The "7-Year Glitches"
Like the "7-year itch" kinda....
Our rig is approaching its 7th year of full-time use, and in the past couple of months I've had to replace the bedroom lights dimmer switch (quick and easy) and the water heater relay (not so quick and easy).
The water heater relay was an especially scary "glitch" - we hooked up at a CG in TN, and after a few minutes began to smell an awful "burnt insulation" smell in the bedroom. After switching off all AC power and checking all over the place, we discovered where the smell was coming from, the back end of the Atwood water heater. A call to Atwood followed, where we found out that the OEMs (in this case Fleetwood) sometimes leave too much wiring in the little plastic box that houses the relay, causing eventual chafing and wires shorting out (this being the 15 amp AC to the heater!). That's exactly what happened in my case. Removed burnt wiring, shortening it, and replaced relay just in case it was damaged. All OK now.
Funny thing I learned during my troubleshooting: At one point during my "smell-check" I turned off the circuit breaker to the water heater, and also the "washer-dryer" breaker (which we don't have) - later noticed my power distribution display showed I was only hooked up to 30 amp power, but I was connected to 50 amp at pedestal. Called CG maintenance over, they checked pedestal, all good. After checking my transfer switch, etc, etc, (and sweating & swearing) discovered that turning the "washer-dryer" circuit breaker back on fixed the erroneous display.
Anyways, guess it's just the start of the rig's "7-year glitch" time.
Our rig is approaching its 7th year of full-time use, and in the past couple of months I've had to replace the bedroom lights dimmer switch (quick and easy) and the water heater relay (not so quick and easy).
The water heater relay was an especially scary "glitch" - we hooked up at a CG in TN, and after a few minutes began to smell an awful "burnt insulation" smell in the bedroom. After switching off all AC power and checking all over the place, we discovered where the smell was coming from, the back end of the Atwood water heater. A call to Atwood followed, where we found out that the OEMs (in this case Fleetwood) sometimes leave too much wiring in the little plastic box that houses the relay, causing eventual chafing and wires shorting out (this being the 15 amp AC to the heater!). That's exactly what happened in my case. Removed burnt wiring, shortening it, and replaced relay just in case it was damaged. All OK now.
Funny thing I learned during my troubleshooting: At one point during my "smell-check" I turned off the circuit breaker to the water heater, and also the "washer-dryer" breaker (which we don't have) - later noticed my power distribution display showed I was only hooked up to 30 amp power, but I was connected to 50 amp at pedestal. Called CG maintenance over, they checked pedestal, all good. After checking my transfer switch, etc, etc, (and sweating & swearing) discovered that turning the "washer-dryer" circuit breaker back on fixed the erroneous display.
Anyways, guess it's just the start of the rig's "7-year glitch" time.
