# Water Heater Won't Work On Electric



## katiesda

I just finished a search to find a solution to something that's buggin me.







I have the 2004 28Rss. It has the switch for the water heater on the wall near the oven. One switch for gas mode and the other for electric mode. I cannot get the water heater to work in the electric mode. I remembered a discussion here from over a year ago about some kind of a switch on the WH itself that needed to be turned on. But my search seems to have found that this applies only to those built prior to 2004 and that thereafter the switch on the wall took the place of the switch on the heater. My questions are as follows: Is this the correct info? If so, has anyone else had this problem and what was the solution? I have of course checked all the fuses and circuit breakers and they are all in working order. I have been using the WH on gas mode but would like to use the campgrounds dime. Besides, it should work!







Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Bob


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## PDX_Doug

Bob,

My suggestion was going to be checking the W/H breaker in the inverter panel, as that is the usual cause (simply turned off). If it is not that, it could be faulty wiring at any point along the line.

I see that you are out of warranty, which is unfortunate, but I would call the dealer on this one.

Good luck!

Happy Trails,
Doug


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## ee4308

katiesda,

Sorry about your water heater problem.







Since you know all the fuses and circuit breakers or ok, sounds like a call to the service department for assistance would be in order. sunny


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## freefaller25

Hello Bob,

We had a similar problem on our new 28RSDS. I am not sure if the solution will be the same for you but here is what I found. In this case, our water heater had never been run in electrical and failed to work from the beginning. If you want to try this, make sure you rig is completely powered down and unplugged.

I donâ€™t like to waste time with the rig at the dealer so I got lucky doing this on my own. On our trailer it was necessary to access the back of the water heater to fix the problem. We have both switches on the wall also. There is a black box on the back of the water heater. Inside this box is a relay and the power connections for the electric side of the water heater. I found the green wire on the relay was removed. Because of this, the relay would not trip to power the heater. I just plugged the green wire back in and everything is fine now.

You could debug things a little if all your wires are connected when you open the cover. Be careful as you will have live power with the box open and the rig plugged in. The relay should click when the wall switch is turned on and off (ours has a slight delay). If yours is clicking, then it is likely your control system is ok. You could check the output to the heater with a meter if you are comfortable with this. You could also power everything down (unplug the trailer) and disconnect the heater element. Measure the resistance across the heater element or is it an open circuit. If it is an open circuit, then you have a bad element. If you have no relay click, then I would guess a wiring problem between the control and the relay or a bad relay. You could check these things with a meter. When in doubt, the service center is the only option.

Hope this info applies to your rig also,
Tony


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## California Jim

Good Info Tony. And it is a fairly common occurance for folks to burn out their electric element by turning it on when the heater is empty. Hopefully this isn't the case here.


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## PDX_Doug

California Jim said:


> Good Info Tony. And it is a fairly common occurance for folks to burn out their electric element by turning it on when the heater is empty. Hopefully this isn't the case here.
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That's why I always turn mine off at the breaker between trips. Just one more safeguard that makes me think twice before turning on the juice.

Happy Trails,
Doug


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## GlenninTexas

PDX_Doug said:


> California Jim said:
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> Good Info Tony.Â And it is a fairly common occurance for folks to burn out their electric element by turning it on when the heater is empty.Â Hopefully this isn't the case here.
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> That's why I always turn mine off at the breaker between trips. Just one more safeguard that makes me think twice before turning on the juice.
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Click to expand...

I had the same problem with mine. Dealer fixe it, but I don't know what he did.

Rather than throw the breaker, I have just tapes a sticky note over my switches, so i have to lift the note to toggle the switch. The note says "Fill HW tank before switching on".

Regards, Glenn


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## HootBob

Great info there Tony








I also do like doug said turn everything off at the breaker

Don


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## Texas Friends

I just picked up my 28KRS from the dealer for the same thing... Although my unit was new I had the dealer take a look under warranty. My hot water would not turn on on the electric setting. I originally called the dealer for ideas on fixing it at home instead of driving back to the dealer... Their first recommendation was to lift the couch and look to make sure all the wires were plugged into the water heater. More work then I wanted to do since it was in warranty still.... When i took it back they looked and it was a wire that was loose just like they said. Plugged the wire in and now i have hot water on the camp sites dime!

