# RV Water Heater Repair for Westminster Owners > Most RV water heater faults are ignition or heating element problems, and they run 350 to 900 to put right. A full tank or tankless replacement runs 1,800 to 4,500 or more depending on the unit and the access. Diagnostic time bills at 285 per hour and is credited against an authorized repair. | | | | --- | --- | | Business | OCRV Center | | Service area | Westminster, Orange County, Southern California | | Facility | 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887 | | Phone | (949) 799-3387 | | Email | info@ocrvcenter.com | | Typical range | $350 to $4,500+ | | Source | https://ocrv.online/services/water-heater-repair/ | Most RV water heater repair work comes down to four faults: no ignition on propane, no heat on electric, a leak at the tank seam, or a control board that quit talking to the burner. We see all four every week, on six gallon tank units, ten gallon units, and on demand tankless systems. The fix can be a twenty dollar thermocouple or a full assembly swap, and the honest answer depends on the age of the tank and whether the shell has started to weep. ## What Actually Fails on an RV Water Heater An RV water heater is a small pressure vessel with a propane burner on one side, usually an electric element on the other, and a control board deciding which one runs. Six gallon and ten gallon tank units from Suburban and Atwood cover most of the fleet. The tank sits behind an exterior door panel, and nearly everything that needs service is reachable from outside once that panel comes off. That access is the reason this job is usually cheaper than owners expect walking in the door. The failure list is short and it repeats. The burner will not light. Water gets warm but never hot. The electric side works and the propane side does not, or the reverse. Water drips from the bottom of the door panel. The board clicks, tries three times, and locks out. Each of those symptoms points at a different subsystem, and the whole purpose of paid diagnostic time is to sort them before anybody starts buying parts. We start with pressure and gas supply, not with parts. If the propane regulator is low, or the line still has air in it after a bottle swap, the burner will lock out and the board looks guilty when it is not. From there we check the thermocouple or flame sense electrode, the ECO limit switch, the thermostat, and only then the board. The large majority of no ignition calls are resolved before the board ever comes into it. - Burner lights then drops out in seconds, usually a thermocouple or flame sense fault - No ignition at all, very often a spider web or mud nest inside the burner tube - Electric heats but propane does not, pointing at the gas valve or the board - Lukewarm water at every faucet, usually a mixing valve or a bypass left open - Steady drip below the access door from a tank seam, drain plug, or relief valve - Board lockout after three ignition attempts that returns until the root fault is fixed ## Tank Units Versus Tankless Systems A six or ten gallon tank unit stores hot water and reheats on a thermostat. It is simple, parts are everywhere, and a competent tech can rebuild most of it in an afternoon. The tradeoff is capacity. Ten gallons is one real shower, and the recovery time on propane is roughly twenty minutes for a six gallon tank. Owners who never run out of hot water at home get frustrated by that, and it drives a lot of the tankless upgrade calls we take. Tankless units heat on demand with a modulating burner and a flow sensor. They give endless hot water and open up the storage volume, but they are pickier. They need adequate water flow to fire, they do not love low pressure at a campground spigot, and their control electronics are more sensitive to voltage sag from a tired converter. A tankless unit is also less tolerant of hard water scale, which matters more than people think in Southern California. If your existing tank unit is under eight years old and the shell is sound, repairing it is almost always the better financial call. If the tank is weeping at a seam, the anode has been ignored for years, or you have already replaced the board once, that is the moment to have the tankless conversation. We will price both paths side by side before you commit to either one. ## The Anode Rod and the Sediment Flush Not every RV water heater has an anode rod, and that trips owners up constantly. Suburban tanks are steel with a porcelain lining, and they use a sacrificial magnesium or aluminum anode rod that corrodes so the tank does not. Atwood and Dometic tanks are aluminum clad and use a plain plastic drain plug instead. Installing an anode in an aluminum tank does nothing useful, and forcing a steel plug into one can start a galvanic problem that was never there. On a tank that takes an anode, inspect it once a year and replace it when it is down to roughly a quarter of its original diameter or when the core wire is showing. That is a twenty five dollar part protecting a tank that costs well over a thousand dollars installed. Full time owners on hard water should look at it every six months, because the rod can be consumed in a single heavy season. Flushing is separate from the anode. Pull the plug, use a curved wand, and rinse the sediment out of the bottom of the tank at least once a year. Sediment insulates the bottom of the tank from the burner flame, which makes recovery slow and cooks the steel above it. Most of the leaking tanks we condemn were never flushed and had an anode that dissolved years earlier. - Steel lined tanks need an anode rod, aluminum tanks use a plastic drain plug - Replace the rod when it is down to about a quarter of its original diameter - Flush the tank yearly, twice a year if you live in the rig or run hard water - Never pressurize the tank with the plug out, and always relieve pressure first - Sediment