No hot water

[Keebler]

I am not getting any hot water. I am hooked to shore power, and the ELECTRIC light is on. I checked the switch at the hot water heater, it is on. I hit the reset buttons. The breaker inside is ok. When I tried to switch to gas, I get a gas fault light inside.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Keebler,

First thing to check is whether there is hot water in the heater that is not getting out, or there is no hot water in the heater. Pop open the outside pressure relief valve to do this. We can go from there . . .

Rob

[Keebler]

thanks for the response. I tested that via the relief valve. It is cold.

[Cate&Rob]

thanks for the response. I tested that via the relief valve. It is cold.

On the electric side . . . is the water heater plugged into the electric outlet? Some dealers unplug the water heater when they drain it (a good idea BTW).

On the gas side . . . if the water heater has not been run on gas for a while you may need to retry this to purge air from the gas line. Make sure that you first have a strong flame on the stove burners. Then, listen outside for the "clicking" of the igniter, while someone resets the switch on the main panel.

If neither of these ideas gets you hot water . . . next is to go over all the electrical connections on the outside. Make sure they are tight and corrosion free.

If all of the above fails . . . it is looking like a control board failure.

Rob

[Jerryr]

If it’s a control board failure then Atwood/Dometic has a 2 year warranty. The control boards have recent high failure rate.

If you don’t want to go through warranty repair process, theres a 3rd party manufacture that has very good reliability reviews. Here’s the board https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Elec.../dp/B0130Y8I1K

I keep one in my spare parts box after my 2017 Reflection had a board failure.

[Keebler]

Thanks all. Sounding like a control board issue. Thanks for the input. Fortunately, the campground I am at has a great bath house facility.

[DaveMatthewsBand]

We had this problem after only a couple weeks after taking delivery of our brand new Reflection.

Our gas water heater didn’t work but the electric water heater did.
This is another reason we had our electric water heater wired through our inverter so that if it happens again and we’re dry camping, we can still get hot water.

If it’s the board, you can tell by looking at the capacitor, it will be “popped” and appear puffed out.




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[Keebler]

Started looking to order parts. I am not at my RV now, but looking at the pictures on-line; I have the Suburban heater in my unit. Does this change the recommendation to replace the control board?

[carnolddsm]

Started looking to order parts. I am not at my RV now, but looking at the pictures on-line; I have the Suburban heater in my unit. Does this change the recommendation to replace the control board?

While the control boards on Suburbans occasionally fail, they don’t have anywhere near the number failures as Dometic.

Before replacing the control board:

1. Light the stove and let it burn for 10 - 15 second to verify a gas supply.

2. As Rob suggested turn the gas switch off and back on. If the DSI light still comes on after two or three tries the problem probably isn’t the gas supply.

Though you may have a bad board a few extra steps before spending the hard earned dollars:

4. With both the gas and electric switches OFF remove the external cover to the water heater.

5. Find the black metal cover with two black grommets. This covers the thermostats and high limit switches. Remove the cover. Look for burned or shorted wires. I’ve seen more than one Suburban where the wires weren’t routed correctly and rubbed on the sharp metal flange.

6. If the wires are fine and you have a volt/ohm meter check continuity across each thermostat/limit switch pair.

7. Check the electric heating element - remove the cover at the bottom center to expose the electrical connections. Should have about 10 - 12 ohms resistance. If there is infinite resistance replace the element.

[Keebler]

While the control boards on Suburbans occasionally fail, they don’t have anywhere near the number failures as Dometic.

Before replacing the control board:

1. Light the stove and let it burn for 10 - 15 second to verify a gas supply.

2. As Rob suggested turn the gas switch off and back on. If the DSI light still comes on after two or three tries the problem probably isn’t the gas supply.

Though you may have a bad board a few extra steps before spending the hard earned dollars:

4. With both the gas and electric switches OFF remove the external cover to the water heater.

5. Find the black metal cover with two black grommets. This covers the thermostats and high limit switches. Remove the cover. Look for burned or shorted wires. I’ve seen more than one Suburban where the wires weren’t routed correctly and rubbed on the sharp metal flange.

6. If the wires are fine and you have a volt/ohm meter check continuity across each thermostat/limit switch pair.

7. Check the electric heating element - remove the cover at the bottom center to expose the electrical connections. Should have about 10 - 12 ohms resistance. If there is infinite resistance replace the element.

Thank you so much for this detailed list. I have the challenge of keeping my unit in a storage yard 30 minutes from the house, so I will wait until I go out again, which is the week after next.

My thought is to order a new heating element, I was also thinking of getting a new on/off switch (the switch that is on the unit itself), and new thermostats as well. Not the worst thing in the world to have spares if I don't need these things.