Suburban G/E water heater

[Montyman]

Have a 2009 Montana with a Suburban Water heater with DSI> Sparks, wont light. It has gas up to the valve. Keeps trying to light, ignighter sparks then quits. What am I looking at to get this working in the way of parts & labor?

[jimcol]

Make sure your burner area and orfice is free of rust debris and spider webs. Often a good cleaning fixes ignition problems. Keep us posted on what you find. Jim

[Carl n Susan]

More likely than not, you have a gas valve that is not working. There is another thread here which documents the problem and solution. The short answer = buy a replacement gas valve. Should be around $100 and easy to install yourself.

Longer story - There are two 12V coils which operate the solenoids in the gas valve. One of them has gone bad. You can test them with an ohm meter. A good coil should have a resistance of around 40 ohms. A bad one will show-up as open. The problem is neither White Rogers (the OEM supplier to Suburban), nor Suburban acknowledges the existence of these coils as an orderable part despite the part numbers marked on the coil. There is a RV Parts guy in Quartzsite who has a supply of these coils. They used to be under $20. He cleverly obliterated the markings on the box so you couldn't figure out where they came from. Unfortunately he takes off in the summer (you would too given the temperatures there) and is unavailable. Someone reported they tried to buy one last winter and the guy behind the counter didn't know what he was talking about. So they may be all gone.

If you can find a dead RV or a RV junkyard, you could cannibalize a coil (be sure to test it first) and replace your bad one.

I have some pictures of the assembly and testing of the coils if you are interested. In case you have figured it out yet, I currently have a bad coil in my gas valve and have been trying to find a replacement. We have had no luck so far, but we have a lead with a Chinese supplier. That probably won't happen in time for you (or me) though.

I have tried using the "Search" function to find that other posting but between the crappy Search function here and the current dog meat slow performance, nothing was found. If I locate it later I will add it to this posting.

[snfexpress]

I'll bet it is the one closest to the tank: the heat degrades the coil. I go through about one a year. I purchased a new valve, chucked the valve and kept the good coils. I would suggest one of you buy this (or another one on Ebay) and then ship one of the good coils to the other person. In fact, maybe we should think about this for the rest of us unless your line on the coils from China look good.

BTW, Suburban told me that they do not sell the coils individually because of the liability. Both coils must energize for gas to flow and if an end user starts messing around with the coils it could cause a failure leading to fire. I guess their insurance premiums are pretty high already.

[Carl n Susan]

Thanks for the E-Bay link Michael! That price is significantly less than my local RV parts guy at $79.99. Thanks to the continuing efforts of John (WorkerB) Shepphird, I have two coils coming from Chena (as in "Hecho in Chena") and we will see if they work. I suspect they will as they are a pretty simple device. If not, I am going with the E-Bay offering.

If the OP isn't in a hurry, there may be a solution in the near future. If they have already purchased the replacement valve, I would be interested in taking the old one off his hands.

P.S. It was the outside coil that failed. I figured it would be the inside one too.

[Carl n Susan]

Well it has been a while since I posted on this topic. Unfortunately our attempt to deal with a Chinese manufacturer didn’t work out. I eventually gave up and bought the high priced Gas Valve assembly in order to get a coil and repair my water heater. For those who have come into this discussion late, here is a picture of the Gas Valve assembly and its coils.


The earlier discussion in this thread plus the postings links below will give you some history on the problems with these coils.

http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/...e,water,heater

http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/...e,water,heater


Fast forward a few months until today. We are in Quartzsite where three years ago we first (and last) found a supply of replacement coils. We stopped by the RV Parts place (which moved since we were last here, but he can’t hide from us) and talked to Monte the owner. I asked if he still had any of those replacement coils. To my surprise he said “yes, I have two left”. I bought both!! Monte said he would order more, so I concluded it wasn’t something he had obtained on a one time deal. Even better, Monte failed to obliterate any of the markings on the box. Big mistake!!!


A quick Google on the keyword “F91-3580” pops up this Ebay listing.


9 bucks plus $1.71 shipping for a replacement coil is a much better deal than my $20 Quartzsite special and even better than buying an entire $100 Gas Valve assembly. It is inexpensive enough that having one on hand for that time when it does fail is reasonable. Hopefully this information will be of value to the rest of the MOC members.

[snfexpress]

Thanks for this information Carl. Way to go!

[jimcol]

Carl, Thanks alot, "You the man!" Jim

[jimcol]

Oh Well. Guess I was too late as the listing has ended. Carl post must have sold this guy out! Jim