Water Heater

[JBP]

Water heater failed in last cold spell. My falt. The Atwood unit is no longer made. Dometic makes a replacement. But that means new door. They are back ordered.
Question is can I run the new water heater on electric with old door. I know I can not on gas but there is no exhaust with the electric.
It is a gas electric unit. The old one was gas/electric/motor aided. I wil miss the motor aided portion set up.
It is real nice to have hot water any time I need it.
Look at tankless but outside budget.

[Jim_HiTek]

Be interesting to see a picture of the new unit. I'd suspect that YES you can run the new one on electric without the door. In fact, I'd guess you could run it on gas too without harm or causing a problem. Usually they are made with exhaust pointed out to the side of the RV. The cover (door) doesn't redirect the hot exhaust much (except slightly downward). And the less blockage there is of the input combustion air, the better so the door gone would be okay for that too.

[JBP]

JimHiTek, thanks for comments. The door vent needs to align with exhust from burner.
Found out that the new heater can not be installed without a new door and kit. This anchors the front part of the hot water heater. So we are with out coach until door kit is produced. Found heater and free shipping. But they can not start until door kit is in.
DARN.

[winnie32v]

Call Mobility RV at
800-933-7742
They service Winnebago and are very helpful in getting the right part for you.

Have your unit info and Model # of your old unit.

Let us know how you make out.

I just ordered a direct replacement for my 2001.

Complete with the Motoraid, gas/elect, just as the original.

By the way.....
What is the problem with the original unit that it couldn't be repaired????

[CharlesMoore]

In Spring of 2020 my old Atwood failed in electric heater core mode. The propane worked fine so we were content hotwater wise. Me, being an anal everything must work techy, decided to call the local in-park RV Tech. He came over and looked at my unit and it was the original 18 yo unit that was rusty and looked abused - he said he would not work on it because if he took something apart it would probably break. I asked about a new unit and he said they were available and were $1200 plus install. I said OK so he ordered with 50% down and it was in a couple of days later.



What came in was a Dometic unit that was shining new WHITE, whereas, my old one had a black door with a black protruding flame deflector grill. First he said my old one was hooked up to the diesel engine block cooling system lines and that no one wanted these hooked up any more but I said I wanted them hooked up and he said OK. Finally, after much travail and gnashing of teeth he had those installed and the unit slid into space with help of 2 other people. BTW - the disconnecting of the block lines resulted in 5 gallons of antifreeze being released into a 5 gallon pail).


After install and water refill the unit did not work on electric but worked ok on propane. He called the super-secret tech line and they gave him some instructions. He carefully, with some great pain, slid the unit out and crimped a new wire on to an old wire of different color. This he temporarily connected to the + on the batter and everything worked ok so he replaced the unit as was intended. However, the unit did not work and he did a quick crimp on the white wire and screwed it right to the battery.


Meanwhile the white door was installed but the grille did not work with the Winnebago door that well and when the propane was heating it cause the door to become excessively heated. However, everything worked and he said he was finished and did not want to work on this again and left. So, I looked things over and the old door grille measured the same size as the new one. I popped the new white grille out and installed the old black grille and it was perfect. It has worked in this configuration for a year + woith no ill effects to the door or the old grille.


Take-aways - this is not a perfectly easy retrofit but has some of the issues above. I am glad I chose to re-install the engine heater lines as I have hot water while on the road. The old black grille inserts works perfectly in the Winnebago door of a 2002 Journey DL. I apologize for the long winded effort but you now have "the rest of the story".

[Morich]

I want to send congrats to Charles Moore for his attitude to fight off what I have found is a major problem with getting RV service. Too many want to just snowball the buyer, get it done and get away!!
Telling you nobody wants those lines hooked up is an obvious bogus story. Is there even one single user who would not want to have hot water off the engine? It a bit of PITA and they don't want to do it but isn't that what we are paying them to do???

There are certainly times when things have to be replaced but not nearly as often as some techs want us to believe and 18 years is just getting middle aged on lots of RV!

[winnie32v]

BTW - the disconnecting of the block lines resulted in 5 gallons of antifreeze being released into a 5 gallon pail).

All you needed to do was to use two small flat vice grip pliers and "crimp off" the two heater lines before you disconnect them.
Worked great for me several times.

Problem is, in my unit you have to be able to "fit in" the side compartment to work on the back of the heater for both the removal and install.
I have done this several times and have the method down pretty well, now.
A lot of one-handed use of tools.

Also, as stated in a previous post, a Direct Atwood replacement is available.
Mine will be delivered tomorrow. (For a LOT less than the Dometic replacement.)

[JBP]

got new heater. All working well. Will have to have the door painted. I keep the old door to make it easier to match the paint.
Miss the motor aided heating. But with both electric and LP water heats up fast.
Thed shop could not find parts but I located all of them and reduced cost by 40%. So happy about that.