Repeated Water Heater Failures on 2018 FC 23FB

[AirstreamInc]

Hi jimfike,

We're very sorry to learn about this issue. Please send us a direct message with your contact information and the last 6 digits of your VIN so we can share it with our Customer Service and Technical Support team.

Thank you.

[Tony Lee]

Wsrb, yes a link has tbe cut for use on a water heater as described in the instructions. It co trols the start up delay for purging when used for a furnace which isn't needed for a hws.


I don't know why Attwood don't source the board from Dinasaur in the first place. It is significantly cheaper and significantly better so would seem to be a no-brainer - but of course that isn't what some companies base their decision on

[farafield]

The few times I've used the water heater on my '18 Sport 16, the hot water is not consistent. It runs hot then cold, then hot then cold, and the hot is not very hot. Hate to think this might be the beginning of a larger prob!

[le_twinkie]

We had the same problem with our water heater. We’ve been on the road for 3 months now and had the same problem. We have a 2018 30’ international signature. The control board on the water heater failed completely on our maiden voyage. Luckily we camped near the dealership so we just dropped it off after we camped.

When we started full timing, the water heater didn’t work on propane but worked on electricity. The water heaters are terrible. No other way to describe it other than POS. Not sure why airstream still uses Atwood for water heaters but we’ve had nothing but trouble with it.

Luckily we had it fixed about 2 weeks ago and it’s been trouble free but it wasn’t just the board, it was also the igniter not being properly calibrated.

This is one thing everyone should check during their PDI. It’s inexcusable that airstream isn’t actively looking for a solution to this and it’s an ongoing problem.

We’re now on our 3rd control board for the unit.

[waninae39]

IMHO, AS corporate is not willing to take responsibility for have a bad supplier.

instead they tell the customer (under warrants) for YOU to deal with the OEM. Imagine if that happened with a new car, GM tells you to cont cat Delco (;

IMHO, the OEM has poor QA, a bad design and/or bad supplied parts.

the OEM make the client pay for a new board first and then take months and too much paper work to deal with each DOA issue, jst to get your money back and likely another bad board.

why does AS tell the client to deal with the OEM when AS should deal it themselves.

they should send each client a dinosaur board instead of having to get multiple bad boards from the OEM.

Wake and well the coffee AS!

[Martee]

Originally Posted by Tony Lee

I don't know why Attwood don't source the board from Dinasaur in the first place. It is significantly cheaper and significantly better so would seem to be a no-brainer - but of course that isn't what some companies base their decision on

Your absolutely correct. Airstream is a large volume purchaser of Attwood heaters. Airstream should request that all Attwood heaters they purchase, require the Dinosaur boards. Pass the minor cost increase to the happy Airstream buyers.

[Tony Lee]

Yet another great suggestion for Airstreaminc to take on-board and then sweep it under the boardroom carpet AKA "the Customer Service and Technical Support team"

[Andrew T]

It actually isn’t that easy. Airstream is a relatively low volume buyer of Atwood heaters, the Indiana builders build much higher volumes. If Airstream was to change the board to a Dinosaur the water heater would have to go through all the code approval processes again which takes a great deal of time and money. Hopefully Dometic who recently bought Atwood and likely created the problem is working with their supplier to solve it.

We have other brands of heaters in some of our other lines. Atwood is still the most reliable and easy to repair.

In the meantime if your board goes it is the easiest part in the trailer to change. 2 screws, 1 wire set and one high tension wire to plug in.

I hope this helps.

Andy

[jimfike]

Reached out the Customer Support. Waiting to hear back on reimbursing us for the control board we purchased to fix the problem.

[Tony Lee]

Originally Posted by Andrew T

It actually isn’t that easy. Airstream is a relatively low volume buyer of Atwood

In the meantime if your board goes it is the easiest part in the trailer to change. 2 screws, 1 wire set and one high tension wire to plug in.

I hope this helps.

Andy

That is fine if Airstream only sells to people with significant technical skills and experience troubleshooting Attwood heaters. Otherwise they end up forking out lots of money for a new board only to find it is the ignitor adjustment or the thermal fuse or??? (which unfortunately how many of the highly-paid techs go about fixing stuff on our dime)
And anyway, why should someone who has recently outlaid a hell of a lot of money then have to turn around and become an RV tech or face weeks of waiting for factory or agents to fix it.

BTW, an Attwood CAN be fired up with no water in the tank as long as it is only for a few seconds so no excuse for them not working straight out of the box

[Andrew T]

"That is fine if Airstream only sells to people with significant technical skills and experience troubleshooting Attwood heaters. Otherwise they end up forking out lots of money for a new board only to find it is the ignitor adjustment or the thermal fuse or??? (which unfortunately how many of the highly-paid techs go about fixing stuff on our dime)
And anyway, why should someone who has recently outlaid a hell of a lot of money then have to turn around and become an RV tech or face weeks of waiting for factory or agents to fix it.

BTW, an Attwood CAN be fired up with no water in the tank as long as it is only for a few seconds so no excuse for them not working straight out of the box[/I]

I see what you are saying but we're not talking about a difficult fix here and at the moment 99% of Atwood problems are with the board.

I would say if you can hook up a trailer you can change the board is very easy to do. On a new unit, the dealer should be taking care of the cost for the customer and recouping what they can from Dometic. We send boards etc to customers all the time, it is not their problem.

My point is though to be careful what you wish for. There is not a better option at the moment. All other heaters have far more issues than Atwood does. I am not saying this is how it should be it is simply the reality.

