Water Heater Fix

[yolofitz]

Brought home 2002 Casita for short trip. The water heater, Suburban SW6P, is a simple propane only heater that requires manually lighting the pilot light. After lighting the pilot light & turning the gas valve from ‘Pilot’ to ‘On’, there was a disturbing stuttering sound at the port opening where the propane exits an orifice and proceeds down the burner tube to the burn chamber. There was only a trickle of flame in the burn chamber. I removed the burner tube and cleaned the tube although it didn’t appear clogged or dirty. The office also looked good.
Nevertheless, I took a chance and purchased a new tube from Amazon-$27. Happy to report that fixed the problem and heater is working like before. After my 14 years of owning Casita, this is the first problem with the water heater.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by yolofitz

Brought home 2002 Casita for short trip. The water heater, Suburban SW6P, is a simple propane only heater that requires manually lighting the pilot light. After lighting the pilot light & turning the gas valve from ‘Pilot’ to ‘On’, there was a disturbing stuttering sound at the port opening where the propane exits an orifice and proceeds down the burner tube to the burn chamber. There was only a trickle of flame in the burn chamber. I removed the burner tube and cleaned the tube although it didn’t appear clogged or dirty. The office also looked good.
Nevertheless, I took a chance and purchased a new tube from Amazon-$27. Happy to report that fixed the problem and heater is working like before. After my 14 years of owning Casita, this is the first problem with the water heater.

Check the Gas Valve knob...
There is a small Philips head screw in the center covered with paint.
The knob is plastic and gets loose over time, causing the position pointer to become a little vague. Snug up the screw and it will likely restore the pointer on the knob to its former accuracy.
I have found that even that small variance can cause the Gas Valve to act a little odd.

[Walt]

Had a similar problem with my 2000 Casita - fixed it but still had a problem with the pilot blowing out in windstorms. I finally gave up and put in a new water heater with electric and automatic lighting. Well worth the money.