No 110 Volts to Hot Water Heater Element

Have you physically checked that you're not getting 120V at the heater element, or assuming so because the element doesn't heat up?

… tested with volt meter….Circuit breaker is ok… worked for a while yesterday…

Some have two switches. one outside and one inside.
Make and model of water heater would help!

Past reported problems:
- tripped breaker
- bad or tripped thermostat/hi temp cutout
- little black switch on bottom left corner of WH off or bad
- bad relay (located in junction box on WH)
- loose/bad/burned wire connection in any of those areas.

Look for an additional 120 volt switch on the water heater itself, suburban located on lower left looking in with outside panel removed. It’s hard to see because of its location behind gas valve.

Make & model are in my original post; outside lower left 2nd switch is on. Maybe 2nd switch is bad???

Intermittent suggests a short somewhere. Probably harder to find. But easier if it’s not working.

2nd switch is the inside 12 vdc switch that operates the relay at the water heater.

Voltmeter and understanding of the circuit (schematic available in the WH manual) will greatly help in quickly finding the problem.

If you are placing your meter leads across the two terminals on the heating element and not showing 120 vac, it could also actually be loss of neutral. Burned neutral wire in the J box has also been reported multiple times. Try putting one meter lead on the hot side of the element and the other meter lead on the metal frame of the water heater.

Manual. Manual
Yes, there is relay

BB TX… I’ll give your suggestion a try in a day or so; if’s I still don’t show 110 volts do you think it would be the outside switch?