Light switch

Bardeenm1

Member
Good Afternoon, We purchased a used 2010 North Country 26BH and I have a question. In the bathroom we have a red light switch that has a light within the switch, what does this switch control? I can not find anything in the manual. We have the 3 switch panel for the tanks and water pump, a ground fault and of course the bathroom light and fan switch also.

Please help as it is driving me nuts trying to figure it out.

Marc
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Hi Bardeenm1,

A residential light switch with a red actuator that lights up is carrying 110V AC and is probably used to turn on the electric heater portion of your water heater. Two things to take note of:

1) there is usually a 2nd, safety switch on the backside of the water heater. On Suburban water heaters, it's a small black rocker switch usually at the bottom left corner, that may have a cotterpin that has to be removed to throw the switch. Both switches have to be on for the electric heating element to turn on.

2) The purpose of the black rocker switch is to avoid accidents where someone activates the red light switch in the bathroom when there's no water in the water heater. If both switches are on and there's no water in the water heater, the electric element will burn out VERY quickly.

Since you may have experimented with the switch in the bathroom, I'm hoping the black safety switch was OFF or that you had water in the water heater.
 

Bardeenm1

Member
Thank you very much for your helpful reply. I feel like a dumby for posting the question before using the forum search though! The electric heater element works great and we quickly had warm water when I tested last night. Like others posted in other threads no mention of the electric element in the manual that I have come across.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Don't feel too badly. The manuals have a lot of important and useful information, but are thin in some areas, including how to use the water heater.

If the previous owner didn't leave the Heartland manual with the trailer, you can download the current one here. It's generic and covers lots of different models, so not everything will apply to your trailer, but it does have a lot of important information. In addition, many of the specific appliance/subsystem manuals can be downloaded from this website in the TOOLS/OWNERS MANUALS section. Here's a link to the Suburban Water Heater manual. It also contains a lot of useful information.
 
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