Rookie question on water heater

Old Biscuit, I was glad to see your comment if left on propane I was thinking it should perform as you mentioned. Now I know.

I am HOPING this was hypothetical Old-Bisquet. We just bought camper and seller was much less than helpful. We plugged camper into shore without connecting water. If less than helpful seller left heater on, it will be fried.

Thank you all for your responses. This forum has always been a great help with very little or no shaming. :)

kentrks wrote:
We have a grand junction 5th wheel. The water heater is dual heat source, gas & electric.
If there is no water in unit, will the gas or electric burn the unit up if they are not turned off.

You did not say when you emptied the WH. If you drained it after returning home, and have not plugged into shore power since draining, you may be okay.

Jerry

No water in water heater

Electric element turned on......WILL burn out after several minutes. Element uses water to keep from burning out.

Propane....will trip due to tank temp reaching t-stat set point. Tank will probably be OK provided it is allowed to cool down before filling with water.

Atwood tanks are aluminum and will fare better than Suburban tank which is a porcelain-lined steel tank.
Porcelain can crack but neither will melt. Damage is done when folks don't let them cool down and fill them with cold water.....thermal shock.


Which Brand/Model do you have?

Is this a hypothetical question OR did you have electric/propane on with WH tank empty?

You can buy the element at Home Depot. You will need the socket/wrench they sell to remove the old one. Disconnect all power to the trailer, 12 volt included.

if you let the propane burn with an empty tank it will melt and burn through the tank, then it gets expensive you have to buy a new water heater. the water no matter how hot it gets is the reason the tank doesn't melt.

It takes about 5 seconds to burn one up.

downtheroad wrote:
Now that you have heard the bad news....the good news is that if you do fry the electric element, they are easy and inexpensive to replace...

In fact it gets easier every time! :W

Now that you have heard the bad news....the good news is that if you do fry the electric element, they are easy and inexpensive to replace...