SOLVED - Truma Water Heater - Ran out of propane, and now won't start

[Steve Morris]

Of course I was in the shower when the first propane tank ran dry... I thought I'd turned on both tanks, but nope. Brrr!

I rinsed off, got dressed, and turned on the second tank. I lit the stove to get any air out of the lines, and then tried the Truma AquaGo. No luck; error E 5 W if I remember correctly. I then tried the furnace, and it operated properly.I ran the stove again and then tried the water heater, but still no luck. We were approaching check-out time, so I figured I'd look at it later.

Right now, we are at my brother's house in New Smyrna Beach for a week or so, and the trailer is parked at the landscaper's lot a couple of miles away. I'm going over today to see if I can solve the problem. If not, then I'll call Truma on Monday. I am going to try turning the water heater off and then back on at the outside switch. If that doesn't work, I'll turn off the solar and batteries to kill all power and then cycle things back on. I don't think turning off the propane and unhooking the lines from the tanks would do anything to help. The water heater was working fine before running out of fuel, and I turned on the other bottle just a few minutes later. So I don't think the problems noted the other day about moisture or a fireball would be the problem.

If the above do not correct the error, does anyone else have a suggestion? Thanks!

For reference, error E 5 W is: (of course I may be misremembering the error code)

Flame detected at incorrect time.
There is an error in flame detection of the burner because the flame was detected: before ignition or before the release of gas or after the gas was switched off.

Edited January 22 by Steve Morris
Problem solved

[John Dorrer]

3 hours ago, Steve Morris said:

Of course I was in the shower when the first propane tank ran dry... I thought I'd turned on both tanks, but nope. Brrr!

I rinsed off, got dressed, and turned on the second tank. I lit the stove to get any air out of the lines, and then tried the Truma AquaGo. No luck; error E 5 W if I remember correctly. I then tried the furnace, and it operated properly.I ran the stove again and then tried the water heater, but still no luck. We were approaching check-out time, so I figured I'd look at it later.

Right now, we are at my brother's house in New Smyrna Beach for a week or so, and the trailer is parked at the landscaper's lot a couple of miles away. I'm going over today to see if I can solve the problem. If not, then I'll call Truma on Monday. I am going to try turning the water heater off and then back on at the outside switch. If that doesn't work, I'll turn off the solar and batteries to kill all power and then cycle things back on. I don't think turning off the propane and unhooking the lines from the tanks would do anything to help. The water heater was working fine before running out of fuel, and I turned on the other bottle just a few minutes later. So I don't think the problems noted the other day about moisture or a fireball would be the problem.

If the above do not correct the error, does anyone else have a suggestion? Thanks!

For reference, error E 5 W is: (of course I may be misremembering the error code)

Flame detected at incorrect time.
There is an error in flame detection of the burner because the flame was detected: before ignition or before the release of gas or after the gas was switched off.

Someone just posted with this on Facebook. I believe they turned it off inside and then outsides, waited a couple of minutes. Turned it on outside, for the green light, and turned it on inside. I will look for the post.

 

 

[John Dorrer]

The post on Facebook was an E3H, so different. I googled, but am not finding a description for E5H, so you would want to check the manual.

[rich.dev]

Here's an Oliver post re the E5H error and his solution

 

 

[Steve Morris]

Thanks guys. I didn't get over there today, so it will probably be Tuesday. This is the Truma AquaGo water heater, not the furnace, so error E * W, not E * H. I think it was 5, which is the error I quoted above from the manual, but not positive.

[Steve Morris]

Solved! Switching the out switch off and on solved the problem. Thanks for the input!