Hot Water Heater

[pjmarkham]

2017 FC 25 RBT. Atwood XT model GE 9 EXT W/PL. Gas/electric 6 gallon.

This trailer in fairly new to me but I am an experienced RV'r. From the time I took possession the hot water heater has worked most of the time but on occasion the red light would come on. This would happen while using electric but when the light comes on it most often will not work on gas either. After a period of being shut off (sometimes for a minute, other times for up to 10 hours) it will restart and work for a day or multiple days until the same problem occurs again. While visiting the Tampa RV show in January I questioned the factory representative from Airstream and he told me that this was a common problem with this vintage hot water heater and that a new and updated control board would probably fix the problem. I ordered the board from Jackson Center and installed it myself. I carefully followed the installation instructions. The problem still occurs as before. Any suggestions, comments and/or remedies will be greatly appreciated. I love the new trailer but have a few issues to work through. Thanks!

[OTRA15]

FYI there may be some helpful threads in the Water Heater etc. sub-forum:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f445/

Good luck,

Peter

FYI

[Too tall]

Couple simple things to check.
1. Bend the *thermocouple away from the flame shield. Sometimes it is sitting a bit too close. Happened to me and a tech. showed me.
2. Check your heat shield for proper setup. They are easily bent. If not working correctly they will dump heat twords (wait for it) the thermocouple.


*If you can not figure out what this is I'll snap a pic. and post that. We have the same unit.

[jeffmc306]

Originally Posted by pjmarkham

2017 FC 25 RBT. Atwood XT model GE 9 EXT W/PL. Gas/electric 6 gallon.

This trailer in fairly new to me but I am an experienced RV'r. From the time I took possession the hot water heater has worked most of the time but on occasion the red light would come on. This would happen while using electric but when the light comes on it most often will not work on gas either. After a period of being shut off (sometimes for a minute, other times for up to 10 hours) it will restart and work for a day or multiple days until the same problem occurs again. While visiting the Tampa RV show in January I questioned the factory representative from Airstream and he told me that this was a common problem with this vintage hot water heater and that a new and updated control board would probably fix the problem. I ordered the board from Jackson Center and installed it myself. I carefully followed the installation instructions. The problem still occurs as before. Any suggestions, comments and/or remedies will be greatly appreciated. I love the new trailer but have a few issues to work through. Thanks!

Have you checked to see if your trailer is still under the two year factory warranty? The fact you replaced the board and it’s still occurring is puzzling. Are you having any issues with your fridge or stove on propane?

We had a board fail on our 2018 FC23FB on the 2nd trip out. The replacement board is larger in case you want to check it.

Good luck!

[OTRA15]

PS -- I believe that some folks have moved away from the AS OEM board and used a Dinosaur board:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Dino...=airforums.com
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f445...er-144561.html
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f445...rd-185566.html

FYI

[pjmarkham]

Thanks to everyone for the information and suggestions. Responding to some of the above posts I have not had any other difficulties with refrigerator etc. Only hot water heater. And to Too tall if you could take a picture, that would be helpful. I think I know which one is the thermocouple but because my trailer is in storage I don't have quick access to it and would like to be sure when I am able to get to it. The new board I installed is the larger one as pictured above.
Again, thanks to everyone. I will get this figured out sooner that later.

[waninae39]

after two failures with poor support we moved to a dinosaur board. NO issues and works 100% of the time.
DO NOT TRUST or USE any board from the OEM Dometic.
our 1st board was refunded by Dometic.
the 2nd board and dinosaur board no refund after 1 year+ .
1. called AS, they said called Dometic directly.
2. call Dometic, send us the board,
3. a years later, Dometic has lost the board. They moved and a lot of items were lost.
They even lost the tracking more they sent me and I sent them.
The don’t even have the tracking number or record for the 1st board they refunded
4. AS will not help as i did not send the board to them first.
I told Michael that As support told me to Dometic.
He said that was wrong. Da, that is what your staff told me

AS and Dometic support with water heaters are useless

just get a Dinosaur board and walk away from Dometic

[waninae39]

these are the two boards

[pjmarkham]

Thank you waninae39! I will look into the Dinosauer boards.

[The Colonel]

FWIW when my board went bad, WH still worked on electric. You want to check thermostat and eco and anything else in common with both circuits