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Topic: water heater orifice / air adjustment (Read 508 times) previous topic - next topic

water heater orifice / air adjustment

As I walk around any given campground anywhere in this beautiful nation, I hear RV water heaters screaming, popping, whistling, poofing and other weird noises. It's pretty easy to adjust the combustion air to fix most of this. On my water heater there's a tiny screw in the top of the burner tube that holds the sliding air adjustment shutter. Loosen that tiny screw and slide the shutter open or closed a little bit and observe the difference in the flame color and the noise the flame makes. You want a strong blue flame with a little bit of yellow at the far end of the flame away from you when you look into the combustion chamber. You don't want the flame to be small, lazy and dark blue or bright yellow. If it looks like that open the shutter slightly to correct it. If the flame is noisy and looks like it's going to blow itself out you should close the shutter slightly to correct it. If you drive to a drastically different altitude you'll probably have to do this again to correct for the different air density and oxygen content. Also be aware that there are tiny spiders that love the smell of the odorant in gas. They crawl inside the gas orifice and make spider webs that restrict the gas flow. If you can't get a big enough flame in the burner to keep it lit no matter what you adjust your air shutter to you've probably got spiderwebs in the fuel orifice. You may even notice the flame backing up the burner tube until you see a flame in the air shutter. This can actually melt the burner tube if you let it go too long. Take the burner out and clean the orifice. Note that I didn't say to take the gas valve out because that's not necessary. You can get to the orifice by taking the burner off the end of the gas valve. On my water heater there's a little 1/4" screw on top of the burner tube above the igniter that holds the burner assembly on. Remove that little screw and the burner to expose the orifice on the outlet of the gas valve. On mine the orifice is a little brass fitting that comes out with a 5/16" wrench. Use a tiny needle to clean the orifice and blow air through the orifice in both directions. You won't be able to see the spiders or their webs, but trust me, the burner will suddenly work when you put it back together after cleaning the orifice. Now adjust the air shutter as described above and you're all set... until next time... cuz I don't know of any permanent way to get rid of the spiders unfortunately. This technique is used for most residential type gas appliances too. I do this all the time. With gas stoves sometimes you get grease in the orifice under the burners too, this is in addition to spiders of course. Okay, so now when I walk around campgrounds I won't hear any weird water heater noises coming from your coach. :)
Scott Cook
1991 U300 36' 6V92TA
Old Town Penobscot 16
1984 Honda VF1100C (V65 Magna)

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #1 –
I know what your saying and agree,but most of us are too old to hear that good.
96 U270 BUILD 4810
85 380SL
Drummonds TN.

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #2 –
I hear what you're saying! 
Although we didn't hear anything this summer except the hum of our air conditioners.

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #3 –
Good advice, thanks! "Campground Etiquette" is practiced by most seasoned travelers, "trailer park types" have no clue about their neighbors, our's is the latter, hot water heater on 24-7, very obnoxious in the middle of the night!
1993 U-240 "La Villa Grande"..CAT 3116 w/ Pacbrake PRXB...Allison 3060 6-speed..
Previous: 1983 Airstream 310 turbo diesel, 1979 Airstream 280 turbo diesel
                                      Build # 4297
                                      PNW natives
                      Home base:  'Cactus Hug' (Ajo, Arizona)
                        DW Judy & Chet the wonder dog
                        Full-Timers 'Sailing the asphalt sea'

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #4 –
Up until we stayed at Gateway To The Gulf RV Resort by Victoria, TX I never gave much thought to the noise coming from the water heater until the neighbor next to me, quite courteously, informed me that the heater--right across from their bedroom window, kept waking him up during the night. I did not feel offended, but rather apologetic, due to his calling attention to my "noisemaker". I could have just told him to close his window but instead only turned the water heater on during the day. Once in the morning and once at suppertime.
Sometimes a pleasant conversation can heal sore spots such as running equipment at the inopportune times without offending anyone.
Nitehawk,  Demolition Lady, & our NEW master, Zippy the speeding BB cat.
1989 Grand Villa 36' ORED
Oshkosh chassis, 8.2 DD V8
2006 Saturn Vue AWD

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #5 –
Quote from: nitehawk –
Sometimes a pleasant conversation can heal sore spots such as running equipment at the inopportune times without offending anyone.
Good advice, I've met the "neighbor", our only option is to move.
1993 U-240 "La Villa Grande"..CAT 3116 w/ Pacbrake PRXB...Allison 3060 6-speed..
Previous: 1983 Airstream 310 turbo diesel, 1979 Airstream 280 turbo diesel
                                      Build # 4297
                                      PNW natives
                      Home base:  'Cactus Hug' (Ajo, Arizona)
                        DW Judy & Chet the wonder dog
                        Full-Timers 'Sailing the asphalt sea'

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #6 –
We usually use our propane water heater on 120-volts, but if dry camping, we use propane flame.  We heat water for evening shower and then turn off heater propane switch so we and neighbors don't have to listen to heater cycling when we really don't need a lot of hot water.  Turn it back on sometime the next day and it heats up pretty quick.  Also saves some wear and tear on the heater.

