Water Heater, should it work on 110v service

BozRazor

Member
I have a Suburban water heater, gas and electric. I don't think it has ever worked on electric side, I just figured the kids had turned on the cool lighted switch and burned my element. Pulled the element out today and its ok. Here's the thing, when I plug up to the house 110, it pops my breaker in the house, and when I'm on the generator it sounds like it's loaded to the max. I'm sure the thing is supposed to work on 110, but would like further guidance...
 

newbie

Northern Virginia
The water heater is 110v. In fact, everything in the rig is 110v. The heater probably draws 15 amps, which could easily trip the house breaker. If you can connect to a dedicated 20 amp circuit it should work. How many watts is your generator?
 

BozRazor

Member
I figured it out, I forgot to unplug the shop heater I keep inside the camper. When it came on the breaker was overloaded and pop. As far as the generator, I have a 5.5 Onan Gold, I would think it could handle the load fine, even when I turn everything else off you can really tell the difference in the sound when the water heater is turned on and off.
 

jimtoo

Moderator
Your normal household appliances in the rv, micro, coffee pot, TV, things like that are 120v. All the orginal lighting in the unit is 12v, the frig must have 12v to operate, even when operating in the a/c setting. All the 12v is supplied by the converter in the unit. If you don't have 12v, almost nothing will work.
 

newbie

Northern Virginia
After reading Jim's post I feel silly:eek:. I meant that all the LINE voltage appliances are 110 (versus 220). As Jim pointed out, many things are 12 volts inside the unit.

Sorry for the confusion- John
 
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