Suburban Tankless Water Heater Won’t Stop Trying to Light

[elbendor]

Hi folks. Newbie here with my first post. Apologies for the very long no post (hey, I’m new and don’t know anything

I just picked up our 22 BC 20x and noticed something strange with the tankless water heater ever since bringing it home, winterizing it, turning the battery master switch off, and plugging it in.

As soon as I plugged it in to shore power at home (into a 20 amp circuit using the 30-to-15 adapter) I noticed that the igniter and blower/exhaust of the water heater are almost constantly running. The pilot is trying to ignite, even though the propane is turned off and the power on the water heater control panel (inside the trailer) is set to "Off". Since then every time we go do something in the trailer I hear the pilot trying to ignite and the blower/exhaust running.

For testing purposes I disconnected shore power to see if that made a difference. Unfortunately it didn't. The pilot and blower/exhaust behave the same, always running, even though propane is still off and the control panel still says Off.

I did try something for a last ditch effort: I turned the water heater control switch back on, set the temp to its lowest (95) and voila, the pilot stopped trying to ignite and the blower shut off.

This doesn't seem normal. I know that when using it in the wild the water heater will remain on, and it will only ignite when you turn a hot water faucet on. But I would expect the entire unit to shut off completely when the switch on the water heater control panel is off and propane is shut off. I'm concerned about what damage this may cause to the unit, from a wear and tear perspective and who knows what else. I also worry that this will drain our batteries when we do get out camping without shore power (which is all the camping we do). And it's noisy, I can't imagine being able to sleep through a whole night with that noise.

[Rainer]

Elbendor,

The same thing (mostly) happens to my 2021 20X which is in winter storage. The winterized water heater wants to turn on with the gas turned off, the battery switch is off, the furnace switch is off and the water pump is turned off.

The only difference I can tell compared with you is that when I disconnect it from shore power, everything goes off and silent. As it should be.

I still can't figure it out either, nothing should be running even with shore power plugged in. I've accepted it as a slightly annoying design quirk and keep it unplugged unless I want to enter and use something. Or theoretically charge the batteries.

If there is a solution I would be interested too.

[elbendor]

Originally Posted by Rainer

Elbendor,

The same thing (mostly) happens to my 2021 20X which is in winter storage. The winterized water heater wants to turn on with the gas turned off, the battery switch is off, the furnace switch is off and the water pump is turned off.

The only difference I can tell compared with you is that when I disconnect it from shore power, everything goes off and silent. As it should be.

I still can't figure it out either, nothing should be running even with shore power plugged in. I've accepted it as a slightly annoying design quirk and keep it unplugged unless I want to enter and use something. Or theoretically charge the batteries.

If there is a solution I would be interested too.

Hi Rainer,

My wife reached out to the AS Facebook group and someone replied with this:

“It has a safety setting to keep it from freezing in cold temps. If your propane is off it will continue to run the exhaust fan and try to ignite. Also, make sure your thermostat is set to off. Is it winterized? If so, turn off the breaker or pull the fuse for the hot water heater.”

FWIW the thermostat is set to off and the unit is winterized, including having filled the water heater with RV antifreeze. The breaker that it’s on is the same as all the lights so for now that would be annoying since we’re still getting in daily to set it all up. I decided last night to just leave the water heater set to On and everything else off. It hasn’t tried to ignite because I’m not turning any faucets on. So I don’t see any harm in leaving it that way.