Rocker Switch

[RVFun4Us]

Just pulled my Big Horn out of storage for a one week Christmas trip. Since I had previously drained the hot water tank on our previous trip, and winterized the water lines, I proceeded to close the by-pass valved on the back of the heater and opened the lines to fill the tank. After about ten minutes, I tried to turn on the rocker switch on the front of the heater and it was pretty much immovable. Tried to push to "on" and it was frozen. Could push about half way and then it would return to "off". So I turned on the propane and heated the water. The next morning I tried once again to turn the rocker switch on and after a few attempts, it finally moved into the "on" position and has heated the water just fine. What could cause this switch to freeze up like that? For future moves, I will just turn off the indoor switch and the breaker but still would like to know why I had this problem for future reference. Any ideas?

 

[danemayer]

Dumb question maybe. Did you remove the safety cotterpin that locks the rocker in the off position?


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[davebennington]

I had the same problem the switch kept getting harder and harder to work finally it stopped working and I had to replace it. I would take time to pull the switch out and look at it mine was burnt and may have caught fire.

dave

 

[Garypowell]

I simply had the switch go bad once but though it was the element. I pulled the switch out and removed it. I then wire nutted the wires together. We had another switch inside the rig to turn it off when needed.

 

[RVFun4Us]

@danemayer - no, the cotter pin is not in. Like I said, it finally did switch on with some effort. I will continue to monitor and replace if it continues to cause trouble. In the meantime, I will just leave it in the on position and control the "off and on" from inside the coach.

 

[JohnDar]

No real need to turn it off unless you have to do some kind of electrical work on the heater. Mine's been in the ON position since we took delivery.

 

[jnbhobe]

No real need to turn it off unless you have to do some kind of electrical work on the heater. Mine's been in the ON position since we took delivery.

Mine is the same way, no need to turn it off.

 

[Bob&Patty]

Ours has been on for 5 years......never saw a need to turn it off.

 

[Gaffer]

Ditto...Just leave it on.

 

[RVFun4Us]

PJ and Karol - We live in Redmond so are close to you. We store our Big Horn in Canby so we can use it year around and also have a place to stay when we visit our kids on the west side. I do have a question for you and the rest of the group though because it sounds like most of you do not turn off your water heater at all. When I store it for even a couple of months, I drain my water heater along with the water lines and put in the RV antifreeze. Are some of you saying that you do not drain your water heater at all or are you saying that you never turn off the outside water heater rocker switch? If you do not drain the water heater, isn't there a danger of freeze damage?

 

[davebennington]

Most people drain the hot water heater and turn on the by-pass valves before adding anti-freeze to the unit. The rocker switch located outside in the water heater area is a safety and it is 120 shore or generator powered. In my opinion you can leave the rocker switch on and operate the heater from in switch inside the rig. Keep in mind that when working on the water heater someone "could" turn the heater on from the inside there by sending 120 to the person doing the work.

dave

 

[57chevyconvt]

The HW heater switch inside the unit is supplied by Heartland as an 'convince switch' and the switch supplied by Atwood or Suburban at the unit is supplied by the heater manufacture which is required to be able to isolate the HW heater 120 V power supply for liability reasons. I have experienced the same problem with the Heater Mfgr's supplied rocker switch. As a result of this difficulty, I do like the rest of the folks, just leave it turned on and rely on the Heartland supplied switch and/or circuit breaker as a means of isolating the 120 V power supply when draining or winterizing the HW heater.