Robertshaw Unitrol waterheater control - Fiberglass RV
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Old 06-15-2019, 03:19 PM   #1
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Name: Anthony
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Robertshaw Unitrol waterheater control

We finally got the opportunity to take our new Scamp 13 ft out on the road. Everything went fine except the water heater. The Unitrol equipped unit would light per the instructions but continued to roar on until the overpressure valve would start leaking which dripped onto the oriface shutter area, smothering the flame. Then the pilot light would extinguish and shut everything down. I tried this three times. Any suggestions? I am not familiar with this system yet, but I can't see that I was doing anything incorrectly. Any suggestions?
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Old 06-15-2019, 04:35 PM   #2
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It could be that the pressure relief valve is bad. Is the water getting exceptionally hot before the valve opens?
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Old 06-15-2019, 05:17 PM   #3
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I just replaced the water heater control valve on my 19 year old Scamp with a Robert Shaw unit. Since it looks like the one on my home water heater, I set the temperature knob the same as at home. Apparently this is too hot as I saw the same thing you did; the pressure/temperature relief valve was opening due to the heat. The solution for me was to turn the temperature down quite a lot.

--Dan Meyer
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Old 06-15-2019, 09:32 PM   #4
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Quote:
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It could be that the pressure relief valve is bad. Is the water getting exceptionally hot before the valve opens?
Yes, the water was quite hot!

I set the temp control at mid point per the instructions, but it was scalding/steaming hot.
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Old 06-16-2019, 08:28 AM   #5
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I suggest you set the control to the lowest setting and also make sure there is no air in the water heater tank. Turn the pump on and open a hot water faucet to make sure flowing water comes out and the tank does not hair in it. It would also be a good idea to open the relief valve (when the water is still cold) to purge any air in the tank.
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Old 06-16-2019, 12:16 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack L View Post
I suggest you set the control to the lowest setting and also make sure there is no air in the water heater tank. Turn the pump on and open a hot water faucet to make sure flowing water comes out and the tank does not hair in it. It would also be a good idea to open the relief valve (when the water is still cold) to purge any air in the tank.
On most RV water heaters, there is supposed to be an air bubble in the tank to provide room for the expansion of water when heated. In my experience, this works better in theory than in practice.

The temperature setting I've found my new valve works nicely at is the "M" in the word WARM on the face of the adjusting knob.

--Dan Meyer
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Old 06-20-2019, 12:20 AM   #7
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Yippie... Got it to work.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my question. I tried several settings and finally found that "Warm" works. Water coming from the hot tap reads 123/124ºf. Which is adequate for my purposes.
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