Bryan


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## Oregon_Camper

California Jim said:


> Good Info Tony. And it is a fairly common occurance for folks to burn out their electric element by turning it on when the heater is empty. Hopefully this isn't the case here.
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Beside the first trip of the year, how would the tank become empty? I fill my water tank prior to leaving home and then turn on the water pump to prime the lines. At this point the hot water tank fills itself.

What am I missing?


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## 2500Ram

Oregon_Camper said:


> Beside the first trip of the year, how would the tank become empty? I fill my water tank prior to leaving home and then turn on the water pump to prime the lines. At this point the hot water tank fills itself.
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IMHO nothing. First trip of the year, if you don't drain the tank every trip like some, you should have not problems, filling the tank and running the hot water lines in the spring.

This sounds more like a Gilligan thing than a burnt electrical element with a disconnected electric plug at the water heater.

Bill.


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## katiesda

Thanks for your responses. I haven't had a chance yet to check the wires to insure that all are connected. I'm really hoping that this will be the fix. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again.

Bob


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## nascarcamper

Has anyone tried running both at the same time for quicker recovery?


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## 2500Ram

nascarcamper said:


> Has anyone tried running both at the same time for quicker recovery?
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Yup. I always have the electric heater on and only turn on the wall switch for the propane when showering. No problems but you still need to take a quick shower.

Does it help, my guess is not much. The electric heat is slow to warm the water. propane is quick, but it's the CG electric so that's what I do.

Bill.


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## HootBob

I run it on both when we are using a lot of water
It seems to help very little
But still try to take quick showers
DW and the girls would rather use the CG showers

Don


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## Oregon_Camper

Quick showers plus using the water shut off while lathering up will really help conserve water.


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## katiesda

Sorry it took so long to get back to this but its been a little busy around here what with girls softball and the boys little league all starting. Good news is that we are going camping this week!







Just a short jaunt down to the Cape but it will be our first outing of the year. Anyway to get back to the problem at hand. I looked at the WH again. I took the access cover off from under the bunk. There is a small black box at the back of the WH that a cord runs in to and multiple single wires run out of to the front outside of the WH. Is this the "black box" that is meant where several people found loose or unconnected wires? Unfortunately, it is situated right behind the water pipes and there is about a 1/2 inch clearance to get the cover off.







Now on the outside of the WH under the outside panel there are also several wires all of which seem to be tight and the connections seem to be solid. Just want to be sure before I try to get into that box. Thanks for all the help. And hope you had a wonderful Easter.

Bob


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## denali_3

Here's something else to look at as well, had to go to the wayback machine for this one. 
Ritter Posted on: Jun 15 2004, 09:33 AM 
Member
Group: Members
Posts: 44
Joined: 10-March 04
From: pennsylvania
Member No.: 191

Just an update! it's fixed, thanks for your input guy, the 2amp fuse on the water heater circuit board was bad, although it looked fine it was oxidized inside the fuse itself not allowing continuity


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## katiesda

Thanks for the info on the fuse. I looked at it and it looked okay to me but now I'll replace it anyway and see if this works. Thanks again.

Bob


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## nynethead

The other point could be the model water heater you have. Do you have the 6 gal or the 10 gallon. Mycousins trailer has the 10 gallon and a switch on his wall was for gas only. When we looked at the heater it had an electric switch with a cotter pin threw it to stop it from being turned on. If he removed the cotter pin and turned the switch on he got hot water using the electric. The only problem was his trailer did not have an inside switch to turn on the electric only gas.


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## katiesda

Well, just got back from Camping down toward the cape. Put new fuse in the WH. Unfortunately still did not work on electric. Guess I'll have to pull the back off the Black box and see what's there. Fortunately it works fine on Gas. So the saga Continuuuuuues......

Bob

P.S. The camping was great!!


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## katiesda

Denali 3 reminded me that I never finished my saga about the Water Heater. I hate when people do that







. Thanks for the reminder Buddy. I tried to pull the panel off the box at the WH but it was so tight in behind the pipes that I couldn't get it off and even if I could I couldn't really see into it. I have been using it on gas only since I've owned it so I guess it can wait till the next time (which will be the first time) I bring it to the dealer.

Bob


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## denali_3

Sorry Bob







. Just curious in the event my water heater won't work on electric, would like to look at all possibilities.


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