No hot water..what am I doing wrong?

[wborisenok]

Hi all! Just got situated up here in Maine. Connected to our friends’ home on their 20 amp service via dog bone adapter. Everything is running smoothly with the exception of the hot water heater. My tanks are open and I’ve got both the electric and gas switches turned on. The heater itself hasn’t kicked on at all - usually I hear it regulating itself. I opened the door and don’t see any kind of pilot - but I’m not sure I’m supposed to? I think it’s a DSI unit which would not run with a pilot light. I checked my propane tanks and they’re pretty full. I know there’s water in the unit; it worked perfectly our last trip. I reset it at the breaker panel but no luck. What am I missing? Thanks in advance!!

[xrated]

Here are a couple of things to check. Usually, there is an inside switch for the electrical part of the water heater.....AND....a switch on the water heater itself. Make sure that both of them are one. Next, on the front of the water heater are two reset buttons that are located behind a black rubber piece...one is for the electric, the other is for the gas....make sure that both of those are reset by pushing them in firmly and releasing them. As far as a pilot flame goes, unlikely that it has that.....most likely it is DSI.

As far as the propane tanks go....you may have opened them too quickly. The newer tanks have a safety device in the Open/Close valve that will cause it not to work if you open it too quickly....(it thinks that a hose has sprung a leak or a connection/fitting has come apart. You might want to try closing them completely, then try to light your stove....to relieve pressure in the system. Once that is done, turn the stove burner off and then very slowly open the propane tank valve or valves. Try lighting the stove until you get all the air out of the system and then try the water heater again. If you have someone with you, have them turn the water heater on (propane) and you be outside listening to see if you can see or hear the spark trying to ignite the burner.

The only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is that your 20A dog bone setup is not providing power to both hot legs of the trailer breaker panel.....and that is ONLY if you have a 50A type setup.....disregard if yours is only the 30 amp type panel. Hope this helps.

[ChuckS]

If you "Know for certain" the water heater is full of water and you are only getting cold water at the faucets then I would be looking at the check valve on the outlet side of the water heater...

Its a new unit and something may have jammed the check valve... And YES.. the DSI has NO pilot light for the water heater. you will hear a snapping sound at water heater exhaust followed by light off if propane is flowing

The 120 Volts AC operation versus the propane operation are not tied to each other.. If one doesn't work the other should..

[dutchmensport]

First, make sure you have water IN the water tank. With either your on-board pump, or attached to a garden hose, make sure you have your water on. Go the water heater and release the pressure valve and make sure water spits form there. If it does not, your water heater is in by-pass. You can't depend on the faucet at the sink, because even in bypass you'll still get water out the hot side of the faucet.

If there is no water spewing at the pressure relief valve on the water heater, you have probably burned up your heating element, and / or burned up the thermostat in the water heater that controls both the gas and the electric side. (I did this once on my current fifth wheel, I didn't realize I was still in by-pass and flipped on both gas and electric, no hot water. I burned out the electric element AND the thermostats. My dealership fixed it. I was stumped).

Another thing to look for, if you flip the pressure relief valve, and the water spewing out is hot, then check your shower, outside shower, faucets, everywhere, and make sure all the knobs are turn off. If you leave the knobs turned on and turn the shower head itself off, water will mix at that location between hot and cold, and you'll never have hot water anywhere. Check that also.

Third, there are probably 2 switches for the electric side of your water heater. One will be in the main light switch, slide switch panel in your camper. The second is on the outside of the water heater itself. It's a black rocker arm switch. Both have to be "on" in order for the electric to be working. They put the double switch in our campers like that to prevent anyone from accidently flipping on the electric when the water heater is empty, burning out the element within seconds with an empty tank. So, every time you empty the fresh water tank, you should flip that rocker arm switch to "off". Once it is filled again, you are safe to turn it back "on". Then you can safely use the inside switch for convenience when you travel, or want to flip from electric to gas or even completely off and back again with ease.

I hope this helps, and hope you did not burn up the thermostat with an empty water heater.

[wborisenok]

Figured it out. It’s the thermofuse. I bypassed it with a paper clip to test and the heater fired right up. Apparently this is been a recent issue. I pulled the fuse and connected straight to the terminal and it fired 3x but wouldn’t stay on..not sure why. I should be able to connect them and just switch it on as needed.

[Pull Toy]

Sorry for your difficulties, first step is to make sure your plumbing winter bypass valve is closed, so that water is going thru the water heater. Even in the bypass mode, water will reach your faucets, it just won't go thru the heater to get there.

The electric side of your water heater has a reset button behind the outside cover in addition to the circuit breaker. It is 1 or 2 black rubber buttons.Push the button. Some rigs also have a switch inside the camper. There is also usually another switch in the lower left corner (looking in from the outside).

The gas side should be lit-up if there is a demand for hot water. It has nothing to do with DSI vs. pilot light. Did you check the 12v fuse that controls the igniter? Do your other gas appliances work? Your stove is usually a good indicator of your gas flow. Try switching to your other tank. If you open your gas valves too quickly they may freeze up, depending on temp and humidity. Best bet is to close both tanks for about five minutes, and start over SLOWLY if they are not passing fuel to your stove.

As an ABSOLUTE last resort, give the pressure relief valve a quick flip. Be VERY CAREFUL about the possibility of scalding water. Also, if you lose your air gap at the top of the tank, your valve will drip for the rest of your visit. You need that air gap to allow for expansion.

Hope this helped... GOOD LUCK!

[wborisenok]

Oooookay, some more info. Thought I had it figured out with the thermofuse but not entirely. I removed the fuse and connected that wire straight to the terminal to see if I could get it to fire. It worked. Good news! That’s essentially removing the safety mechanism, but I planned to switch it on only as needed this way. So it fired on…3 times to be exact…but would never stay lit. So there’s definitely a bigger issue with the gas side of the system. At this point I realized I never gave the electric ample time to heat up and wondered if maybe the gas not firing was blocking the electric from kicking on. So I turned off the gas, left the thermofuse entirely unplugged, and gave the electric a solid two hours to heat up. Went back out to check it, pretty much fully expecting it to work, and NOTHIN. Then my buddy suggested plugging the thermofuse back in (keeping gas switch off) and keeping electric on..wondering if maybe that fuse being unplugged was interfering with the electric. We both doubted that to be the case but I gave it a whirl anyway. Just checked it and hour and a half later and we have hot water! The thermofuse terminal seems to tie into both the gas and electric functions. Jury is still out on the gas side of things, but now I can utilize a multimeter and pinpoint exactly what part is busted. Figured I’d share this info for the future. Hope to nail down the gas side of things before our next trip.

[chuckster57]

If the gas lights and then goes out, the likely culprit is the sparker/flame sensor. I have had some success removing it, wiping it down with WD-40, and reinstall.

[wborisenok]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

If the gas lights and then goes out, the likely culprit is the sparker/flame sensor. I have had some success removing it, wiping it down with WD-40, and reinstall.

Can’t hurt to give this a whirl, thank you!