No 110 Volts to Hot Water Heater Element

[_1Flyboy]

….. Good morning all… Suburban SW6DEL not getting 110 Volts to the heater element. Rocker switch on control panel is sending out 12 Volts when turned on. Is there a relay switch somewhere between the rocker switch and the element? Suggestions appreciated…..TIA

[_1Flyboy]

wnjj…. I used your suggestion and… yep…. It’s the switch… Got a new switch ordered from Amazon… Thanks wnjj & everyone else that helped!!!

[deltabravo]

This is probably the best water heater troubleshooting video I've seen.

Diagnosing a Suburban RV Water Heater AC and DC Electrical

He's a mobile RV repair tech and has a lot of really good videos on his channel

[wnjj]

enblethen wrote:
Your Honda genset has a floating neutral. Your reading between element and frame can be missing leading. For my inverter genset, I made a plug cheater that ties the neutral and ground together. It is inserted into the duplex receptacle.

Great point.

When measuring AC voltages around the water heater, use the other pin on the element as the neutral (the one not connected to the relay/switch/limit switch).

[enblethen]

Your Honda genset has a floating neutral. Your reading between element and frame can be missing leading. For my inverter genset, I made a plug cheater that ties the neutral and ground together. It is inserted into the duplex receptacle.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I thought my element had failed. I bought a new one. After replacement, the new one started to work. I guess the relay had frozen "open" and the act of replacing the element "fixed" it.

[_1Flyboy]

rnblethen… that was the first step, thanks for sharing….

[enblethen]

Do all the 120-volt receptacles and appliances work?
If they work, try this. Water heater is normally on its own breaker. Try resetting the breaker. Turn it off applying light pressure toward off then turn it on.

[_1Flyboy]

Wnjj… I’ll try your suggestion when I get time, on the road for a while and propane heater works fine… thank you….

[wnjj]

enblethen wrote:
Manual. Manual
Yes, there is relay

This is helpful. Look at figure 7 for the AC wiring. The 120V power from the breaker panel connects to the relay. Then when 12VDC is applied to the coil (refer to figure 6), the relay should pass the 120V to the switch. Then once the switch is on, it feeds the hi-limit cutout and finally to the element itself.

If you're comfortable checking with power on measure it at each place, starting with the input to the relay. If you aren't comfortable doing that, find a way to connect the meter while the main power is disconnected and only turn it on long enough to read the meter.

If you suspect the outside switch, try temporarily shorting the pins or better yet pull the wires off the switch terminals and find a way to connect them to each other (with the power off).

[wa8yxm]

As I recall Surburans have 2 switches in the 120 volt side and two thermostats (Min and High Temp cut out) and possibly a thermal fuse (do not know on that).

The 120 volt side is independent of the Propane side

Atwood has just one set of thermostats and a control computer.

[_1Flyboy]

enblethen….. When I tested the voltage from my Honda 2200 it was showing 125 volts at the plug. When I tested power at the element and the frame I was getting 12.5 volts ( Honda was on ECO mode & not on high revs )… Did a continuity check on outside switch and values did not change either on / off. Bad outside switch?

[enblethen]

Where is the Plug? The thermostat for the water heater normally has a red reset button. It is a bi-metal type.

[_1Flyboy]

AC scale.. getting 125 volts from the plug.

[enblethen]

The outside switch is or should be 120-volts AC.
Are you one AC or DC scale?