RV Water Heater Not Igniting Or Staying Lit – Troubleshoot – RV Maintenance And Cleaning

46 thoughts on “RV Water Heater Not Igniting Or Staying Lit – Troubleshoot – RV Maintenance And Cleaning”

• Thanks for this. My Atwood will not light. I do hear the sparks but no gas smell.

• Omg saving this video!!! 🎉❤

• Wow. I did exactly what u did and it fits up now. I took it apart and sanded connections on thermal fuse, blew out jet, blew out curved gas pipe, put it back together and it works. Suggestion tho, I had an extra screw, finally figured where it goes.. take photos before u start. Thanks for video

• best explanation of all of this that I've seen so far really great video

• Lou to the rescue. I'm not so upset after finding this video. If the wire going to the sparker hadn't broke while cleaning I'd not have seen this. Excellent 👍.
  I don't have a new part on hand . Can the wire be reconnected on the electronic side

• Do the parts on the links you put work on the water heater in this video?

• Excellent vid…my water heater is now 100%…thanks!

• Likely the best video explanation of how this Atwood/Dometic water heater works, thank you very much! Ordering a few parts to get ours back in operation.

• He needs to say continuity one more time. I don't think he said it enough. 😁

• Fantastic video, I am having the propane start to make a whump sound when it lights. Going to do all of your steps to correct it. Thank you for all the tips, I will be able to recognize more issues if there are any!!

• Thanks!

• Awesome video. Thank you very much! It worked!

• This video is amazing! I've learned so much thank you! I have a silly question and maybe I missed this part… do I have to turn all the electric off to the trailer when working on this since you were working with the propane area?

• Very informative and easy to follow. Thank you

• Nice job. Thank you. Now I'll service mine

• Excellent video !!

• Great video, but please show what you set the multimeter to,to test.

• How did u light

• Great video. Covering lots of important details. Thanks for educating me on air flow adjustments and fine tuning.

• My hot water heater is making a sound as if it constantly filling up a guy took it out and did away with the gas and made it straight electric it started after my water hose froze is it something I need to worry about or what do I need to do

• great video, do you have the gas and electric on at the same time?? i have a 10 gallon unit. the electric was getting hot, now just very warm. gas not working at all

• WHAT IS THE WIRING CODE FOR A SUBURBAN WATERHEATER 10 GAL GAS OR EELECTRIC GAS SIDE

• Absolutely perfect instruction. I feel totally confident that I can troubleshoot and get the pilot light up and blue flaming. Thank you

• Very informative. You helped my husband and me get our heater working great. We did find a small crack in our sparker and will be ordering a new one. Thank you!

• my tankless water heater keeps clicking to lite the burner w/o any water in the system? what do you think?

• Excellent video, Lou. My son-in-law did some plumbing and got an '05 Trail Cruiser. Decent shape but water heater not working. There's a red rocker switch on the top of cabinets below front of sink. Turn it on and it stays on a few minutes and then will cycle one-off if I remember correctly. Is that switch used when heating with electricity? I haven't found any other switch that would be to select gas or electric. His heater looks identical to the one you have. Guy at RV center said it could be Atwood, Suburban…. Appearance wise I see Atwood. I'm gonna go through it like you did and see if I can get gas to work for now. It's 3 hrs away at hunting club. Thanks for the tips.

• It was really helpful. I was able to fix my water Heatar, Thank you so much for your nice illustration.

• That thing at the end of the tube you said was kind of off to the side what is that? I don't have that on mine and i am having the same problem your having…Im talking the thing by the spark at the end of the tube…almost like a wind blocker or something…Flame diverter! i don't have that…I also don't have a way to adjust the air when it comes to the tube….mine doesn't do that…I dont have a way to ajust my air it just has a open spot on each side

• Thank you after listening to your video description, I found and fixed my problem. My spark probe was defective and cracked. I also replaced my thermal cut-off. Then I adjusted my air/gas mixture. Great video and congratulations.

• My wife and I cut short a mini trip due to no hot water. Lit fine at home, but after a 4 hour drive, no flame. Got home and followed the same procedure you demonstrated. The gas lit within a couple of seconds. Thank you so much for posting this video. You saved this old guy a few dollars!

• Just saved me from a service call my man. Thank you so much

• What do you suggest for my switch light not coming on for my Atwood hotwater heater? Worked fine for the first few months then it just keep trying to click on with barley any flame. The person I bought it from said I need a new propane regulator

• Great video. Clear and concise. Very helpful. Thanks!

• great video and thanks for doing this. It helped me a lot in diagnosing a problem with my gas ignition (electric works fine). I replaced the circuit board (no power) and now have gas flow, ignition and power. What's continuing to be a problem is the gas will ignite, the flame appears but after a second or two, the ignitor starts clicking again and the flame then goes out (gas flow shutoff?). After 3 tries, it faults and quits. Each time, it appears to have lit the gas stream just fine. From the explanation provided, the electronics should be able to sense the flame and not try to relight…. is this possibly a board problem? I cleaned the entire unit (less than 3 years old) and reassembled. I also tried various airflow positions. I'm not certain when the unit is actually "lit" as the flame seems almost instantaneous (first click of the ignitor?). Any suggestions are welcome.

• My heater cycle on and off. With flame. I hear the sparker. Huge flame then goes off.

• Nice video, thanks, now I'm gonna go out and a see if any of that works for me.

• Very good instruction thanks

• Great video and information, thank You. At what point would the thermostat need to be replaced. What would be the trouble at the multimeter end or other.. After I do a routine flush my HH will light then shut off 3 times or a few sets of 3 try. then, I turn the switch off, say a prayer, and it starts for good again. It's bee off and on like this for over a year. I will do all the servicing you menton here, I am sure it will help !!

• Amazing video thanks

• This was amazing. Not too “techy “. Thanks for an easy to understand explanation

• Great video but one question, how do you test the electrical element ? and do all WH have one ?

• I'm camping without my husband and the water heater didn't work. Thank you for your video, it saved the day (week) for me, knowing what the different parts were helped me to not be afraid to unplug the igniter and plug it back in. It's working now all thanks to you and your very well made video. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

• Many thanks for the vid. I am in NSW and had the same issue with the spark initiator…cleaned it up and away it went. Cheers

• Thank you so much for this video you saved me $500 it was alot easier then i thought i changed out the igniter and cleaned the terminals ist working perfect. Thanks again

• I just watched a crap load of these and this one was the best one because of the hands-on expertise. It was greatly informative and also straight to the point. . It was easy to watch the entire duration. Good focus on the topic. Thank you.

• I don't know if it was your accent or not, but you were pronouncing it "selenoid" or "salenoid" instead of "solonoid". Excellent water heater tutorial! Thank you so much.

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