Atwood Water Heater Invention August 01, 2013, 11:54:52 am Yahoo Message Number: 141677Given the fact that there are electronics and flames burning inside your Atwood water heater, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that driving rain could enter the chamber and cause malfunctions to these components. (Hence all the problems with red warning lights etc) Is there a lightweight plastic shield one could drop onto the water heater door when parked that would reduce the amount of water that gets into chamber? If not, could someone help me figure out how to do this with something already out there. Obviously it cannot restrict air flow to the chamber but if the shield extends out horizontally from the RV with triangle shaped sides (resting on the RV), there should be no such problem.Todd
Re: Atwood Water Heater Invention Reply #1 – August 01, 2013, 12:49:08 pm Yahoo Message Number: 141679"Is there a lightweight plastic shield one could drop onto the water heater door when parked that would reduce the amount of water that gets into chamber?" Water heaters are nowhere near as vulnerable to moisture as you might think. With routine maintenance, they will work flawlessly for years, through rain, wind and snow. Mine is a good example: it had absolutely no problems in ten years of daily use, in all kinds of weather, until the ignitor board failed. A replacement board cured the problem, and now it works as well as when it was new. As Larry suggested, cleaning all the contacts and then dosing them with dielectric grease will keep moisture out of the places where it matters. The burner tube isn't going to stop working on a rainy day--that's an electrical problem. It's far more likely to stop working because of spiderwebs, but those are easily cleaned out. Trying to seal off the water heater with a shield of some kind is more likely to cause trouble than prevent it. You'd have to remember to place it every time it looked like rain, and remove it before using the water heater. Failure to remove it could easily result in damaged components or fire. And as I said, it's really not necessary. Follow Larry's advice and you can't go wrong.Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels/
Re: Atwood Water Heater Invention Reply #2 – August 01, 2013, 07:59:31 pm Yahoo Message Number: 141691"Given the fact that there are electronics and flames burning inside your Atwood water heater, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that driving rain could enter the chamber and cause malfunctions to these components. (Hence all the problems with red warning lights etc)"Todd We have camped and driven in some terrible weather conditions and never had water heaters problems due it so I wouldn't worry much about it. As Andy said, you are more likely to cause a fire playing around with a plastic shield.Let sleeping dogs lie.Larry
Re: Atwood Water Heater Invention Reply #3 – August 02, 2013, 10:49:25 am Yahoo Message Number: 141700I missed the intial post. The heater on our MB is on the right side. A month or so ago in the midwest we were in a lengthy storm that blew the rain hard against that side. The driven rain was hard enough to put water into all the storage compartments on the right side; even though the door seals seem to still be pliable, etc. I checked the water heater and the inside was completely dry.Doug[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Topic: Atwood Water Heater Invention (Read 4 times)
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Topic: Atwood Water Heater Invention (Read 4 times)
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