Hot water heater will not work on electic.

I my case one of the power wires, screw came loose and wire fell off.....thankfully no short or fire.

The ground wire connector broke off. Moved ground wire to another grounding point on the heater.

I have a Dometic Water Heater and had one of the wires melt inside the enclosure in the back of the Heater. Had to completely remove it and replaced the Element and the on/off switch also located at the same box. It's so difficult to get to when installed it worked better for me to remove it.

JnJnKatiebug wrote:
My HW heater has a small reset button where the wires connect to the heating element. When using the gas it heats the water a lot hotter than the electric and it will trip the safety switch. Every time I use the gas I have to take the small cover off and hit the reset before it will work on electric. I don't know if that is your problem but I would sure check.

Mine has this switch also. My hot water heater will work on electric for a couple of hours and then stop. It always pops the reset switch. It does heat up on electric so I know the element is working. I just don't know why it keeps resetting. Works fine on gas.

Water heaters are pretty easy to work on if you have a multimeter.

THoughts: Many:

1: No shore power
2: Tripped breaker
3: Bad heat element
4: Bad relay
5: Bad control board
6: Blown fuse on control board (not likely since most water heater boards have only one fuse)
7: Bad switch

Testing procedure.... If it is an Atwood (Do not knwo where they park the element on Surburans) so you'll have to adjust step 2.

1: Confirm good power to unit.. (on an atwood the electric element is on the rear, (Inside the motor home side) of the heater, There is often a "Black box" near the water heater on the inside, it contains a relay,, Check for power here.

2: Make sure relay operates (turn on electric when tank full of cool water and observe/listen

3: Check for power to element (output side of box/relay)

4: Kill power and measure resistance of element (infinity, not good)

Diagnosis
Since it works on GAS we know you have good 12v
No relay operation check for 12 volt on coil leads, Present: Bad relay Absent, Bad control board.
Relay operates but no power to element, (Power into black box none out) Bad relay

Power out of black box, but heat element indicates INFINITY (OPEN) on resistance test.. Bad element.

Some folks suggest getting a common 240 volt element, this will result in far lower current consumption (and hours to reheat the water by the way) when on limited power.. I'd love to see Atwood come out with a dual element heater. but alas, they have yet to do so.

Probably need to replace the 1500 watt element. Lowes or HD sells them, along with the little wrench to remove and replace them. If you have a continuity tester you can easily check the element without removing it. Best to empty the tank first.

I burned one by accidentally turning on the electrical element while the tank was empty. Only takes a minute to destroy one like this.

Eyeland wrote:
Pulled in to site, its now dark and just notice the water is not working. The heater is now running off gas. Tomorrow I will chase down the problem. Does anyone have suggestions concerning this situation? In the light of day and with hopefully clearer thoughts my DW will be happy again. Thanks

Make of water heater would help. Eg. many Atwoods have a reset button on the back of the heater near the on/off switch.
have you checked the circuit breaker?
Do you have a separate wall on/off switch?
Is this the first time out this year? Any chance the element was turned on with the heater drained?
Do you own a voltmeter?

All of the above will help diagnosis.

My HW heater has a small reset button where the wires connect to the heating element. When using the gas it heats the water a lot hotter than the electric and it will trip the safety switch. Every time I use the gas I have to take the small cover off and hit the reset before it will work on electric. I don't know if that is your problem but I would sure check.

I recently went through this kind of an issue with my Atwood WH. There are only a couple of likely scenarios for you to check.

1. 120V breaker is off.
2. electric element has failed - check resistance if you can get to it. Did it ever get power without any water?

Without knowing what WH you have there could be a control side issue. My problem turned out to be an intermittent relay for the element. It would heat sometimes. I replaced it and it has been working OK for several days now.

Depending on the WH you may have a single or dual thermostats. If single and it is working OK on propane then the thermostat is OK. If dual then you could have a thermostat failure. Check with a VOM and see if it is open or closed.

I think that these should get you started. Let us know what you find.