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Old 05-30-2017, 05:58 PM   #1
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 30.1
State: Colorado
Posts: 388
THOR #5190
Atwood Heater Circuit Board

I think I've had a failure in the igniter controller board on my Atwood heater. This morning I went out to the coach (we pulled it out of storage and are preparing for a trip). I found that the heater blower was running, but with the thermostat in the Off position. The burner itself was not operating.

As part of troubleshooting I pulled the fuse and the motor shut off (good, right circuit). Upon plugging the fuse back in, the blower started up but then immediately started to short cycle. The heater has an off switch in the enclosure, but I found that that shuts off power to the thermostat as well as shutting off the blower. I may end up disconnecting the wire to the blower motor until I can get it fixed.

Just to check the thermostat I disconnected all of the thermostats wiring and the blower continues to run and to short cycle. Sometimes the blower will run 5-10 seconds without shutting off but most of the time it cycles on a 1-2 second period. The blower relay is operating on the same cycle.

I'm guessing that the circuit board is FUBAR. I'm exchanging calls with Thor to see if I can get them to send me a new board. The last thing I want to do is deal with CW over getting it fixed. Its worth just buying a new board to avoid dealing with them. Cost of gas for 2 trips (one for them to agree with me that there is a problem and a second one at some unnamed future date to get it changed) is almost the cost of a board.

Anyone hear of such behavior?

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Old 05-30-2017, 06:20 PM   #2
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THOR #1150
Did you check to see if the board got wet? What does the cover on the outside of the furnace look like?
http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f17...egas-4200.html
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Old 05-30-2017, 06:37 PM   #3
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 30.1
State: Colorado
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THOR #5190
Quote:
Originally Posted by JamieGeek View Post
Did you check to see if the board got wet? What does the cover on the outside of the furnace look like?
http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f17...egas-4200.html
No, its perfectly dry. My ACE doesn't have the upside down louver problem (no louvers at all). I just got off the phone with Tony from Thor. He put us on a conference call with Atwood and the Atwood tech agreed it was a failed board. Thor is sending me a replacement.

For the record, Thor customer service has been very helpful every time I've contacted them. Tony and I spent the requisite time on hold waiting for Atwood support, but he hung in there instead of just telling me he'd call back.
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Old 05-30-2017, 07:03 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DenverTransplant
No, its perfectly dry. My ACE doesn't have the upside down louver problem (no louvers at all). I just got off the phone with Tony from Thor. He put us on a conference call with Atwood and the Atwood tech agreed it was a failed board. Thor is sending me a replacement.

For the record, Thor customer service has been very helpful every time I've contacted them. Tony and I spent the requisite time on hold waiting for Atwood support, but he hung in there instead of just telling me he'd call back.
That's great!
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Old 05-31-2017, 06:32 PM   #5
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THOR #1226
All it takes is a drop of water on the board, this what happen to me. I had to pull the 2 red wire connection to the board to get it to stop running. Used a hair dryer to dry off the board. After letting is set for rest of the day, hooked the wires back up. The heater was working normally.

The only other way to stop the heater motor from running is to disconnect the batteries from the coach by removing a battery cable.
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Old 05-31-2017, 10:15 PM   #6
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 30.1
State: Colorado
Posts: 388
THOR #5190
I got the blower to stop by pulling the PWR and BLO wires from their connectors.Pulling the BLO wire stopped the blower, but the blower relay kept cycling. Pulling the fuse would likely also kill the refrigerator as the fuse is labeled Appliances. However in my coach, Thor seemed a bit casual about circuit identification. I've found (and fixed) three AC circuits that were connected to breakers other than what the label said.

Pulling the PWR and BLO keeps power on to the thermostat and lets the AC run. I'll try the hair drier trick, but I didn't see any evidence of water getting into the enclosure, but such things can hide themselves quite well. The new board from Thor should show up early next week.

We camp a lot at high altitude which involves some pretty cool nights and mornings. DW believes that camping at our age must include a soft bed, a bathroom and heat.
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Old 06-07-2017, 07:49 PM   #7
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 30.1
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THOR #5190
I got the replacement board from Thor. When I removed the original board I did find that there was water under the board and several solder connections showed some corrosion. I'm not sure where the water came from. The cover plate on my ACE is solid (no louvers) and only has a hole for the burner exhaust. Something I will have to keep an eye on.

I suspect that the original board is functional, but I changed the boards out away and the heater appears to work now.Tough to check when its already 78 inside the coach, but the blower runs and heater lights as you'd expect it to.
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Old 07-24-2017, 11:20 PM   #8
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 30.1
State: Colorado
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THOR #5190
More fun with the heater. On our current trip its rained seriously three times and each time it has, water has gotten into the heater compartment and pooled under the heater control board. I though I had done an interim fix by filling the groove the heater cover goes into with silicone sealer. No joy as we just had a rain storm and more water. For the time being the next temp fix is a couple strips of duct tape over the circuit board compartment and a strip of duct tape over the top of the heater cover. Call to Atwood when we get home later this week.
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