on the tank floor slows recovery and shortens the life of the shell - A dissolved anode is the single most common reason a tank fails early ## Chasing a Burner That Will Not Light The classic no ignition cause is not electrical. It is a spider. Mud daubers and orb weavers are drawn to the odorant in propane, and they build inside the burner tube where the air shutter is. The web chokes the venturi, the burner runs rich or will not carry a flame at all, and the board locks out. Pull the burner assembly, blow the tube out with compressed air, brush the orifice area, and the unit fires on the first try. When the tube is clean and it still will not stay lit, we move to flame proving. A thermocouple system needs the pilot flame wrapping the tip to hold the gas valve open. A direct spark system needs a clean electrode with correct gap and a good ground path back to the burner. Carbon on the electrode, a bent bracket, or a corroded ground screw will all produce the same three try lockout with no obvious fault. Only after that do we test the gas valve coil and the board. A gas valve that reads open circuit is a genuine part failure and gets replaced. A board that will not send spark with good inputs is also genuine. We test both rather than shotgunning parts, because a board and a gas valve together can double the invoice on a job that a burner tube brush would have solved. ## Electric Elements, Thermostats, and Board Faults On the electric side, the element is a 120 volt heating rod threaded into the tank. It fails two ways: it burns open and heats nothing, or it shorts to the tank and trips the breaker. Both are quick to confirm with a meter. The one thing that destroys an element in minutes is running it dry, which happens when someone flips the switch before the tank refills after winterizing. That is a self inflicted failure we see every spring. The thermostat and the ECO limit switch sit against the outside of the tank under an insulation blanket, held on by a spring clip. The thermostat opens and closes at temperature. The ECO is a one shot safety that opens at roughly 180 degrees and stays open. If someone bypasses a tripped ECO instead of finding out why it tripped, they have removed the only thing standing between a stuck thermostat and a scalding tank. Circuit boards do fail, usually from vibration cracking a solder joint or from a voltage spike off a generator transfer. The symptom is intermittent: it works cold, quits hot, then works again after it sits. We confirm with the unit powered and a meter on the outputs rather than assuming. A board is a real part cost, and nobody should pay for one that was not actually the problem. ## Bypass Valves, Mixing Valves, and Cold Weather Damage Half the lukewarm water complaints we take are a bypass valve. When the rig is winterized, the water heater is isolated so winterizing fluid does not fill the tank. Come spring, if one of the two or three bypass valves is left in the wrong position, cold water blends straight past the tank into the hot line. Nothing is broken. The water heater is doing its job and nobody is getting hot water. It is a two minute check and we always do it first. Mixing valves cause the same complaint for a different reason. Many later coaches use a thermostatic mixing valve to temper tank output, letting the tank run hotter while delivering safe water at the faucet. When the cartridge scales up or the adjustment drifts, output drops to lukewarm regardless of tank temperature. Descaling or replacing the cartridge restores it, and the valve is nearly always accessible from the same exterior door panel. Cold weather damage is real here even in a mild climate. An inland cold snap on a rig that was never winterized will split a drain plug boss, crack a low point fitting, or bulge a tank seam. Ice expansion damage is not repairable on the tank itself. Once the shell is compromised, the honest answer is replacement of the assembly, and we say so instead of selling you a sealant that will weep again in a month. - Confirm all bypass valve positions before diagnosing anything else - Descale or replace a thermostatic mixing valve cartridge when output stays tepid - Winterize properly, then refill and purge air before switching the element on - A split tank seam or cracked boss from ice means replacement, not a patch - Relief valve weeping under heat is often normal thermal expansion, not a failure ## What a Water Heater Job Costs Mechanical labor is 260 per hour. Diagnostic labor is 285 per hour and is credited back against the repair once you authorize it. Parts carry 100 percent markup at or under 100 dollars and 35 percent above 100 dollars. Sales tax of 7.75 percent applies to parts and materials, not to labor. Any job above 2,000 takes a 50 percent deposit. Those numbers are the whole formula, and every example below is built from them. Worked example, burner service with a thermocouple. Half an hour of diagnostic bills 142.50 and is credited back on authorization. Repair labor of 1.5 hours at 260 is 390. A 28 dollar thermocouple is under 100, so it marks up 100 percent to 56. Tax on 56 at 7.75 percent is 4.34. The invoice lands at 450.34, and that covers pulling the burner, clearing the tube, screening it, and reassembling. Worked example, full six gallon tank unit replacement. One hour of diagnostic bills 285 and is credited on authorization. Labor of 4.5 hours at 260 is 1,170. A complete replacement assembly at 780 is over 100, so it marks up 35 percent to 1,053. Tax on 1,053 is 81.61. The total is 2,304.61, which crosses the 2,000 threshold, so a deposit of 1,152.31 is collected before parts are ordered. Worked example, tankless conversion. Labor of 6 hours at 260 is 1,560 to remove the old unit, adapt the opening, rework the water lines and gas supply, and commission the new unit. A 1,350 tankless unit marks up 35 percent to 1,822.50. Tax on that