Andy

[Tim A.]

Originally Posted by Andrew T

My point is though to be careful what you wish for. There is not a better option at the moment. All other heaters have far more issues than Atwood does. I am not saying this is how it should be it is simply the reality.

Thank you, Andy, for pointing out the restrictions resulting from a limited number of suppliers of RV accessories. Airstream and other RV manufacturers can't be expected to test products from suppliers that have been reliable in the past. Trouble with controller boards is nothing new and I, for one, am happy that the result is a niche manufacturer like Dinosaur Electronics.

Tim

[waninae39]

we had a 2nd total failure on our AS22Fb dometic HW heater model G6A-8e

it is the 2nd bad circuit board

what a crappy design !!!

I wanted to through out the unit into the garbage

i spoke top Andy at CANM RV in London.
we told me to keep it for now

I asked him about the tankless units . he siad that they are even more complicated and that when a part goes,
they are IMPOSSIBLE to replace regardless of vendor

thus i am waiting for the poor response back from demotic to get my money back for a second bad circuit board

are there any better tank or tankless units to consider

yes the Dragon board is the right working soln. it does take 20 extra seconds, that's a fine trade-off from NOT working

when powered on the green LEd comes on,
when the burner is running the green goes off and the red goes on

[Martee]

That G6A-8e hot water heater is some model I have. Mine is working fine for the moment. Ordering the Dinosaur board just in case.....because it appears to be only a matter of time.

[cmonnette]

I learned today that Atwood not only makes the hot water heater on my AS but apparently the tongue jack as well. How do I know that you ask? Well as I was picking up my trailer from the dealer today after replacing the complete hot water heater after 3 failed boards guess what failed? Yep, the tongue jack. It failed right on the dealer's lot and the dealer had to keep it overnight to replace that as well. Apparently, the only other item in the trailer made by Atwood is the furnace. Wonder how long before that goes as well.

So after less than 4 months of ownership, I have made more trips to the dealer than I have camping trips. Really, this is what $70K gets you these days?

I can tell you one thing. Next time someone asks me about my Airstream, you know what I am goig to tell them. In fact, why wait for them to ask. Airstream, are you listening?

[Bobbo]

I had to take my Airstream back to the dealer before its very first camping trip. We were loading up in July (hot) 2017 and the Dometic air conditioner died. No way we were camping in July heat in Tennessee with no air. We were not happy. Took it to the dealer, it took 2 weeks to get the new Dometic in and installed. The dealer f'ed up the installation and had to re-do it. So, even before our first camping trip, we had the Airstream in the shop TWICE. We were REALLY not happy.

Now, a year later and with a little time to cool off, we realize that it was not Airstream's fault the Dometic died. They bought what is supposed to be a quality unit, but Dometic had a bad run of them, and it bit me. It also was not Airstream's fault that my dealer doesn't know his a** from a hole in the ground. I have a little under a year left on my 2 year warranty, and after that, that dealer's service department will never see me again. As a matter of fact, if I have anything that needs warranty work before the warranty runs out, I may contact Airstream and see if I can take it to another dealer in town who doesn't carry Airstreams.

(Now, we can talk about the door latch issue, but that has its own thread that I started, and I won't repeat it here. Again, the dealer's service department quality, or lack thereof, showed through on that one too. Door Latch Thread)

[Martee]

Originally Posted by cmonnette

I learned today that Atwood not only makes the hot water heater on my AS but apparently the tongue jack as well. How do I know that you ask? Well as I was picking up my trailer from the dealer today after replacing the complete hot water heater after 3 failed boards guess what failed? Yep, the tongue jack. It failed right on the dealer's lot and the dealer had to keep it overnight to replace that as well. Apparently, the only other item in the trailer made by Atwood is the furnace. Wonder how long before that goes as well.

So after less than 4 months of ownership, I have made more trips to the dealer than I have camping trips. Really, this is what $70K gets you these days?

I can tell you one thing. Next time someone asks me about my Airstream, you know what I am goig to tell them. In fact, why wait for them to ask. Airstream, are you listening?

Yep, I can understand your frustration. And your complaints to Airstream and comments on this forum, help to improve the product for all future Airstream owners.

However, for every owner with bad Airstream experiences, there are hundreds of owners with very positive experiences. My new 2018 Flying Cloud 25FB has worked almost flawless.

After 8300 miles and 91 days camping, we have only had a very minor issue with hot water heater. The Attwood mixing valve screens were blocked by crystallization. Replaced the valve in 2 hours work....with help from this forum.

Surprisingly, a large majority of the problems with Airstream trailers are related to 3rd party equipment providers.

[djarrett]

Originally Posted by Martee

A large majority of the problems with Airstream trailers are related to 3rd party equipment providers.

BINGO!!

I wish more would realize this -

For those with the issues with the Dometic Hot Water Heater, there is now a unit that is a plug and play replacement and is hot water on demand. I'll dig around for the info. As soon as my warranty expires, I'm replacing it with this unit.

D

[rmkrum]

PrecisionTemp is one. That’s why I no longer have a 6 gallon standard Atwood. Truma makes another tankless unit. Ain’t cheap, but DW loves her endless hot water for showers...as long as we have hookups...

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by Bobbo

. . .
. . . It also was not Airstream's fault that my dealer doesn't know his a** from a hole in the ground.
. . .

Have to disagree with this.

It serves no one for AS to permit that dealer to remain aligned with the brand. Cancel the franchise, even if owners have to drive further.