New Passport, first issue - Water Heater

[levic900rr]

2020 Passport 239ML. We absolutely love this thing and have been out twice in it.

First weekend was a boondocking trip to my grandparents house. Ran the water heater on gas all weekend flawlessly. The whole trailer functioned perfectly.

Second trip, this past weekend, we camped at a park with full hookups. I have never had a trailer with an electric water heater so I figured rather than burning up propane I might as well try the water heater on electric. It worked great for the first 1.5 days washing hands (we do this a lot now) washing dishes and for one quick shower. On the second night we were ready to cycle everyone through the shower (me, my wife and our 10 y/o). The first two of us took quick showers and at the tail end of the second the water started to cool off a bit so I told my wife to wait 15-20 mins before she got in. Well after 20 mins there was ZERO hot water. It was late so we turned everything off and went to bed.

The next morning I tried to get it to click over to gas, turned the switch... nothing. Im not hearing the solenoid click to allow gas to start flowing, no clicking from the igniter nothing... So I opened the door, checked for any cobwebs or other obstructions (I've had some experience with gas RV water heaters and how 1 little strand of spider web can mess up the gas burner). It looks brand new and clean in there. I checked the 2AMP fuse with my multi meter that is good. I did some basic googleing around with my phone and crappy wifi and found a place that suggested pulling the "Red wire" one of the connectors as a means to reset the unit and nothing worked. Also the electric side is not working either. I'm not real sure how I can test it, but I know after 30 mins in the switch in the on position that there is zero hot water.

So the trailer is new and I can get the dealer to fix it but they are scheduling a month out so I'm hoping I can do some better troubleshooting on my own. They are saying "maybe it needs a board"... I'm not finding a ton of good resources online, the manual doesn't have a great troubleshooting guide.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

[sourdough]

I know this isn't going to be helpful but on our last trailer (2014) had to replace the water heater due to a hairline crack (Atwood) at the start of the 2nd season. A short time later I had to replace the board on that one due to failure. On this new trailer the board had to be replaced before I ever took possession. Not good news I know, just a little background. On the new tank with the failed board the little fuse was blown and I hard wired across it to see what smoked....and it did. A diode if I recall. A new board may very well be in your future. The high side is they are very easy to replace, basically plug and play.

[levic900rr]

I know this isn't going to be helpful but on our last trailer (2014) had to replace the water heater due to a hairline crack (Atwood) at the start of the 2nd season. A short time later I had to replace the board on that one due to failure. On this new trailer the board had to be replaced before I ever took possession. Not good news I know, just a little background. On the new tank with the failed board the little fuse was blown and I hard wired across it to see what smoked....and it did. A diode if I recall. A new board may very well be in your future. The high side is they are very easy to replace, basically plug and play.

Cool, thanks for the background. I wonder if I should just order a new circuit board. I wish there was a nice troubleshooting guide so I could narrow it down before throwing parts at it.

[JRTJH]

We just had another member who had a problem with his suburban water heater control board. He contacted Suburban, they were reluctant to "just send him a replacement" so he contacted his dealership, took "just the bad control board" to them and they gave him a replacement. He installed the new board himself and saved the "trailer tow, wait time and risks of damage while at the dealership. I'd add that his board had an "obvious melted spot" on it, so there really was no question on his failure. You'd have to at least do a visual inspection of your control board before knowing if there's anything "obviously wrong"....

[levic900rr]

We just had another member who had a problem with his suburban water heater control board. He contacted Suburban, they were reluctant to "just send him a replacement" so he contacted his dealership, took "just the bad control board" to them and they gave him a replacement. He installed the new board himself and saved the "trailer tow, wait time and risks of damage while at the dealership. I'd add that his board had an "obvious melted spot" on it, so there really was no question on his failure. You'd have to at least do a visual inspection of your control board before knowing if there's anything "obviously wrong"....

That is good info. I did visually inspect mine and I cant see anything out of place anywhere. The one place I haven't inspected yet is the back side of the unit. I believe that is where the electric element is and there could be some sort of a master reset back there.

