Community Forums

moldmkr · 12-02-2012, 09:49 AM

Good morning everyone. Our gas hot water heater won't shut off when the hot water comes up to temperature, so we are running it manually right now. Any ideas on where to start to find the problem. Thanks in advance for your help.

trackman · 12-02-2012, 10:30 AM

Check the connections on the thermostat on the side of the tank. Also check the fuse for the control

Clay L · 12-02-2012, 10:46 AM

Since you have a Winnebago product your water heater is an Atwood.

The manual says the first thing to do us to unplug and replug the connectors on the control board.
On the front side behind the foam with the four wires ending with spade lugs there are two thermal disk switches, One is the thermostat and the other is the ECO or high limit switch. They are normally closed switches.
The thermostat is supposed to open at 140 degrees and the high limit switch at 180 degrees.
You can buy a replacement kit with the two switches and a new piece of sticky backed high temperature foam for about $25 or so at most RV stores.
If you have the water heater with a tempering valve the thermostat opens at a higher temperature of 169 degrees as I recall. You will need to get the proper replacement kit.

If you don't know if you have a tempering valve or not, the temp may be stamped on the thermostat. If not you will need to call Winebago with your VIN. They can cross it to the Winnebago ID number for your coach and they can tell you what you need.

moldmkr · 12-02-2012, 11:06 AM

I checked the fuse and it was good. There is a little black box on the back of the water heater. Is that where the thermostat is?

moldmkr · 12-02-2012, 11:13 AM

I will disconnect and reconnect the wires from the control board

moldmkr · 12-02-2012, 11:41 AM

disconnected the wires from the control board and reconnected, no change. disconnected the wires from the ECO and thermostat and reconnected still no change. had the water heater on for fifteen minutes and has not turned off yet. should be hot by now. wasn't completely cold to begin with. Will call Winnebago on Monday and find out whet kind of heater we have. Thanks for your help.

96 Wideglide · 12-02-2012, 11:47 AM

From cold, mine runs about half an hour before it turns off.

2adrift · 03-05-2013, 05:26 PM

I am in midst of the same issue. am replacing thermostats and relief valve while i am at it. However, would appreciate what you found out on yours. thanks.

TexasTwoStep · 03-06-2013, 06:39 AM

Replace thermostat. Not hard to do. Just remove the black insulated cover, replace thermostat and put on new (or old) cover. New cover may come with kit.

When was the last time you flushed the system and how did you do it?

2adrift · 03-11-2013, 05:45 PM

Our Hot water heater: ATWOOD - Model GCH6A-10A. Our problem: the hot water heater electrical elements would stay energized with the remote switch turned "off". Initial notice came when the tank relief valve lifted, flooding the area under the RV and extremely HOT water..... When we cut off the remote switch, we noticed the amps did not decrease, it remained constant with a Hot water 10A load. We had to cycle the hot water heater off using the breaker. Most folks pointed to the thermostat, as it usually is the culprit - however our case was not that we couldn't get hotwater, we couldn't turn it off. However we did replace the thermostat and ECO as a set and also replaced the relief valve just because... At this point, using the repair manual I found posted on this site with the operation manual that came with the RV, we zeroed in on the ckt card, or relay. After calling the ckt card manufacturer, Channel Products Main Page customer service they had a tech. discuss the situation with me. He was extremely helpful and it soon became apparent that if the board was getting the 12 vdc in from the remote swith (it was), and the heater was energized (this was a yes) then the board was functioning. So we next called the ATWOOD customer service who also was very helpful, who gave me a troubleshooting tidbit - if you leave off the botton ribbon connector to the ckt board and energized the board, then check if the heater element was still energized. If it was (it was) then the problem pointed almost exclusively to the relay being stuck closed allowing the AC in to keep the element energized. We found a new relay, put it in and HOLY COW-- it works like a champ - problem solved with the help of the folks who sell us these things. One more note - ATWOOD thought we would have to remove the heater to acces the relay - not so on the Winnie Voyager 2005 - there is a rubber access plug under the heater you can remove and access the relay and the heater also (acutally Judy found this). this is our story, hope if helps someone in a similar situation.