flickers, the LED is good. The circuit that controls the LED is what causes the LED to either be on or off. So, the circuit would be the "bad part" if there is any light being emitted from the LED at any time.

Roller4Tan · 08-03-2012, 06:51 PM

On my 2011 318SAB all the rocker switches on the panel next to the door have blue lites in them when they are "ON". The water heater has a red led above the switch. This lite comes on when the water heater has an ignition problem, ie no gas. Based on my experience with our precious home on wheels there was probably something in the gas line feeding the heater. You cleaned it out once and got most of the junk. The next time it lodged in the orifice. Hopefully you got it all out now, but be prepared for more, possibly. Happy Trails.

**flybouy** · 08-04-2012, 04:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRTJH

Glad it's working for you "finally" Always good to be in "hot water" intentionally.....

As for the LED. On the Suburban switch, the LED is a fault indicator. It comes on temporarily during ignition, then goes out (if the ignition is successful) if the ignition fails, the "brain" will call for two additional ignition attempts during which the LED will flicker momentarily during ignition. If ignition is successful, the LED goes out. If ignition fails, the LED will remain on as an indicator that the heater did not ignite as called for.

On mine, the LED will flicker on the first attempt to light, then when operating normally, the flame will shut off when the heater is hot. When using hot water, the igniter will start the flame again but the LED does not flicker or light during these ongoing ignition events.

So, your LED may flicker or it may not. To find out if it works, turn off your gas, and try to light the hot water heater. It will fail the ignition and the LED should light. If it does, the circuit is operating normally. If it does not light, then the control board on the hot water heater would be your suspect failed part. LED's either work or not. If it lights, the LED is good. If it flickers, the LED is good. The circuit that controls the LED is what causes the LED to either be on or off. So, the circuit would be the "bad part" if there is any light being emitted from the LED at any time.

This advice is spot on, I would only add 2 comments - the led may be flickering due to a poor ground, could also explain the intermittent operation of the burner. Second comment I think when you cycle the dsi switch on and off you reset the water heater and it attempts to restart.

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