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #7 –
When we are at Phoenix for the race I turn off the AH at night as tents are usually next to us. Not real noisy but has odor.
1999 40 ft. U-320 wtfe build 5563 Chuck & Lynda's "Rollin' Inn"  2030 watts solar
prev. mh's 71 GMC 5 yrs. 73 Pace Setter 1 yr. 78 Vogue 5 yrs 81 FTX 40ft all electric 18 yrs. 1996 Monaco Signature 3 yrs.
2014 Grand Cherokee Overland
Dream as if you will live forever. Live as if you will die today.  James Dean

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #8 –
Very interesting.        Had the coach over a year. This is the first water heater "etiquette" conversation I've seen. Funny thing is, about one week ago (after running it willy-nilly , whenever for a year) I began to try shutting it off overnite to save gas and wear n tear, and guess what, the water is still pretty hot in the am still. Little did I know that I began good campground etiquette, technically before this thread started. I will now be turning it off days and nite's.

Great info. Thanks for the heads up.  ( I'm afraid to ask Scott what the best "generator" etiquette is). :) :)
Robert and Susan
 1995 36' 280 WTBI 8.3 3060r
 1200 watts on the roof, 720 Ah of lithium's
 Build # 4637. Motorcade # 17599
        FMCA  # 451505
        18  Wrangler JLUR

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Bob & Sue –
  I'm afraid to ask Scott what the best "generator" etiquette is)

We stayed at a park in northern Az where they ran the gen on and on. Little did I know, they had tent sites next to us, as well. We had very little sleep, and decided to bail early. All of us know, diesels smoke in low temps, yup, "smoked 'em". I thought, "tit for tat".
I now, wait for someone to fire first, then, usually, the whole park goes off.
1993 U-240 "La Villa Grande"..CAT 3116 w/ Pacbrake PRXB...Allison 3060 6-speed..
Previous: 1983 Airstream 310 turbo diesel, 1979 Airstream 280 turbo diesel
                                      Build # 4297
                                      PNW natives
                      Home base:  'Cactus Hug' (Ajo, Arizona)
                        DW Judy & Chet the wonder dog
                        Full-Timers 'Sailing the asphalt sea'

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #10 –
Quote from: mike leary –
We stayed at a park in northern Az where they ran the gen on and on. Little did I know, they had tent sites next to us, as well. We had very little sleep, and decided to bail early. All of us know, diesels smoke in low temps, yup, "smoked 'em". I thought, "tit for tat".
I now, wait for someone to fire first, then, usually, the whole park goes off.
preheating the motor well in advance warms the bedroom bed pedestal a bit and reduces the white smoke a lot
"Riding and rejoicing"
Bob
1997 U320 40' Mid entry, build 5132,  wtbi ce27, 4th owner
2007 Solara convertible
2 prodeco tech outlaw ss electric bikes

1095 watts solar
08 Ls 460 and a sc430
2000 Ford F-250 superduty 4x4

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #11 –
I was thinking more about getting the water heater to run properly. The noise doesn't bother me. I jumped to the conclusion that I'm not the only person who wants their water heater to run properly, so that's why I posted this... but if your water heater bothers people that could be a sign that it's not running properly. You can probably get rid of the noise by adjusting the air shutter.

Kinda funny about the generator. When I was camped at Zion national park earlier this year a lady set up her tent right next to my generator exhaust. She took up an RV site big enough for a 40' coach with her little tent. There were a dozen beautiful tent sites right by the river that she could have taken... Yeah, she banged on my door and said I was stinking up her tent... so what do you think I did? I confess that I grinned, at least inside, as I pointed out I still had two more hours of generator run hours remaining... then I checked my batteries and discovered they were almost fully charged so I shut the generator off. I don't think the coach on the other side of her shut theirs off though. There's no way I'd tent camp next to an RV if there were still beautiful river side tent sites available.
Scott Cook
1991 U300 36' 6V92TA
Old Town Penobscot 16
1984 Honda VF1100C (V65 Magna)
 

Re: water heater orifice / air adjustment

Reply #12 –
We had some folks in trailers set up out in front of us at Furnace Creek CG in Death Valley. That evening about 5 we started the generator to cook supper, here they came from across the road " do you have to run that" I politely explained to them right over the hill is a camp ground no generators allowed. Never had anyone complain about the hot water heater though.
Bruce, Linda, and Macy
Zoey RIP 1/20/19
1999 U295 40' build #5400
2017 silver Jeep Wrangler, 1260 watts of solar on top
Moving around the country