Help with Water Heater and LP

[term_paint]

Vic Phillips
1991 Fleetwood Bounder Ford Chassis.....


Ok i got the water from my home hooked up to the straight in and not the water tank...I was trying to get the water heater to light...Here we go ...

1) Inside the coach there is some type of pre detector..It has on off reset..I notice coming right off the LP tank there is a electric soleniod of some type that must turn the gas on and off at the main....When i turn this unit on i hear it click something but it beeps and beeps and the gas on light never comes on....IS there some type of time before it stops and turns on....?????

2) My meter say the lp tank is full but i have never did a thing with this i am a new owner and maybe the sensor is bad is there a way to check to see if there is gas in the tank without trusting this sensor....

3) There is a switch on the cupboard that says water heater...Does this turn on the water heater...When i turn this on i do not see the unit sparking out in the heater? Does it wait to see if there is gas or not and will not just spark if gas is not present....


MAn i am starting to think i got taken....Wow not another good day the only good news is no water leaks....

[InPursuit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by term_paint Vic Phillips 1991 Fleetwood Bounder Ford Chassis..... Ok i got...

what you got is far too many separate systems interconnected to do a clean diagnostic on any of them.

I'd suggest that you draw the circuits out on paper and then eliminate any interconnection between them. Then do that for real.

LP? it's either flowing or it isn't. If that requires a solenoid to be open to pass gas.. then do that.

Water? it's either flowing or it isn't. If that requires a solenoid to be open to pass water.. then do that.

WH thermostat and ignitor controls etc??... same same.

Get down to the nitty gritty basics and get it running...
Then reintroduce the safety and remote control gizmo's one at a time.

[RVhauler]

If you have an LP kitchen range then try lighting the burners to determine if there is LP in the tank. Also is the HWH a combination electric/LP. If so try to determine which switch operates it on 120 volt (or if it works)

[RV Mech Tech]

Vic - 1.) that solenoid near the LP tank is a shut off solenoid and is connected to the propane detector inside your coach - if your propane detector is ON the solenoid will open and allow propane to flow- if the detector is OFF -no propane so make sure it is on -there should be a light on the front of it to indicate it is operating- it works off of the coach 12 volt system and if your coach battery(s) gets lower then 12 volts the propane detector starts to beep- just like a house gas detector when the battery gets low or the power goes off with a 110 volt detector and with less than 12 volts the gas valve on the WH may not open- 2) there will always be a residual amount of propane in the tank ( not enough to run appliances correctly if the tank is empty) - the tank level gauge on the propane tank are usually inaccurate (especially when it gets cold and can affect the inside gauge reading as well (some of the older propane tanks on MH's had a seperate sending unit for the inside gauge and those were usually more accurate so the only way to tell if the gauges are working correctly is to fill the tank and then see what they read and replace if they are not working -as I said there will always be propane in the tank - never think that the tank will be completely empty - 3) your WH may operate on both propane and electric (usually in MHs ) there are usually three different set-ups for water heaters a) manual light propane only (at the outside with a BBQ lighter) that are usually on travel trailers and smaller RV's b) propane only with a single switch inside and this will be for an automatic ignition (DSI) c) propane and electric - these can have on of two control methods- 1) a single switch inside to light the propane (automatic ignition) and a seperate small toggle switch on the outside (under the WH cover) to use the electric heating element instead of propane and 3) same as #1 but with two switches inside , one for propane and one for electric operation -you will need 110 volts for the electric mode to operate the WH- different RV's have different set ups depending on what the RV manufacture specified and also what the WH manufacture supplied to that manfacture for that RV- the WH manufactureas are Suburban and Atwood (there should be a decal on the outside for the WH info-record this info for ordering parts) and you can go to their sites for info or try www.bryantrv.com for more info- go to the owners manuals or service document links-also if the coach was winterized make sure the WH bypass is off and the tank is full of water before starting it - if the coach has been sitting for a while a good cleaning may be required for all your appliances- let us know how things turn out!