Rookie question on water heater

Yes

yes it will burn the element

If you leave the electricity on in an empty heater then the electric element will burn up. However I'm not sure what leaving the gas on will do, other than waste propane. The element is inside the tank, the gas burner is outside.

As previously stated Yes. After I "fried" one on my first trailer with hot water I read the manual. Switched to propane til we got back from trip. Bought new element and replaced. Now I make sure the HW tank is full (no air passing from the faucet when Hot Water is on) and then turn the switch to on. On 2nd trailer with HW and no issues.
Greg

Now that you have heard the bad news....the good news is that if you do fry the electric element, they are easy and inexpensive to replace...

downtheroad wrote:
Now that you have heard the bad news....the good news is that if you do fry the electric element, they are easy and inexpensive to replace...

In fact it gets easier every time! :W

It takes about 5 seconds to burn one up.

if you let the propane burn with an empty tank it will melt and burn through the tank, then it gets expensive you have to buy a new water heater. the water no matter how hot it gets is the reason the tank doesn't melt.

You can buy the element at Home Depot. You will need the socket/wrench they sell to remove the old one. Disconnect all power to the trailer, 12 volt included.

No water in water heater

Electric element turned on......WILL burn out after several minutes. Element uses water to keep from burning out.

Propane....will trip due to tank temp reaching t-stat set point. Tank will probably be OK provided it is allowed to cool down before filling with water.

Atwood tanks are aluminum and will fare better than Suburban tank which is a porcelain-lined steel tank.
Porcelain can crack but neither will melt. Damage is done when folks don't let them cool down and fill them with cold water.....thermal shock.


Which Brand/Model do you have?

Is this a hypothetical question OR did you have electric/propane on with WH tank empty?