Water heater problem

[BlackRain]

Hello All,
new here to the forums so please excuse my newb questions. My friends RV has this type of hot water system and it is experiencing some trouble with the propane system in the water heating unit. It is supposed to switch to propane automatically when the engine is turned off but it is not. The water heater works fine from the engine heat but seems to be dead on the propane side of things.
Being new to this myself I did some basic checks... cleaned the wire connections, check for broken or cracked wiring etc. and all seemed to be good other than some rust that needs to be cleaned up.
Is there a switch that needs to be turned on to get the unit working under propane? If so where approx. would it be located?
Where is the water tank usually located that needs to be drained?

I thank you for your patience and help on the issue, it is greatly appreciated.

[RV Wizard]

BlackRain, welcome to iRV2.com. We are glad to have you joins us here and we look forward to helping you resolve the present problem and any other questions you have in the future. I am sure you will enjoy it here.
There is a switch inside the coach that will turn the water heater on. Usually it is in the kitchen, bathroom or central control panel locations. My question is what year, make & model of coach does your friend have? Do you know if it has hydronic heating like Aqua Hot, Hydro Hot, or Hurricane? With more information we can better provided some good replies to your questions.

["007"]

Not knowing type of coach he has will try to answer, you will have a switch on control panel inside possibly where the tank fill indicators are located that you will turn on for gas operation. You may have another switch for AC heating element for water heater also at this location. Than you may find a switch for same AC on face of WH or on back of WH.
When you turn on gas switch on panel you may hear a spark near WH trying to ignite the gas burner. The gas has to be turned on main tank and WH if there is one. If its the first time using gas you may have air in line that has to be purged to clear before it will light.
The fresh water tank will have a drain valve to open that you may see protruding under coach for a location.
As Mike said more detail description of coach would help.

[BlackRain]

Thanks guys... I will post up the RV information as soon as he returns from his trip this week. I checked the main panel .. and nothing there that I could see that would be for the water heater. I did however notice a switch in the kitchen area by the stove... tried the switch but it did not light up or turn the water on... switch seems to be faulty. I will keep hunting down switches and get back to you here with what I could find. Thanks again for you help it is greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

[BlackRain]

The RV is a Triple E Leocraft.... water heater is an atwood *not sure which model as the tags are faded out* . Found the switch to activate the system and gave it a try ... no go. The switch does not light up as it should when first activated... may be a power issue. Cleaned and sanded all the corroded on the outside portion of the unit. I don't have a multimeter to test for power at the switch so I am going to buy a test light tomorrow.

Should there be power present at the switch is there something else I should check for or adjust? Thanks again.

Cheers.

[RV Wizard]

You will need to verify that you have 12 vdc+ on the brown wire going to the control board. If so then the board should do two things. One is to start sparking at the ignition electrode and opening the gas valve. If it sparks then check to see if you have 12 vdc+ on the red wire feeding the gas valve. If you have both, do you smell LP gas if you do not have any ignition. If not you could give the gas valve a rap to see if it is not just stuck. Let us know what you find.

[joneldbrat]

Don’t know if this will help. My 96 has a LP Detector that is mounted at the base of my cabinets. You can’t really see it standing up. But at night if it is on there is a Green light that flashes. My Water Heater would not light but I also could not get the stove to light. When I found this and turned it on everything worked fine. Can you light the Stove?


John

[BlackRain]

Thanks for the info. I don't have a tester to check for power but assuming there is no power at the switch I am going to put power directly to the wires and see if that helps. I am thinking that somewhere the power was cut to the switch as the RV has some electrical issues since the previous owner tried to do some wiring.
Having the same problem with the water pump as well... put power directly to it and it works great. So I am now in the process of rewiring the water pump. Thanks again for the help and I will keep you posted as to the results.

[joneldbrat]

Did you find an LP Detector?

[BlackRain]

Stove lights great... no problems at all.. did not see an LP Detector but will look again.

[RV Wizard]

If the stove lites, you have lp gas getting into the coach. You should still find the LP Gs leak detector (it will be a floor level) and verify it is in good operating condition.