Water heater electrical

[Jwisinger]

Hello all, first let me introduce myself. My name is Jeremy and I am a newbie to this crazy rv life. My wife and I pulled the plug about a month ago and are now full time rv living. We are active duty Coast Guard and want travel when we retire so we are starting early. This is our first rv we have owned and to say the learning curve is steep is an understatement. We purchased a used Gateway 3800 rlb and other than some rookie mistakes it is in pretty good shape. The issue that is plaguing me however is the suburban water heater. I have seen lots of threads on the issues and read most of them. I also used the troubleshooting guide and that was full of useful information but still can't find my issue. The lp side of the water heater works great. However there is no power to the 110 side. I have power coming into the water heater but no power at the secondary 110 switch and no power at the thermostat or heater element. The troubleshooting guide mentions a 12v relay but I can't seem to find one. Not sure where to go from here??

 

[danemayer]

Hi Jwisinger,

If the switch that turns on the electric side of the water heater is 12V DC, it is powered by a fuse in your main fusebox. Check the fuses first. Then check for 12V DC on one side of the switch with switch OFF. There should be 12V DC on both sides of the switch with it ON. And of course the ground lead of your volt meter needs to be on a known good ground.

The relay may be located either behind the switch panel, or possibly in a junction box mounted to the front inside corner of the water heater.

If you have 12V DC at the switch, the most likely failure is a bad connection in the junction box. I'd suggest shutting off your 120V AC power before trying to open the box.

On many floor plans, to get to the front corner of the water heater, you have to take down the rear wall of the pass through basement storage.