SOLVED: Something smoking (water heater control box)

Hi all, just got in from a afternoon of quadding and while backing the truck in, my wife summons me inside and says there is a smell of smoke inside our unit! I get inside and it smells like burnt electrical, she has the fans on which was making it worse, as it was drawing the smoke into the living area. I seen where the smoke was coming from, a grate beside the fireplace, I took it off and looked in there and only see the furnace back in there, the smoke seemed to be coming from the converter I presume. I called the mobile RV tech I used last time and he informed me to shut off the breaker for the converter, but I could still hear it humming, he then told me to shut the main breaker off, and when I did the humming noise stopped. He said that the 12volt converter is probably shot.

any comments? Should I phone heartland first? Or the dealer?

Re: Problems with converter burning up?

TacoTom said:

Hi all, just got in from a afternoon of quadding and while backing the truck in, my wife summons me inside and says there is a smell of smoke inside our unit! I get inside and it smells like burnt electrical, she has the fans on which was making it worse, as it was drawing the smoke into the living area. I seen where the smoke was coming from, a grate beside the fireplace, I took it off and looked in there and only see the furnace back in there, the smoke seemed to be coming from the converter I presume. I called the mobile RV tech I used last time and he informed me to shut off the breaker for the converter, but I could still hear it humming, he then told me to shut the main breaker off, and when I did the humming noise stopped. He said that the 12volt converter is probably shot.

any comments? Should I phone heartland first? Or the dealer?

Click to expand...

Could also be the transfer switch.

I'd start by calling someone who can put hands on and get you fixed.

Re: Problems with converter burning up?

Tom, if it is the transfer switch, there are only two screws to loosen to remove the top. I had one burn up and it definitely smelled of it. If it is the converter, mine is right next to the transfer switch, plugged into a receptacle.

Re: Something smoking (converter, transfer switch...)

If you are still under the warranty you can have anybody fix the problem but you must get HL approval first.....Don

Re: Problems with converter burning up?

scottyb said:

Tom, if it is the transfer switch, there are only two screws to loosen to remove the top. I had one burn up and it definitely smelled of it. If it is the converter, mine is right next to the transfer switch, plugged into a receptacle.

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The RV Tech just looked at it and can't see any signs of heat damage on the transfer switch or converter, so since he has other work to do in the park, he instructed me to turn everything on, In could in order to replicate the issue, and with the components exposed we will be able to see what is going on.

When it happened last, it was at night when there was little load on the system....Mmmmm?

Re: Problems with converter burning up?

TacoTom said:

The RV Tech just looked at it and can't see any signs of heat damage on the transfer switch or converter, so since he has other work to do in the park, he instructed me to turn everything on, In could in order to replicate the issue, and with the components exposed we will be able to see what is going on.

When it happened last, it was at night when there was little load on the system....Mmmmm?

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Check voltage on your outlets. Should be 120V from hot (short prong) to neutral (long prong) and also from hot to ground. Voltage from neutral to ground should be close to 0. If you have a problem with the transfer switch that's generating excess heat, it'll probably show up in the voltage readings.

Re: Problems with converter burning up?

danemayer said:

Check voltage on your outlets. Should be 120V from hot (short prong) to neutral (long prong) and also from hot to ground. Voltage from neutral to ground should be close to 0. If you have a problem with the transfer switch that's generating excess heat, it'll probably show up in the voltage readings.

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Update....while the RV techs were on a different job, my wife says...hey you know when you took a shower last time, that is when I really smelt it...Mmmmm? So I replicated the events by taking another shower...and low and behold she starts screaming...smoke...smoke! It is really bad...so I dry off and look under the basement and see smoke coming out from the electrical box for the water heater. I shut the breaker off and point out the affected area to the RV tech, and sure enough they remove the connection box for the water heater and all the wires were all melted, his diagnosis was the wires in the marette connectors were loose and must have shorted out. We were lucky things did not catch fire, as the box holding all the wires is made from plastic.
So he drained the HW tank, cut out the bad wires, reconnected wires and water and put us back in service!!
All is well again!!

Re: Problems with converter burning up?

Great news that you found the problem. Thanks for coming back and letting us know what was found. May save another Heartlander lots of problems... I know I am going to check the connections on my unit,,,
just to be safe.

Thanks
Jim M

Re: Problems with converter burning up?

There have been numerous reports on this forum about poor wiring (loose wirenuts, intermittent shorts) in the water heater 110 volt electrical connection box. Mine had the intermittent short - it drove me nuts intermittently tripping the water heater breaker until I found/fixed it.

On edit: The main AC connections in the Suburban water heaters are made in a metal electrical box, which is there (by code) to contain any possible fire events.

Re: Problems with converter burning up?

wdk450 said:

There have been numerous reports on this forum about poor wiring (loose wirenuts, intermittent shorts) in the water heater 110 volt electrical connection box. Mine had the intermittent short - it drove me nuts intermittently tripping the water heater breaker until I found/fixed it.

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Thankful that mine was found, I did not get the breaker tripping on my short circuit, (Just Smoke!) if I did I would have been prompted to look in a certain direction.
I am happy the fire dept did not have to be called.