Hot skin issue please help
Hi, I have a 1996 30 ft camper I'm having a hot skin issue where 50 v is leaking from shell of camper to ground. Each of the six breakers I have on my camper reduce this voltage as I shut each of them...
Forum Discussion
NJRVer wrote:
Mike, keep up the good work!
From what I remember the element was split open about a 1/2".
Yup... I've snagged a couple of burned out hot water heater elements for this experiment. Interestingly, in a home (240-volt) situation, the thermostat only opens up one of the two hot legs. So even though the hot water may be up to temp, there will be a continuous leakage of perhaps 2 or 3 amps into the water itself from the "always on" leg, and a steady stream of hydrogen and oxygen ( or chlorine) gas. I'm trying to remember my high-school chemistry, but I think that chlorine and hydrogen gas in the presence of water will create hydrochloric acid. May be the reason why some hot water heater pipes I've looked at appear to be rotted from the inside out. Also may explain why some hot water heaters seem to randomly explode. If there's a 2:1 proportion of hydrogen and oxygen gas in the top of the tank from this electrolysis action of the split heater element, then a spark caused by the broken element itself could ignite a Brown's Gas explosion. No proof of this yet, so I'm proceeding slowly so as not to blow up my garage (or me).
Mike Sokol
