No hot water?

lakeside

Active Member
This is a new 2013 Bighorn #3685RL that I just recently took delivery of. The LPG side of the hot water system is working fine and currently all shut off. I wanted to test the 120V side of the H/W system and see how long it would take to heat up a hot water tank that is full of cold water. I and currently hooked up to shore power and have (metered) 120V at the household receptacles in the 5[SUP]er. [/SUP] The 120V hot water switch that is in the inside control panel is on. The 15 amp breaker switch is on. The small on/off switch located on the outside of the 5er and inside the H/W heater access panel is ON. The hot water tank is full of water. After two hours in the on position, I still have no H/W. I pulled the small plastic cover off the heating element and put a volt meter on the two exposed wires. The meter reads ZERO with the entire system energized. Am I looking at a burned out element? Is there another switch or breaker that I am missing? I was at my selling dealer today, but the technician was off and no one else could answer these questions. I respectfully submit my question to this forum in hopes that the experience here will be able to help me. Thank you.

Lakeside
 

Rickhansen

Well-known member
You would still see line voltage across the element if the element were properly working or burned out. You have an open circuit.

If you check from each terminal of the element to ground, you should read 120VAC on one of the terminals. Again, if not you have an open circuit. That information should lead you to whether the Hot or Neutral is open.

Be Safe. Good luck.
 

Theresau

Well-known member
Joe feels it is probably a burnt out element. He's had to replace two of them. He forgot to turn off the bypass valve when he turned on the WH. The 2nd time he did this - it hit him right away but too late. I could see this happening easily at a dealership.

Theresa

This is a new 2013 Bighorn #3685RL that I just recently took delivery of. The LPG side of the hot water system is working fine and currently all shut off. I wanted to test the 120V side of the H/W system and see how long it would take to heat up a hot water tank that is full of cold water. I and currently hooked up to shore power and have (metered) 120V at the household receptacles in the 5[SUP]er. [/SUP] The 120V hot water switch that is in the inside control panel is on. The 15 amp breaker switch is on. The small on/off switch located on the outside of the 5er and inside the H/W heater access panel is ON. The hot water tank is full of water. After two hours in the on position, I still have no H/W. I pulled the small plastic cover off the heating element and put a volt meter on the two exposed wires. The meter reads ZERO with the entire system energized. Am I looking at a burned out element? Is there another switch or breaker that I am missing? I was at my selling dealer today, but the technician was off and no one else could answer these questions. I respectfully submit my question to this forum in hopes that the experience here will be able to help me. Thank you.

Lakeside
 

lakeside

Active Member
To Danemayer..very impressive troubleshooting repair guide. I was not aware this was available. Thanks for all who prepared it and to you Dave for pointing me to it. I will work on my unit tomorrow morning and get back to you with what I find.

Lakeside
 

FiremanBill

Well-known member
How long does one typically have to be on with no water in it to get burned out? I forgot to take mine off bypass this spring (new trailer) when I de winterized it and turned it on. It was on for a good couple hours before I realized there was no water in the tank as I opened the cover and saw the plug hanging... oops.

It is working fine now though on both electric and/or gas. I suppose I dodged a bullet.
 

meandg

crawgator
Will need to look into ours. A few months ago we noticed the electric was not working. We have just been using gas but I want it fixed.
 

lakeside

Active Member
Greetings all,

I tested power input as recommended in the link that DaneMayer sent to me on water heater trouble shooting. There was 120V at breaker,120 V at switch on panel inside camper. NO power at any point further in thesystem.
I contacted mydealer, Houlton Power Sports (HPS) and sales manager Jim sent technician, MikeScott out to my home where the 5er is parked. Mike tested the relay immediatelypast the switch on the inside panel. No power going through this relay. Hebypassed the relay (which is a temporary fix until the new relay is received fromHeartland) and the 120V side of the water heater worked perfectly and I had hotwater shortly thereafter without using the 12V (LPG) side of system. I cannotsay enough GOOD about this dealer, HPS. Their service goes above and beyond whatone normally receives from any retailer. They came to my home so that I wouldnot have to drag my camper to them. This is a fine example of how a goodcompany takes care of their customer.
To Dane Mayer: page 7 of the H/W heater troubleshooting linkyou forwarded to me contains an error (according to HPS technician afterputting a volt meter on both sides and testing) that you may want to address.
It reads: “The rightassembly is for the 110Vcircut and the left is for the 12V circuit to the LPside of the W/H. Note that the sensor on the right carries the 110V AC and thesensor on the left carries 12V DC”.
The correct way this paragraph should read is as follows:
“The left assembly is for the 110Vcircut and the right isfor the 12V circuit to the LP side of the W/H. Note that the sensor on the leftcarries the 110V AC and the sensor on the right carries 12V DC”.
Dane, thank you for your continuing assistance and thank youto all the others who replied and assisted me with this issue.

