Atwood Water Heater

[matt.ahern]

Well the weekend after Christmas I went camping. It was great until the water heater broke while taking a shower. Then the LP alarm went off and the entire coach filled with propane smell. At least the LP detector turned off the gas. I turned off the main tank aired out the entire coach and then started to investigate what happened.

With all devices off. I turned on the propane, turned on the water heater switch the pilot light lit, then the smell came into the coach and the LP alarm went off again.

Not sure what happened. I probably could try to repair or clean up unit; but is old.

I called PPL and they are running a special on tankless water heaters for 602.00 vs my replacement for 470.00.

*I attached the Atwood Water Heater Manual for Reference.

What do you think?

[Josh]

Man I'm jealous you get to camp this time of year but that is scary stuff! Gas leaks are definitely not something to fool around with! Smart to replace the old unit.

I don't have any experience with tankless and not sure how the install would go but the Atwood should fit right in. The thing I like about our old Atwood 6 gallon is it's also electric so conserves gas when plugged into park power and we never seem to run out of hot water. It provides a very steady temperature when turning shower on and off repeatedly to save water. I am amazed that ours still works well after over 20 years, a real testament to Atwood quality so I would be inclined to use their replacement units. Wish house water heaters would last that long!

Thanks for posting matt.ahern, your experience has me considering replacing ours as a preventive measure. I am working on getting more info on this and will post here.

[Josh]

Ok I talked to Atwood Tech support and they were really helpful. Their recommendation is to take it to a service center or replace the unit. There is a chance that the gas leak may not be from the water heater as it has a sealed compartment that is supposed to prevent any gas from entering the coach if it leaks from the unit.

As for replacement, if you do any dry camping or don't have consistent water and gas pressure you don't want a tankless. Tankless is really only good for RV's that are always hooked up to a good water supply, so not good for us campers. They recommended their GCH6A-10E gas/electric with direct spark igniter 6 gallon water heater as a direct replacement for your unit. It will be a perfect fit and the only difference in installation is that it will have one more wire that will need to be hooked up to 12 volt power.

[Josh]

matt.ahern Curious what you ended up finding with the gas leak and what you decided to do for water heater replacement? Hope all is well!

[matt.ahern]

i did purchase a new water heater but haven't installed yet. also i purchased a new gas regulator.to be installed. its so hot here i'm taking the rv offline for awhile to due repairs

[Josh]

Aaahh kool. Which water heater did you decide to go with?

Bummer on the hot weather. We are just getting into our really good camping weather here.

[Josh]

Wondering if you've done the replacement yet?