[flybouy]

If it's a Suburban unit there are black rubber button covers that say "push to reset. Two buttons, one for 120vac and one for 12vdc. You can run the water heater (when it's working) on gas and electric simultaneously which will greatly improve the recovery time.

[levic900rr]

If it's a Suburban unit there are black rubber button covers that say "push to reset. Two buttons, one for 120vac and one for 12vdc. You can run the water heater (when it's working) on gas and electric simultaneously which will greatly improve the recovery time.

That is what I'm used to (in my last trailer) this is a Dometic unit and it doesn't have those buttons...

[JRTJH]

That is what I'm used to (in my last trailer) this is a Dometic unit and it doesn't have those buttons...

Then it's an Atwood water heater ??? If not, what's the model number/brand? Dometic recently bought Atwood and the now market Atwood water heaters. The other brand is Suburban, owned by AirExcel.

ADDED: You can download the Atwood Service Manual here: http://waterheatertimer.org/pdf/Atwood-Water-Heater-Service-manual.pdf Troubleshooting for your model starts on Page 18 (I think)

[NH_Bulldog]

Here is my saga, the difference is that I never lost the ability to heat with electric, just gas. Read what I posted, but also check Fuse/breaker on the inside power center under the pantry. As a side note, when we are showering or giving our daughter a bath, we run gas and electric at the same time for faster recovery of hot water.

https://www.keystoneforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42408

[levic900rr]

Yes its an Atwood heater (but its branded Dometic due to the acquisition).

Update from last night is that I found a troubleshooting guide here:

http://beamalarm.com/Documents/atwood_water_heater_troubleshooting.html

When I got to the section where I was supposed to unplug every blade connector, clean and re attach. I tried the water heater and it fired right up.

Must have been a loose / dirty connector? I almost feel like I'm in a worse situation now because I'm not 100% sure what was wrong with it.

I suspect I just need to cross my fingers and hope for the best. I might book a trip for this weekend just so I can test it before my appointment.

[levic900rr]

Here is my saga, the difference is that I never lost the ability to heat with electric, just gas. Read what I posted, but also check Fuse/breaker on the inside power center under the pantry. As a side note, when we are showering or giving our daughter a bath, we run gas and electric at the same time for faster recovery of hot water.

https://www.keystoneforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42408

Oh man this could really be a game changer...

Thanks for the tip.

[NH_Bulldog]

It is possible that the high-limit triggered (prevents overheating and a Chernoby-like meltdown). It resets itself after everything cools down completely. Like I said above, I would suggest running gas and electric simultaneously to share the load under heavy use, or spread out the use over a longer period of time.

[levic900rr]

It is possible that the high-limit triggered (prevents overheating and a Chernoby-like meltdown). It resets itself after everything cools down completely. Like I said above, I would suggest running gas and electric simultaneously to share the load under heavy use, or spread out the use over a longer period of time.

In a situation like that wouldn't it have come back on the next morning?

[sourdough]

Running gas and electric at the same time makes a huge difference in how long you can shower (how much water you use). In the old days it was get wet, turn it off, lather up, rinse off. By the time 1 person was done (washing hair included) you were at cool water (6 gal. tank). Running with both heat sources never shut off the water and never ran out of hot water. Now, in the new trailer it's a 12 gal. tank and I don't even use the LP in the hwh.:)

[levic900rr]

Running gas and electric at the same time makes a huge difference in how long you can shower (how much water you use). In the old days it was get wet, turn it off, lather up, rinse off. By the time 1 person was done (washing hair included) you were at cool water (6 gal. tank). Running with both heat sources never shut off the water and never ran out of hot water. Now, in the new trailer it's a 12 gal. tank and I don't even use the LP in the hwh.:)

Yeah we still do the "submarine shower" as you listed above. Its great to be able to do it when we're boondocking but using both when we're on full hookups will be a treat.