is 141.24. The invoice is 3,523.74 with a 1,761.87 deposit. Add trim and framing work on a nonstandard opening and it climbs toward the top of the range. - Bottom of the range: burner clearing, thermocouple, drain plug, or element swap - Middle of the range: gas valve, control board, mixing valve, or thermostat and ECO - Top of the range: full assembly replacement, tankless conversion, or opening rework - Add cost for damaged sidewall framing around the access door found during removal - Deduct the credited diagnostic time from any repair you authorize with us ## Frequently asked questions ### Why does my water heater light and then go out after a few seconds? That pattern almost always means the flame is not being proved. On a pilot and thermocouple system, the pilot flame has to wrap the thermocouple tip continuously to hold the gas valve open. If the tip is carboned, bent away from the flame, or simply worn out, the valve closes and the burner drops out. On a direct spark system, the same symptom comes from a dirty flame sense electrode or a weak ground path. It can also be a partially blocked burner tube making a lazy flame that never reaches the sensor. We clean the burner and electrode first, then test the sensor, then look at the valve. ### How much does it cost to fix a water heater that will not light? The common version of that job runs about 450 to 700. Half an hour of diagnostic at 285 per hour bills 142.50 and gets credited back when you authorize the repair. Repair labor is 260 per hour, and clearing a fouled burner tube plus replacing a thermocouple is roughly an hour and a half of shop time. Parts are small: a thermocouple at 28 dollars marks up to 56, plus 4.34 in tax. If the gas valve or the control board turns out to be the actual fault, expect 900 to 1,400 instead, because those are real parts with real cost behind them. ### Do I need an anode rod, and how often should it be changed? It depends entirely on what your tank is made of. Suburban tanks are steel with a porcelain lining and require a sacrificial anode rod. Atwood and Dometic tanks are aluminum clad and use a plain plastic drain plug with no anode at all. Putting an anode in an aluminum tank accomplishes nothing and can introduce a corrosion problem you did not have. If you do have one, pull it annually, and replace it once it is eaten down to about a quarter of its original diameter or the steel core wire is exposed. Full time owners on hard water should check it twice a year. ### My water heater works on electric but not on propane. What is wrong? That split tells you a lot immediately. The tank, the element circuit, and the thermostat are all fine, because the electric side is heating water. The fault lives in the gas path or the ignition circuit that serves it. Start with propane supply: a low regulator, a nearly empty bottle, or air in the line after a bottle change will all stop the burner. Then look at the burner tube for a spider web, the electrode or thermocouple, and the gas valve coil. The control board is last on that list, not first, and it is the most expensive thing to guess wrong about. ### Is a tankless water heater worth the upgrade in an RV? It is worth it for some owners and not for others. If you are running a family through showers back to back and constantly running the ten gallon tank dry, endless hot water changes the trip. If you dry camp on low pressure water or run a lot on inverter power, a tankless unit is fussier: it needs decent flow to fire and it does not tolerate voltage sag well. Cost is the other factor. A conversion runs roughly 3,000 to 4,500 installed, where rebuilding a sound tank unit is a few hundred. If your existing tank is under eight years old, repair it. ### The water only gets lukewarm no matter what. Where do I start? Check the bypass valves before anything else. When a coach is winterized, valves isolate the water heater so winterizing fluid does not fill the tank, and if one is left in the wrong position in spring, cold water blends past the tank straight into the hot line. Nothing is broken and no part will fix it. If the bypass is correct, the next suspect is a thermostatic mixing valve with a scaled cartridge, which delivers tepid water regardless of tank temperature. After that, look at a sediment loaded tank floor slowing heat transfer, then a drifting thermostat. It is a five minute triage in that order. ### Can a cracked tank be repaired or does the whole unit get replaced? A cracked or split tank shell gets replaced. There is no honest patch for a pressure vessel that has already failed, and any sealant or epoxy applied to a weeping seam will let go again once the tank cycles hot and cold a few dozen times. Threaded fittings are different. A leaking drain plug boss, a relief valve, or a fitting at the inlet can often be repaired without touching the tank. We pressure test and pinpoint the source before quoting, because the difference between a fitting repair and a full assembly replacement is well over a thousand dollars. ### How long will my rig be in the shop for water heater work? Most water heater jobs are 1 to 5 business days. A burner service, thermocouple, element, or thermostat is often same day or next day once the rig is on the schedule and the fault is confirmed. A full assembly replacement depends on parts. If the unit is a current production Suburban or Dometic size, it is usually two to four days including the swap and a leak check under pressure. A tankless conversion or a nonstandard opening that needs framing and trim work runs closer to a week. We give you a firm date once parts are confirmed in hand. --- OCRV Center performs all work in shop at 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. Serving Westminster and Orange County. Call (949) 799-3387 or email info@ocrvcenter.com. Posted labor rates are published at https://ocrv.online/prices/.