# Hot Water Heater On Propane



## campmg (Dec 24, 2005)

I read a post awhile back about hot water heaters not starting on propane. They may click a few times but nothing. Moosegut suggested resetting it by removing the back cover and removing some blade wires. He said there's three of them and he can't remember which one so he removes all of them.

In the middle of the unit there are 4 wires that come off two things that say E.C.O and T'STAT. There are two wires coming from the top of each. On ECO one wire says something like REV and the other FIED. On T'STAT the wires say BRV and BRN. The words are hard to read. I could not pull the wires off any of them but not sure if there's a trick. One wire from ECO goes up toward electronic stuff and the other goes down into the gas tube thing. Both wires from T'STAT go up into the electronic stuff.

*We're camping this weekend and had trouble last time. Does anyone have an idea which wires to pull and how to "reset" the water heater?*

Water Heater Picture click here


----------



## tentr4life (May 10, 2006)

On a couple of occasions my hot water heater would not light with propane the first time. When that happened I would turn the inside switch off for a few seconds and turn it back on. On the 3rd or 4th attempt this way the furnace lights. This has only happened to me after the trailer has been setting for a while and the HW heater not being used. Once I get lit the first time it works fine after that. I guess that it is due to the propane not being at the heater at the time the electronic ignition tries to light it. Hopefully this will help and good luck.


----------



## egregg57 (Feb 13, 2006)

This question has come up a few times. I have experienced this as well. Wolfwood too, just to name a couple. This is a sure fire way to get it started if you have a hard time starting and the cause is low or insufficient propane flow.

Turn your gas stove on and light the burners. let them run for a minute. Attempt to light the hot water heater by turning on the LP Gas hot water heater switch. The water heater will make 3 attempts to light over a period of about 1.5 minutes. After turning the switch on monitor the heater by listening for ignition clicking and a maintained flame. You'll hear the hollow sound coming from the heater tube once it's lit.

Do not become impatient. If it does not work after 1.5 - 2 minutes, reset the switch and try again. You may have to do it a third time if the lines were void of propane.

it is not uncommon to have a bit of trouble if the unit is new or has been sitting for a little while. I have had my unit for going on 3 years and every-now-and-again my water heater does the same sort of thing.

I would caution you against trying to remove the spade lugged wires as it is easy to strip the wires from the lug. Then you have some new and exciting problems.

Eric


----------



## campmg (Dec 24, 2005)

Thanks to you both for helping. The resetting (on / off) of the switch is the method I've tried but maybe I wasn't patient enough. This could be due in part to my DW yelling at me from the shower that the water's freezing.







I hadn't used it for a couple of months prior to that. I was able to fire it up once I got home (of course) so maybe that got everything flowing again. That was only a couple of weeks ago so hope it will run ok this time.


----------



## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

campmg said:


> Thanks to you both for helping. The resetting (on / off) of the switch is the method I've tried but maybe I wasn't patient enough. This could be due in part to my DW yelling at me from the shower that the water's freezing.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Maybe you might want to check it again BEFORE you leave.....









Good luck. btw, our 25rss did do this a few times and, as Eric said, turning the stove on worked every time.


----------



## campmg (Dec 24, 2005)

wolfwood said:


> Maybe you might want to check it again BEFORE you leave.....
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I thought of doing just that but what if I only have one good start left in it? I don't want to waste it.

I turn on the stove to get gas through the system when starting my fridge. I can do it again but seems like it would already be good to go.

When storing the camper I also light the stove and let it burn out while I turn the propane tanks off to remove the gas from the lines. Anyone else do this?


----------



## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

You do not want to pull the wires off the T-Stat or the Over heat safety (ECO).

You need to disconnect the control board. Pull the multi wire connectors to it. this powers the control board down and resets it. It also cleans the contact on the connectors.


----------

