RV Tech? Hot Water Heater Issue

[masoncgy]

I purchased a 1997 Terry 25-5D fifth wheel last fall and at the time, everything was working great, no issues.

We are headed up the road for the long weekend and while testing everything it seems the Atwood hot water tank has developed a problem.

It is controlled by a switch on the wall... red light comes on and glows, burner ignites and the red light goes off. It will burn for about 3-4 minutes and then it turns off. The problem is, the wall switch will not glow red again and it will not re-ignite the tank. If I wait awhile, it seems to work okay again, but it will only burn for a few minutes and then goes out again... and the same issue all over.

Checked connections and everything seems to be okay and proper, but I am not sure what could be causing this?

[corsvette]

Had a similar problem with my old 5th wheel. Cleaned out the valve body/burner area with comprssed air and brake clean and it worked like new

I remember the first use of the year usually required several attempts at ignition, almost like the gas lines had air pockets and needed to be purged.

[spikerS]

just wondering out loud here...

but when you de-winterized it, did you change the valves back to allow water back into the hot water tank? Because when winterization is done, the valves are switch to bypass the hot water tank.

you might be heating an empty tank and this is a fail safe for over heating the tank because there is no water in it?

[masoncgy]

That's exactly what happened... I had opened up the access to the valve and I guess forgot to turn it over... of course I'm getting water through both lines so didn't even think it might still be closed... geez!

Wow... good fail safe. Not my first trailer, so a little red faced, but at least we're back in business and good to go!

Thanks!