Refrigerator and water heater will not work on electricity

Just bought a 21
2012 north trail camper. The refrigerator and water heater work on lp but not on electrical. No idea where to start troubleshooting. Anyone have any idea where to start or what the issue could be?


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Hi bpermann,

Congratulations on the new-to-you North Trail and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

First thing I'd check would be the outside power pedestal to make sure it's providing appropriate power. The next thing to check would be to make sure the power cord is fully locked into place at the trailer receptacle.

If those look good, check the circuit breakers. When breakers trip, it can be hard to tell visually. Sometimes you just have to go 1 by 1 and flip them off and back on.

I'd also check for a GFCI outlet in the bathroom. Press the reset button.

Also check the rocker switch on the water heater (remove cover outside and look at lower left hand side) and the plug on the back of the fridge (remove outside cover and look for cord and socket).
Good luck and let us know what you find.

Do you have a digital voltmeter, and do you feel confident in using it? Can you use it across the water heater electric heating element terminals to check for AC voltage? You should be able to check the outlet at the back of the refrigerator through the lower outside access panel for AC power being present.

You say that the refrigerator and water heater work OK on LP but not on electric. This would infer that you have an RV ammonia adsorpsion type of refrigerator (if it uses LP), and you do NOT have an inverter/converter problem (assuming that the 12 volt DC system is working normally) and this question belongs in another electrical section. The fact that your refrigerator works on LP tells me that the necessary 12 volts DC is getting to the refrigerator logic board. The fact that your water heater works on LP says that the necessary 12 volts DC for control of the propane valve and spark ignition is present.

I don't know if this is a set of concurrent problems or a single cause, but many owners (including me)have had problems with the 120 volt electric operation of their water heaters due to poor electrical connections from the trailer wiring to the water heater inside a small electrical box on the side of the water heater inside the crawl space.

I assume you know the switch for 120V side of the WH is a residential type switch with a red knob on it.

Just to be clear, There are three switches(including the circuit breaker) that need to be on for the Water Heater to heat water.

1. Circuit breaker
2. Switch on the water heater. Accessible within the Outside access cover
3. Water heater switch, Used to actually turn on and off the Electric part of the water heater.

The refrigerator may be plugged in to an outlet accessible from the outside cover for the refrigerator. You could bypass the RV and use an extension cord to test the refrigerator, if necessary. You can also use a outlet tester to verify the outlet is getting power.

Check to see if the water heater element is bad. I had an issue that fried my converter and would trip power into the rig. It ended up being a bad element in the water heater. Apparently the neutral wire had a broken terminal (did not find that until I unscrewd the lug) and it caused a short and ruined the element. For whatever reason it was not allowing power into my rig and was tripping the GFI on my home power source. I guess everything is wired in series. Up and running now ($225 for new converter and element) but on the bright side it is fixed!

I just had a similar problem and it was the $2.50 rocker switch in the heater compartment. was a cheap and easy fix thank God