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gwtriker's avatar
gwtriker
Explorer
May 27, 2013

Atwood water heater "draining" house battery

With everything 12V turned OFF, something in my RV was draining the house battery ... after much testing, determined it was the Atwood water heater(GC6AA-10E). With heaters' 15A fuse pulled - no drain: fuse in - drain. At the heater proper, pulled 12V connector to heater - no drain. With connector still disconnected, tested voltage on the connector - with switches in off position no voltage / voltage when in on position.

Any ideas as to what is causing the drain when the 12V connector is plugged into the heater????

3 Replies

  • wasatchmtnatvr's avatar
    wasatchmtnatvr
    Explorer
    May 27, 2013
    If you have the dual switch for water heater with red light lense in the middle also make sure you shut of the 120vac system switch. It uses a 12 vdc circuit with a relay to activate the 120 vac wtr. htr. system. it is the one with a lightning bolt picture next to it. this relay will draw dc amps.
  • HiTech's avatar
    HiTech
    Explorer
    May 27, 2013
    gwtriker wrote:
    With everything 12V turned OFF, something in my RV was draining the house battery ... after much testing, determined it was the Atwood water heater(GC6AA-10E). With heaters' 15A fuse pulled - no drain: fuse in - drain. At the heater proper, pulled 12V connector to heater - no drain. With connector still disconnected, tested voltage on the connector - with switches in off position no voltage / voltage when in on position.

    Any ideas as to what is causing the drain when the 12V connector is plugged into the heater????


    Do you by chance have a 12v heating element? Is it on? Is your hot water hot when you have a full battery? 15a is way more than a controller board parasitic load. Either I am totally missing something or you have a 12v heating element active, though 15 a seems small for an element.

    Jim

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