Just recently picked up a 95 jayco designer 3030rks 5er from my local camping world here in syracuse. everything on the RV was supposed to be working at the time of pick up but im unable to light the hot water tank.

ive turned the gas on and looked for a manual lighting option but couldnt find one. when i turn the switch on inside, the ignitor will light the flame but continue to spark untill after its lit. it will only burn for between 5-8 seconds. the heater will make a slightly louder clicking sound than the sparker and then the gas shuts off.

ive put a call into the service dept at camping world and am waiting for a return phone call. everything was warrantied for 30 days but i hate to tow it 1 hour something small that im missing here. this is the first heater ive hat with electric ignition so its a little new.

the heater is an Atwood G6A-7E
thanks in advance to anyone with advice

 

My buddy had this happen to him. Ended up needing to clean the combustion chamber out.....or some such.

 

Had that happen on a Coachman.....ended up replacing the complete control module.....problem solved. Was an auto lighting Atwood.

 

Take the orfice out and clean it with alcohol.

 

I've had that happen on new H2O heaters when I've shut the gas off while having it stored for awhile. What I do is turn on the stove top burner for awhile to purge the air out, and then when I can light that, the heater works fine.
(p.s. - if that's not it, be aware as I made the mistake on my first MH of continuing to press the auto-start button over and over when I couldn't start it, and eventually had a fire burning up the side of the rig outside the heater box! What I eventually found out was that I had a spider web that acted as a filament in the wrong place, causing the heater to fire at the outer end of the burner tube - not a good place to have a flame)

 

Since it is lighting and the ignitor is staying on it just doesn't know that it is lit. It will most likely be one of 3 things.
1 - the thermocouple is too far away from the flame, so it is not getting hot enough.
2 - the thermocouple connection to the control board is dirty, resulting in a low signal to the board.
3 - the thermocouple is bad.

try moving the tip 1/8" closer to the flame.

 

when lighting don't you have to hold the button down a few seconds for it to heat the thermocouple ?

 

If its like mine, all you do is flip a switch inside the trailer. I tend to agree with CamperAndy. I would look at the thermocouple.

 

well i took everything apart and cleaned it all up. wires have good connections to the board. cleaned the orfice. i dont see how to adjust the sparker closer to the flame. is the thermocouple wired on a brown wire with a clear piece of plastic over is maybe 2.5-3" long? i tried to remove that and wire it direct to eliminate it but it still did the same thing, burned for about 10 seconds then cut out

 

x2 on checking this.

 

where is the thermocouple located?

 

The thermocouple is right by the pilot flame which is what keeps the thermocouple warm and sending a signal to the control so it knows it is lit.

This would of course be for a manual light unit.

For an auto light unit the actual flame from the burner would create the heat source for the thermocouple. Sounds like yours is shutting down because the board does not know it is lit or the board itself may be bad.

I like the old style manual light water heaters carry a spare thermocouple with you and i never had a no heat situation in 30+ years of camping. Same one would work for the furnace as well.

It looks like a small probe with a blunt end and would be 1/8 - 3/16" in diameter.

It would look like the probe for a exhaust temp gauge just on a smaller scale.

 

Depending on the model the thermocouple can be integrated with the igniter. Can you take a picture of yours and post it so we can tell you if you have a separate thermocouple or and integrated one?

 

it is an auto light model. calling the service dept at camping world tomorrow am to see what they will do for me. left a message with them that said its either the ignitor/thermocouple of the board itself. i found a thread that was actually quite helpful in explaining how everything worked betweent the ignitor, wires and the board. let me know what you guys think. i can take a pic tomorrow to post. wont be home til after dark tonight

http://www.rvusa.com/forum/mbbs22/fo...w.asp?tid=4544

 

Well it sounds to be a model with an integrated thermocouple. This is also the tip of the ignitor. Turn on the water and look into the fire box to see if the tip of the ignitor is in the flame path. If not then bend it to be in the flame and try again.