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Old 01-14-2018, 03:45 PM   #1
sourdough
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Water Heater Update and thoughts

As some may recall I replaced my Atwood 6 gal water heater last Jan/Feb while sitting here in FL due to a hairline leak. Put in a brand new one. Today woke up and had no hot water. Troubleshot the system and it was a bad diode in the control board....already!!

Now here's the something to think about and the shame on me. When I replaced the heater I thought about scavenging parts from it - it was 3 years old and looked brand new. Genius me said "naw" I'm chunking it all since I'm getting a new, entire unit. I kept the plug from it....that's all. Today, when this one quit, I spent the time troubleshooting, on the phone and then a 2 1/4hr drive to Valdosta, GA to get a control board (no one in Tallahassee had one - plus it's Sunday). CW in Valdosta was SUPER and a life saver. The board was $221.31!!!! I only paid $369 for the entire unit if I recall. Anyway, when pulling stuff out and replacing with new, take the time to pull useable parts from it. I would have saved myself some cash and a lot of time if I would have just took 15 minutes to remove those useable items. Just a heads up and fyi for those interested.
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Old 01-14-2018, 04:03 PM   #2
JRTJH
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I've got 2 pole barns, a garage and an RV basement filled with "stuff".... I call it my "insurance policy" since I know that as long as I have a spare, it'll never break. It's times like you just had, when there's no spare, that things go south. Not that it'll help this time, but Dinosaur control boards are half the price of OEM and twice as reliable..... http://www.dinosaurelectronics.com/
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Old 01-14-2018, 05:25 PM   #3
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Thanks John, I'll log that. My wife went to the bath house this AM to take her shower and it was OK. The last time I was in the men's shower area it was cold (during this cold weather). I could not bring myself to take a shower in a 30 degree room tonite so the urgent trip to GA
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Old 01-14-2018, 05:41 PM   #4
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I have learned many hard lessons like this in the past, and am sure there are more in my future.
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Old 01-14-2018, 06:04 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JRTJH View Post
I've got 2 pole barns, a garage and an RV basement filled with "stuff".... I call it my "insurance policy" since I know that as long as I have a spare, it'll never break. It's times like you just had, when there's no spare, that things go south. Not that it'll help this time, but Dinosaur control boards are half the price of OEM and twice as reliable..... http://www.dinosaurelectronics.com/
Thanks for the link!
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Old 01-14-2018, 07:04 PM   #6
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I have learned many hard lessons like this in the past, and am sure there are more in my future.

I've learned many hard lessons on stuff like this myself, vehicles, trailers, house stuff, plumbing etc. etc. and I have tons of "stuff"; I just let myself go stupid and think that I didn't need to take the peripherals off because I have so much stuff - I did.....dumb.
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Old 01-14-2018, 08:07 PM   #7
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I have a real hard time tossing parts at work, but if I didn’t get rid of some of it I wouldn’t be able to get to my tools. I bought a 3 shelf cart just for spare parts...my cart runneth over!!!
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Old 01-14-2018, 09:01 PM   #8
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It's too bad the need for hot water was so urgent, as the warranty for the Atwood water heaters are two years. Could have saved a bit of money getting it fixed.
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Old 01-14-2018, 09:11 PM   #9
sourdough
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It's too bad the need for hot water was so urgent, as the warranty for the Atwood water heaters are two years. Could have saved a bit of money getting it fixed.

I understand. And yes, my need for a hot shower far outweighs a couple hundred bucks.... I've spent many a night in a motel when the water at our mountain home fails due to one thing or another - I won't skip my nightly "hot" shower or take a bath in a bathtub...just personal phobias I guess. Anyway, I'll be calling Atwood tomorrow to see if there's anything we can do. The parts guy at CW said the same thing and I told him I'm not waiting around to dicker about warranty; I want hot water NOW!!! For me I don't consider it as a "it's too bad" scenario, just, it is what it is and I have no patience
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Old 01-15-2018, 08:41 AM   #10
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Danny,

If I'm reading things correctly, the GAS ignitor control board is what failed? If so, was the electric side of the water heater still working? From your posts, it's hard to tell whether you had "only cold water output" from the water heater or if you "wanted enough hot water to take a long shower" and needed electric and gas to do that.....

So, I guess I'm asking, was the electric side also not working?
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Old 01-15-2018, 10:57 AM   #11
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John,

Nothing worked. There was no hot water, only cold from the spigots. The little 2A fuse on the control board had blown preventing the DSI from working or the electric element. I couldn't determine what component was bad because it is encapsulated in plastic. No one had the little 2A fuses so I decided I would "find" the bad component.... Made a jumper to go between the pins of the fuse and connected it. The diode immediately smoked. Not a good way to trouble shoot but I was 95% certain it was the board - there just aren't that many things in the unit itself, when you have power to it, that are going to fail and cause that kind of problem.

Edit: Looking at the schematics that I found it appeared the electric side was separate from the gas side but apparently not. The board has the ignitor lead coming from it but it also has the 2 plugs with all the wiring going everywhere else. I don't have the schematics up anymore but there is going to be a lead from that board that controls a relay (assumption) that controls the power to the heating element. There is a relay on it but I didn't dig deep enough into it to analyze where it all went.
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Old 01-15-2018, 11:43 AM   #12
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Good to know information, Danny. I was under the impression that the only "interface" between the 12 VDC and the 120VAC sides of the water heater was in the AC relay on the control board. As I understand it, that relay "reads" the AC thermostat to shut off gas in the event the AC side overheats. That "safety feature" is the only part of the control board that can/does prevent the AC side from operating. I always thought that even with the gas side "down" the water heater would still operate in "limp mode" on the electric side (provided there is shore power). Apparently that's not the situation in all "gas control board failures" as your experience shows otherwise...

Thanks for the lesson. Now I've got to "tinker" and come up with a bypass for that circuit or put my old control board back in the trailer as an "insurance policy" against water heater failure.....
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Old 01-15-2018, 03:29 PM   #13
sourdough
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I've got to dig further as well. None of the schematics I looked at showed the 2A fuse so I don't know what it protected/fed. The latest schematic I found was for a 8E and mine is a 10E so mine is a newer version of what I was looking at. I'll try to dig further and see if I can figure out why it stopped the AC side from working as well.
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Old 01-16-2018, 05:54 PM   #14
Dorrie
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The module board went on our Fridgerater and it cost $367.00 For new one. Fridge still kept temps (EO keeps flashing at the digital screen) but did not want to push our luck. Person next to us said to keep old one, never know.

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Old 01-17-2018, 08:56 AM   #15
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It's not old stuff. It's inventory . . . . .

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