waterheater belches fire ?

[hankaye]

Hqowdy All;

Reckon my Couger (see sig.), is,
1 Showing it's age or,
2 Showing the constant usage of all systems when being used as a Home
to a fulltiming individual such as myself for about 6.5 years and counting.

Last night after doing the dishes after supper, I heard the water false-start
twice then as I was hooking up Rascal for his after supper out, I heard and
saw a muffled whoomp and a small ball of flame erupt from the water-heater's exhaust .
Well, it was running and no other flames were showing so I let it do it's
job and shut it off after I had a full tank of hot water.
Haven't fired it up since, using the electric side for now. Nice to have a back
up system ain't it.
So, thought I'd ask the collective what they're thoughts are. I'm going to pop
the cover and give it a look-see when I get back ther. Had to make an appointment
in El Paso today so gone form the RV for the day.

thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.

hankaye

[busterbrown]

It's probably caused by a failing igniter. Happens to residual gas stoves all the time. The igniter will attempt to light the open burner to no avail. Replacement of the igniter may be required.

Also check to see if the ignition source isn't be choked out by foreign debris or dirt. Sometimes, a good cleaning around the burner and igniter is necessary.

[SummitPond]

Originally Posted by busterbrown

... Also check to see if the ignition source isn't be choked out by foreign debris or dirt. Sometimes, a good cleaning around the burner and igniter is necessary.

I had an issue with a cobweb in the burner tube causing a backflash. Unfortunately I didn't see it and it caused a thermal cutoff fuse to blow, which took some investigation before I finally figured it out. My Atwood WH won't work on electric if this fuse is blown, so I was without hot water for a week.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by busterbrown

It's probably caused by a failing igniter. Happens to residual gas stoves all the time. The igniter will attempt to light the open burner to no avail. Replacement of the igniter may be required.

Also check to see if the ignition source isn't be choked out by foreign debris or dirt. Sometimes, a good cleaning around the burner and igniter is necessary.

I've had that happen and a good cleaning solved the problem so maybe it will be that simple. Don't tarry in El Paso too long - we just don't like going there anymore.

[Pull Toy]

I'd venture to guess that it's time for a cleaning, and a tune-up, as suggested above... also the lp supply solenoid or thermistor may be tired.

If you have electric HW, stay on it till the problem is solved. You probably freaked out the next door neighbor. (Good thing he wasn't peeing on your tire checking for air leaks! LOL!

If you're not comfortable with LP, hire a Pro, it's cheaper than a new camper.

Good Luck,

[earlzach]

Mine was the igniter, it had a crack in the porcelain causing a delayed ignition. By the time it lit, it LIT! Lol. Changed igniter and problem solved.

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

Well, thanks for the ideas and thoughts. Got back home and attempted to
fire it up. I made sure that the water temp. was cool enough to allow it to
go through the ignition sequence. Did this with the access door closed.
switch on and tic,tic,tic,tic ... nada,zip, zero, nuttin. then it went through the
sequence again on it's own about 5 tics in it goes whoomp fireball out the
square holes (exhaust). Ok, shut off switch, open access door, wait a
few minutes try it again 3 tics in ... ignition . Cook some water ...
It was still daylight out so it was difficult to see what was going on with the ignitior
so I was just outside (in the dark), and went through the cool water
attempt to start. Had to have the door open to be able to "see" the ignitior
do or not do it's 'thing'. Well, it did and am cooking another tank of water.
when it finished cooking I think I'll shut it off for the night then see how it
goes in the morning. May need to brush out the propane feed tube or adjust
the distance between the DSI tips to increase size of spark. I've got Suburban's
phone number and intend to give them a call tomorrow to see what they've
got to say.

Thanks again for the thoughts and suggestions.

hankaye

[earlzach]

Look closely at the porcelain where the tip comes out. If its cracked this will be where your spark is jumping. That will be a robust fire.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

Ok, Called Suburban yesterday and they will not discuss anything close to
troubleshooting, reckon it has to do with Liability stuff & lawyers
They did send me an owner's manual (PDF), to my email. At least I can now
put a name on all the parts...

Used some canned air and blew out the feed tube and the compartment, then
ran it through the ignition sequence one more time. Tic, tic, tic flame-on
fired up as it was supposed to with door open. Shut it down after the water
cooked up to temp. then ran it out so the cooler temp would activate the thermostat,
with door closed tic, tic, tic flame-on . Ok. I'm still keeping an eye
on it and only turning the switch on when I'm ready for some hot water.
PPL has a "kit" (some brushes and other items for 'maintenance' but they
are kind of spendy $45 to $50 ... think I can find what I need for about $40 less at the local
hardware store. Haven't pulled the igniter and looked at the tip yet, will
do so when I get the brushes and go through it all at once.

Thanks again for all the thoughts and suggestions.

hankaye

[Mike L123]

Just another thought on this. The above suggestions, fixes and ideas are all valid and good input. One other thought, because our old Cougar did the same thing quite often, is that the wind, or even a slight breeze, going just the right direction, used to cause ours to light off with a ferocious ker-woooomph! Scared us the first few times, NEVER did it with the access door open, and we had fixed, repaired and adjusted every other possible cause. The thing that made me look into the wind/breeze thing was that if the panel was open it never, ever backfired. Just something else to consider - YMMV.

Cheers!

Mike