[mmoff46]

When we first got our Montana everything worked. And then it was hit and miss on the electric side, sometimes it would work and sometimes not so much. Everytime at the dealer it would work, I'd pull it home and plug it in and it would work, the next day no dice. I took it back in and requested them to pull it out and check the connections that I could not get to and the back side connections, sure enough the main ground wire was loose and shorting out. they tightened it back up and put threadlock on it and it works great now. Hope this helps, it might not be your situation but this is what happened to mine. this forum is great and I have found several items that they had no Idea how to fix but I copied and pasted and showed this to the dealer. They should be paying us for the information, haha

[levic900rr]

When we first got our Montana everything worked. And then it was hit and miss on the electric side, sometimes it would work and sometimes not so much. Everytime at the dealer it would work, I'd pull it home and plug it in and it would work, the next day no dice. I took it back in and requested them to pull it out and check the connections that I could not get to and the back side connections, sure enough the main ground wire was loose and shorting out. they tightened it back up and put threadlock on it and it works great now. Hope this helps, it might not be your situation but this is what happened to mine. this forum is great and I have found several items that they had no Idea how to fix but I copied and pasted and showed this to the dealer. They should be paying us for the information, haha

Good info, I had my appointment at the dealer last week and, just like you, it "worked perfect" while we were at the dealer. I have to bring it back for a roof issue, so I'll suggest that to them.

Thanks!

[levic900rr]

Wanted to close the loop here...

Took the trailer to the dealer, they ran the hot water for 3 hours on both gas and electric and everything worked perfect (of course).

We camped last weekend off grid and I couldn't even get the gas side to come one. After closer investigation I found that this blade connector was not crimped on properly! I gave it a nice squeeze with some needle nose and off it went!

PS not the one I'm pointing at, but the one in the pink box.

[wiredgeorge]

By the way, got a kick out of your comment that you were going to run three folks, one after the other, through the shower. Tank holds 6 gallons. Suggest at least an hour wait between showers. When we camp, I take a shower at night before bed and my wife then showers in the AM and she is near out of hot if she washes her hair. My showers don't take long as I can only wash pretty much the upper half as there isn't enough room for me to bend over and wash my feet bwhahahaha. Our tube is actually supposed to be a "bath tub" but I defy anyone to fill it with even lukewarm water. The tub drains into the black 30 gallon black tank and a bath would be a recipe for unpleasantness (tub would fill black tank and back uip goes into the tub).

[Bill-2020]

Wanted to close the loop here...

Took the trailer to the dealer, they ran the hot water for 3 hours on both gas and electric and everything worked perfect (of course).

We camped last weekend off grid and I couldn't even get the gas side to come one. After closer investigation I found that this blade connector was not crimped on properly! I gave it a nice squeeze with some needle nose and off it went!

PS not the one I'm pointing at, but the one in the pink box.

Good to hear and thanks for the details! I’ll go double check mine. We had bad crimps on the battery connections both at the battery and at the breakers. We fixed all of them ourselves. I still believe, regardless of what the Dometic service center thinks (which they haven’t seen it first hand yet), that I had a bad crimp on the common wire on the A/C compressor (totally burned off) Either way they are to replace it under warranty.

Anyway, now you can camp and take a hot or warm shower with peace of mind.

[Oakville2020]

Hello,

Anymore issues? We're about to buy a new 2020 Passport SL 239ML. This will be our first trailer. Would you recommend this trailer? Is is a good trailer for first times?

Thanks

[Northofu1]

You have to start somewhere :)
Welcome from Aurora.

[levic900rr]

Hello,

Anymore issues? We're about to buy a new 2020 Passport SL 239ML. This will be our first trailer. Would you recommend this trailer? Is is a good trailer for first times?

Thanks

Nope, its been great. I would highly recommend this trailer. We love the fact that it doesn't have a slide. It has plenty of room for our family and its super easy to use.

[Bill-2020]

Hello,

Anymore issues? We're about to buy a new 2020 Passport SL 239ML. This will be our first trailer. Would you recommend this trailer? Is is a good trailer for first times?

Thanks

I do have a problem still since buying the trailer- I don’t have as much time to use it as we’d like to!! Would prefer to spend A LOT more time somewhere out of town. :)