Girard Water heater - 12v questions

[Diggievitt]

I am in a 76 airstream argosy and I just installed a new water heater and all new pluming. This new Girard GSWH-2 has a 12v+,12v-, and 2 blue wires for the switch. After tearing out the old water heater, I realaized there was never any wiring to this unit. I've noticed a lot of other guys just attaching the wires to the old ones, but I don't have that option and now I am not sure where to run these wires. I do have a fuse panel in the back of the rv, but there is no extra space to install a new tube fuse. The power input for the water heater is 3 amps. Could I connect the positive to an existing wire in the fuse panel and ground the black wire? What should I do? Thanks!

 

[danemayer]

Hi Diggievitt,

Heartland uses Suburban or Atwood water heaters, so there aren't likely to be many people on this forum who are familiar with Girard water heaters, or for that matter with a '76 Airstream.

But it's possible someone might.

Have you tried posting to forums that support a variety of RV manufacturers or to an Airstream forum?

 

[Diggievitt]

SOLVED

I was able to take that lead wire and piggy back off of another fuse with a high amperage, only because this water heater only requires 3 amps. So I attached it to a fuse that had 50 amps, and grounded the other wire and that is all I needed. Now I have plenty of power and the other wire in the fuse isnt affected when they're used simultaneously.

 

[avvidclif]

SOLVED

I was able to take that lead wire and piggy back off of another fuse with a high amperage, only because this water heater only requires 3 amps. So I attached it to a fuse that had 50 amps, and grounded the other wire and that is all I needed. Now I have plenty of power and the other wire in the fuse isnt affected when they're used simultaneously.

That's fine but that 50A fuse isn't protecting the water heater and wiring. Where you came off the 50A fuse add a 5A inline fuse going to the WH.