New one on me...for the electricians

time2roll wrote:
The water did not self heat.

I recall one day in August when I was stuck in S.E. Ga (Townsend). and when it was time to take a shower I realized I'd not turned on the water heater (For some reason I'd turned it off,, possibly by accident, the day before)>> Still had a nice warm shower.

YES. it self heated. Sunshine can do that to ya.

Maybe the water source was already hot.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.


The water heater electric element was energized via a closed switch.

The law of conservation of energy in physics does not have an exception for RV water heaters.

Wild guess, but I would check to see if the polarity at the 30 amp receptacle is reversed, simply because I don't like coincidences. Reversed polarity would cause power to be distributed to the heater even with the switch in the off position. There would still need to be some weird short or shunt to a ground or the neutral, but I guess it could be possible. One incident I would say failed switch. Two means I check the switches but also start thinking about other, weirder possibilities. A reversed polarity situation is somewhat common and easily corrected. To check, the hot side should be the left hand slot when looking at the receptacle. Use a multimeter/voltmeter to check the voltage between that slot and the U shaped ground. It should read about 120 volts. Then test the right slot to the U shaped ground, it should have no voltage. If they are reversed, the park wiring needs to be reversed. If both tests read 120 volts, there are bigger problems. That would be a good 2nd stop in your investigation.

I've got a Suburban water heater with electric element. The water heater has no switch inside the water heater, it's fed from a breaker in the 120 volt electrical panel. The switch on the inside is for the propane only.

No way to find out if the 120 volt in feeding the element is to get yourself an volt/ohm meter and check it for power. Otherwise your just guessing

Captain_Happy wrote:
I've got a Suburban water heater with electric element. The water heater has no switch inside the water heater, it's fed from a breaker in the 120 volt electrical panel. The switch on the inside is for the propane only.

No way to find out if the 120 volt in feeding the element is to get yourself an volt/ohm meter and check it for power. Otherwise your just guessing

All Suburban Water Heaters WITH OEM electric element have an On/Off switch in outside compartment lower left corner behind/below gas valve.

Unless it has been removed by someone....

Reversing the polarity does not close the open switch leg.