labbysmom
Active Member
FIRE HAZARD! Long story, so I'll keep to the specifics. Water heater quit several weeks ago suddenly. It only quit on the 110V side. Propane still worked fine. So I began troubleshooting following all the advise found on this forum. Some of it assumes you know how to read a multi meter and you know the values you are looking for. Couldn't find anything wrong except the element had a low continuity reading. So away I went replacing parts. Element first then thermostat and then rocker switch. Checked all the wiring on the breaker side and the main switch. Found the common (white) wires loose on the main switch. Here's were it gets interesting. Following instructions I checked wiring at the back of the water heater. All control wires were attached securely. Strangely though the main feeds to the 110V side went into a small metal box attached to the side of the heater. After checking everything I succumbed to trying to remove this box. There is a screw that you can remove to remove a cover but you need a 1/2" screwdriver. No such thing. Anyway by removing two hex head screws from the outside box that box came free. Still not enough wire to move the box to easy access. Got the screw undone, and I was SHOCKED at what I saw. The common wire(s) were all burnt. What was apparent was a very shoddy job of installing the marrets and not tapping them down. In fact I couldn't even see the marret for the common wire. If it wasn't in the metal box we would have had a fire with my wife and granddaughter staying in the unit. Even if your water heater is working, take the time to remove this box, undo the cover and check the high voltage wiring. Take the marrets off and rewind the wires together. Then tape the wire to the marret to prevent road movement loosening the marret. Sorry no photos, I was just glad to have finally found the problem.