Lakeside
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Hi Lakeside,

I've noted the correction to p7. Do you know where the relay was located? Was it actually behind the control panel switch?
 

lakeside

Active Member
Hi Lakeside,

I've noted the correction to p7. Do you know where the relay was located? Was it actually behind the control panel switch?

Dane, yes the relay is directly behind the main switch panel inside the camper. There is a bank of 5 relays, and the one that goes to the H/W heater is the very bottom one. Four wires on the relay and I suspect it will be a snap to change out once the dealer gets me the new relay from Heartland. I am quite handy, so the technician told me that I could complete the repair. He just put a jumper between the two orange wires and bypassed the entire relay as a temp fix to my problem. That means the 120V AC switch on the panel will NOT operate the H/W heater. To control power to the heater, you need to either turn off the breaker or the switch at the H/W heater outside access panel. A very simple fix and one I will remember in case another member has a similar problem. Thanks again for all your help. Lakeside
 

Bob&Patty

Founders of SoCal Chapter
Just dont forget to turn it off. Wired hot all the time would bother me. Relays are in a system for a reason.
 

lakeside

Active Member
I have a very interesting spin off from my no hot waterproblem / bad relay issue. Heartland sent me a new relay. I installed itexactly as the old relay was wired and turned on the switch, then still had nopower to the outside connections on the H/W heater thus no power to heat theH2O on the 120V side of system.
It was time to take a step back and just LOOK at the whole pictureand WOW did I ever get a surprise. In back of the switch panel there is a bankof 5 relays and on first look I observed several different colored wires goingin every direction. I also noticed that whatevercolored wire was going to a particular relay, brown, red, green, blue, and orangethe same colored wire went to (or should have gone to) the corresponding switchon the control panel. Brown, red, and green wire/relay/switch combinations wereperfectly matched. The blue hot wire from the blue relay was connected to theH/W switch and the orange power wire from the orange relay was connected to theYETI cold weather switch. Here in lies the problem. When the H/W switch wasturned on, the YETI cold weather package was operating. When the YETI switchwas turned on the H/W heater had power and was working perfectly. All I did wasswap out the blue and orange wires and reconnect them to their appropriateswitches and the whole system functioned correctly. I only hope my experience with this electricalissue will be of assistance to another Heartland owner with a similar problem.

Lakeside
 

Stinger381

Well-known member
Well I feel much better now. I am camping at Gulf State Park in Alabama and when I arrive I realize I have no hot water on the electric side. I pulled the heating element and it was obviously fried. I found a 120 volt camco replacement at a local hardware store and swapped it out. I still got no hot water so I pulled the thermostat cover and this what I found. (See upside down mpic). The guide says the right is 120 volt and the left is 12 volt. That made no sense because I had gas heat but not electric. Plus the wires are larger gauge on the left side which screams 120 volt. I had no volt meter with me but because I read this article I realize now that I was right and there was an error in the guide. Either way I need a new thermostat and I doubt I find one here in stock anywhere. I could probably place a jumper across it and get by for a couple of days but I really am not comfortable doing that either.
 

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VKTalley

Well-known member
Well I feel much better now. I am camping at Gulf State Park in Alabama and when I arrive I realize I have no hot water on the electric side. I pulled the heating element and it was obviously fried. I found a 120 volt camco replacement at a local hardware store and swapped it out. I still got no hot water so I pulled the thermostat cover and this what I found. (See upside down mpic). The guide says the right is 120 volt and the left is 12 volt. That made no sense because I had gas heat but not electric. Plus the wires are larger gauge on the left side which screams 120 volt. I had no volt meter with me but because I read this article I realize now that I was right and there was an error in the guide. Either way I need a new thermostat and I doubt I find one here in stock anywhere. I could probably place a jumper across it and get by for a couple of days but I really am not comfortable doing that either.


John, check with Dixie RV in DeFuniak Springs, Fl, tomorrow. They are located right on I-10 and see if they can help you. They are our dealer and service Heartland products.
 

Stinger381

Well-known member
I will check with them tomorrow. There are several dealers in the area. I just hope one of them has the part I need. It is a little drive to defuniak springs but I may have to do it. I did put a jumper wire on the broken thermostat and the water heater works so replacing it will definitely fix it.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Yep, as noted in post #8, the left/right notations in the Water Heater Guide are reversed. It'll be updated soon.
 

Stinger381

Well-known member
Well I am up and running now it seems. I found a replacement thermostat at All-Star RV in Robertsdale, Al and I have it installed now. Here are some pics of the good one and then the bad one just in case someone wants to see what they look like. You can visually see which one is bad and which one is good.
 

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