Gas leak on Hot Water Tank!

[woodlandcottage]

We've camped twice at sites with full hook-ups. As soon as we were hooked up I turned on the water heater. No problems at all. I assumed we were running on electric heat those times.
This time out we filled our tank at home and had an electric only hook-up. I turned on the pump switch to get water into our water filter pitcher and to charge the toilet before switching on the water heater. After a half hour or so we were surprised to find that the water was still ice cold. So I switched the heater off and on again. This triggered a strong gas smell and the alarm. Obviously we turned it off, aired out the trailer, and tried again 10 minutes later to the same results. The gas line is not affected for the stove or furnace and they worked fine for our trip.
We have no idea what we are doing here. The book is really over technical to understand. We thought our 2005 2619 was an electric/gas model and that we'd have to switch it over to gas in the access panel outside. Am I wrong? I don't even know how to do that anyway. :/
So did we do something wrong? Was there something else we were supposed to do to fill the water heater before turning it on? Which part of the heater is the gas line, the copper thing?

The black on/off rocker switch in the lower corner of the water heater that you access outside turns on and off the electric element, If you turn it on or leave it on when the water heater is empty it will burn up the element in a matter of seconds. In order to fill the water heater, ( either public water or water tank) you need to turn on the hot water faucet on until you have a good flow of water. At this point, you can turn the black switch on. You should always shut the switch off when you close up after a trip as plugging the TM in to stock or clean with the switch on will burn up the element. The WH switch inside the TM operates the WH on gas. If the TM has not been used in a while, it may take a few tries to purge the lines. You can also check the two round ( about the size of a nickle)discs in the outside top left. These are over temp shut off devices. Push on each one. If you feel a click, that device sensed an over temp and shut off the WH. If they are not tripped, you can not hurt anything by pushing them.

To test for a gas leak, turn off everything electrical. The battery should be installed. Turn off the electric heat switch on the outside water heater panel.
Leave the inside water heater switch off for now.

Mix up a dilute dish soap solution in a spray bottle.

Open the outside cover on your water heater. Now turn on the gas with the trailer windows open. Start spraying soap solution on the copper line coming from the underside of the trailer, and the fittings where that line connects to the heater solenoid valve (the silver box with a couple of wires running from it). If you see bubbles, that is your gas leak. Tighten any loose fitting and repeat the test. You should also spray and check for leaks at your propane bottles at this time.

If you haven't found any leaks yet, then turn on the inside water heater switch. You should hear a clicking sound in the heater as the igniter tries to light a flame in the burner. If it doesn't, the igniter gap may need adjusting. If there is no clicking then the igniter may be bad.

If you don't find any leaks anywhere and still smell gas I would get a dealer or qualified repair person involved. Propane leaks can be deadly if not found and fixed.

[tentcamper]

Since the water is cold and the only time you have an issue is when you try to start the LP water heater. It almost sounds like the water heater is not lighting, but continues to supply LP.

I would have the water heater checked out.

FYI: Most likely the other time you went camping you were running the water heater on LP. You have to open the outside cover on the water heater to turn on the electric heating option.

[Bill]

If I may summarize, the water heater has two separate heating elements, each controlled by its own switch.

The switch that is outside the TM is the ON-OFF switch for the electric element. See this picture in my Tech Album for its location.
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...&pictureid=447
Note that this switch has nothing to do with the gas heating element. If you left this switch on, arrived at a campground, and plugged the TM into shore power before you filled the water heater, then you burned out the electric element. Fortunately, it is cheap, and relatively easy to replace

The switch that is inside, on the kitchen sink apron, turns the self-lighting gas burner on and off. It has nothing to do with the electric heating. If you turn this switch on, the red light will light, which indicates that the gas burner is trying to light. If the burner fails to light within a few seconds, then it stops trying, waits a minute, then tries again. After three tries, if there is no success, it shuts down entirely. At no point during this cycle should you smell gas. If you smell gas, there is a problem, and you must get it repaired immediately.

Bill

[woodlandcottage]

Thanks for all the help! We're having a windy day here today but will be able to set-up in our driveway and run all these tests tomorrow. Hopefully this won't be an expensive fix. :/