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Old 11-27-2021, 12:01 PM   #1
Granpa49
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water heater burn out

This fall we have been unable to get the water heater to work on electricity but it has been working fine on gas. A couple of nights ago there was a flame out of sorts and it has done some damage. There is a lot of black soot on the outside of the camper above the vents in the door. The insulation is burned on many of the wires and the connectors are partially damaged. I feel we are lucky it didn't burn down. I don't have any diagrams of the electrical nor the piping to work with. If I replace the water heater I will have to find new wiring or at least a 12" pigtail of sorts to replace the first foot of wiring and the connectors. Are such items available? Any comments as to which way to go here would be appreciated.
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Old 11-28-2021, 05:35 AM   #2
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What brand of water heater? The piping will be straight forward and the wiring should be also. There may be a wiring harness available for purchase.
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Old 11-28-2021, 06:28 AM   #3
Granpa49
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Atwood GC10A-4E 10 gallon. The new ones appear to be mostly identical except that I do see a wiring difference. The old one has two multi-wire connectors running vertically up the left side of the controller while the new one has only one connector running horizontally along the top of the controller and has only about half as many wires going to it. That concerns me. It might not be a pure plug and play. Did Atwood make specials for some manufacturers?
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Old 11-28-2021, 07:11 AM   #4
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Make sure your looking at a new gas and electric water heater. Having 1/2 the wires may mean it’s gas only.
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Old 11-28-2021, 07:14 AM   #5
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The current Atwood water heater you have is a dual mode LP/120 volt unit and that is why there are more wires... you can get any part for that water heater from here...

https://techsupport.pdxrvwholesale.c...wood-gc10a-4e/

If you have not DL the service manual for that water heater here is the link and I strongly recommend you DL it..

http://techsupport.pdxrvwholesale.co...ter-Manual.pdf
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Old 11-28-2021, 10:49 AM   #6
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Thank you. Those are both great resources. The RV is a fifth wheel and I don't have a fifth wheel hitch available so towing it to a service center is out (RV belongs to one of the kids). I am not hesitant to replacing the entire unit but the only exact replacement I've found is the XT version for $1200 and that is out of their budget. My next thought is to pull the unit and take it somewhere. Is there a way to bypass the water to the heater? If I had a fitting to use to plug the outlet hose I could use the diverter valve to cut off water to the inlet. I 'm not sure what type of plug that would be. Surburban heaters (gas/elect) are half the price. I will need to study their wiring diagrams to see if they would be compatible. I can see that the service door will need to be changed out to properly vent it.
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Old 11-28-2021, 11:17 AM   #7
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The inlet should be 1/2” NPT, take will have a female fitting and most often there is a male to male coupler. That means a 1/2” npt plug should fit the pex fitting. The same should hold true for the outlet.
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Old 11-28-2021, 11:38 AM   #8
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I'm looking at a Suburban SW10DE water heater. It is elect/gas but has only four wired connections. The Atwood has nine wired connections. I've tried to find a way to contact suburban but you can only contact them after you place an order. Looking at those nine wires, the critical four would be elect. on, gas on, power out to the heater relay and power out to the gas valve. Surely Suburban would have some instructions for swapping out their product for someone else's. On Monday, I'm going to call the RV center where my daughter bought this and see if they will talk to me.
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Old 11-28-2021, 03:21 PM   #9
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Page 25 of the service manual of the link should help you understand the wiring and color code convention of the existing water heater

Page 6 of the suburban installation manual shows the schematic for installation and includes the section if remote relay is used on the water heater

http://techsupport.pdxrvwholesale.co...ser-Manual.pdf
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Old 11-28-2021, 04:50 PM   #10
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Yes, thank you. I saw that. I ordered a new wiring harness (pn 93191) which should be here in 3 or 4 days. I'm going to replace the wires first, then if it is still dead I'll replace the ignition module. At that point it should work on electricity. I don't plan to run it on gas again. Apparently, the gas valve turned on but the igniter didn't do it's job until the 3rd or 4th try and by that time there was too much free gas in the area. It must have been a quick flame out but it was enough to melt the wires and connectors. I won't know if the module is toast until I get the wires replaced.
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Old 12-02-2021, 11:55 AM   #11
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I would seriously consider tankless WH

I could have been Grandpa 47 but don't want to brag.
I have been researching upgrades to my Suburban WH and have developed a keen interest in choosing a tankless WH for my rig...
I have no personal knowledge but there are many threads on many forums available with both positive and negative comments on having a tankless. I like the idea I can drain my water tank with hot water shower if I choose.
Would have made this change years ago, but cost and tepid reviews kept me 'fixin' my Suburban.
Happy trails with your rig!
Paul
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Old 12-02-2021, 02:47 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Granpa49 View Post
Yes, thank you. I saw that. I ordered a new wiring harness (pn 93191) which should be here in 3 or 4 days. I'm going to replace the wires first, then if it is still dead I'll replace the ignition module. At that point it should work on electricity. I don't plan to run it on gas again. Apparently, the gas valve turned on but the igniter didn't do it's job until the 3rd or 4th try and by that time there was too much free gas in the area. It must have been a quick flame out but it was enough to melt the wires and connectors. I won't know if the module is toast until I get the wires replaced.
If you can fix the one you have, I believe the Atwood heaters do not require an anode rod. Obviously, will be less expensive than a new one. Mine is an Atwood and does not require an anode rod. As long as you are not boondocking you really don’t need gas. You might want to look at fixing the gas side as well if you feel you can make it safer. Gas is good for quick recovery if lots of hot water is needed, like for multiple showers. I can run gas and electric at the same time and recovery is quite fast. For a 12 gal. Water heater, I’m amazed at how much hot water this thing will put out when using gas and electric. Have never run out yet with 2 grand kids and 4 adults.
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Old 12-02-2021, 03:26 PM   #13
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As far as I’ve seen over the years, water heaters come in 2 flavors:

LP only or LP/AC, can’t say I’ve seen an AC only water heater. I’m only going by what I’ve worked on for the last 10+ yrs.
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