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Old 10-03-2019, 02:47 PM   #1
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THOR #13332
Question Water heater (Thor Challenger)

Water heater won't start on gas or electric. Checked fuses and breaker is ok. I hear control panel on water heater click when on gas. Any help would b appreciated. Thank you

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Old 10-03-2019, 11:21 PM   #2
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Water heater won't start on gas or electric. Checked fuses and breaker is ok. I hear control panel on water heater click when on gas. Any help would b appreciated. Thank you

Sorry to say no one has responded to this post. After a lot of checking on our part we think it is more than likely the motherboard. This is a Atwood water heater I believe. Can someone tell me where to order a motherboard for this? Thank you.
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Old 10-03-2019, 11:41 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by Driley43 View Post
Sorry to say no one has responded to this post. After a lot of checking on our part we think it is more than likely the motherboard. This is a Atwood water heater I believe. Can someone tell me where to order a motherboard for this? Thank you.
Get a Dinosaur board from Amazon (or directly from Dinosaur).
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Old 10-04-2019, 05:07 AM   #4
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Same problem here. I called Atwood customer service, and was instructed to unplug the main water heater wire and wait 15 secs. I Reconnected the wire and heater works fine. It’s the way the heater resets it’s self. I hope this helps.
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Old 10-04-2019, 02:57 PM   #5
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Same problem here. I called Atwood customer service, and was instructed to unplug the main water heater wire and wait 15 secs. I Reconnected the wire and heater works fine. It’s the way the heater resets it’s self. I hope this helps.
Thank you so much. The manual was useless and had no idea how to reset it.
He had to have a switch on to automatic. It is working. He has questions on what is normal setting. Is landline water supply normal?
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Old 10-04-2019, 04:11 PM   #6
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Assuming you have a 10 gallon Atwood tank type water heater - it has two separate heat modes and both can be used at the same time, here goes. The electric heating element is serviced on the back of the water usually a panel in the bedroom wall. On the back of the water heater there is a relay that is used to supply 120 volt power to the heating element. The wall switch (labeled 120 electric) sends a 12 volt signal to the heater's circuit board (which is powered by a 12 volt circuit from the power center) will supply power to close the power relay if the water temperature is below 120 degrees F. You will not hear a click when activating the panel switch as there is usually a delay before the relay closes plus it is a relatively quite relay when compared to the solenoid opening the gas valve when gas is switched on. Trouble shooting usually consist of making sure 120 volts is available to the relay on the back of the water heater and that the relay can be triggered by the circuit board. Of course the heater element could also be faulty (usually because the heater is turned on when the is no water in the tank).
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Old 10-07-2019, 02:30 PM   #7
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Thank you so much for taking the time to educate us on this. We are fine now.
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Old 03-29-2020, 11:54 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by Aundie View Post
Same problem here. I called Atwood customer service, and was instructed to unplug the main water heater wire and wait 15 secs. I Reconnected the wire and heater works fine. It’s the way the heater resets it’s self. I hope this helps.
Which wire is the main water heater wire? I unplugged the connectors on the control board, flipped the breaker and checked the switches on the Thor control panel.

I'm running into an issue where I turn on the 110V switch, and it uses propane instead of electric. I rather not use the propane while I am hooked into shore power to heat my water using my GC6AA-10E.
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Old 03-30-2020, 01:34 PM   #9
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Copied from the manual

When the wall switch is turned on to either gas, electric or both the power moves from the wall switch to the DSI board through the Molex connector.

1. Gas - When the wall switch (flame) is turned on for gas operation, the orange wire (OR 1) is energized with DC voltage.
2. Electric - When the switch (lightning bolt) is turned on for electric operation the white wire (WHT 2) is energized with DC voltage.
The power moves from the internal board circuits to the brown wire at the (BRN 3) connection.
From this point the power for gas, electric or both moves through the thermostat, thermal cut off and enters the board again at the lower (BRN 1) connection. This completes the circuit to the lower connection on the board.

When the switch for GAS ignition is turned on -
1. Power is sent to the coil on the board. The coil creates a spark for ignition.
2. Power is sent to (RED 4) connection. From this point, power flows through red wire, through the ECO and to the gas valve.
When the switch for ELECTRIC is turned on -
Power is sent from the board to the yellow wire (YLW 2). The yellow wire carries DC voltage to the relay in the back of the water heater. The 12 volt energizes the relay which sends the 110 V to the element
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Old 03-30-2020, 10:29 PM   #10
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I found some other folks that ran into a similar issue with faulty boards of their own. I'm replace the Zhingdong board with a Dinosaur UIB-64 board. https://www.dinosaurelectronics.com/UIB-64.html

I'll follow up with the results.
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Old 03-31-2020, 12:05 AM   #11
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I found some other folks that ran into a similar issue with faulty boards of their own. I'm replace the Zhingdong board with a Dinosaur UIB-64 board. https://www.dinosaurelectronics.com/UIB-64.html



I'll follow up with the results.


I will be interested in your results and settings, as I also have the same model / yr Miramar. Look forward to hearing more...

Thanks,

Ken
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Old 03-31-2020, 12:16 AM   #12
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I will be interested in your results and settings, as I also have the same model / yr Miramar. Look forward to hearing more...

Thanks,

Ken
Hey Ken! Sure thing. With the delays in shipping, it will take a bit but I should have it in next week.

In other news, the electric water heater side is working as intended all the sudden without the use of propane when using the 110V switch. I still don't trust this, and I don't feel comfortable running a propane heater all the time.
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