Water heater not working on the electric setting...

[dufferdj]

Water heater (Atwood GC6AA-10E) works as expected on propane, but will not heat the water on the electric setting. I have reset the circuit breaker, checked the thermal cut off (fuse) for continuity, pulled/checked the 2AMP fuse in the circuit board, checked the green ground wire for a good ground, burped the water tank, checked all wire connections and even replaced the circuit board as I had an extra from earlier issues. As the RV was sitting in the storage lot I had to run the generator as an electrical power source, but I let it run for about 60 minutes. What am I missing? TIA for any and all suggestions....

[dufferdj]

I'd like to thank all of you for your wonderful ideas. Today I went back to the Breeze, accessed the heating element and found that it was okay, it passed the continuity test. While there, I noticed a thick black wire leading under the dresser drawers just in front of the heater. Pulled out the bottom drawer, and guess what? The WH was unplugged. I just assumed, until Scott shared his story, that the WH was hard wired. Color me surprised. Ran the generator for about 15 minutes and I now have warm, soon to be hot, water. Thanks once again.

[ktmrfs]

Grit dog wrote:

rhagfo wrote:

Sounds like the only thing you didn't check was resistance on the heating element. I am not sure what people consider normal, but I know if bad it will show open.

^ This.
Heating element is the first thing I'd likely check.

yup, the most likely failure item, I don't know the exact resistance you should see, but on a common run of the mill ohm meter it should read almost a dead short if it is good. 1200w would be about 0.1ohm, meter likely would read higher, like 0.2-0.4 ohms due to it not being a "4 terminal" measurement and including lead resistance. If it read in the few ohms it is likely burned out. If it reads in the 1K ohm or higher yup it's open and needs replacing.

[naturist]

Sometimes this problem arises because somebody turned the electric heating element on when the water heater was not full of water. When that happens, it burns out the heating element almost instantly. The cure is element replacement. The test to determine if the heating element is functional is a resistance, for which you need an ohmmeter.

[Grit_dog]

rhagfo wrote:

Sounds like the only thing you didn't check was resistance on the heating element. I am not sure what people consider normal, but I know if bad it will show open.

^ This.
Heating element is the first thing I'd likely check.

[BB_TX]

Best way to find the problem is to use a voltmeter and use a systematical approach to find where you have voltage and where you don't. Otherwise you are just shooting in the dark.

[rhagfo]

dufferdj wrote:
Water heater (Atwood GC6AA-10E) works as expected on propane, but will not heat the water on the electric setting. I have reset the circuit breaker, checked the thermal cut off (fuse) for continuity, pulled/checked the 2AMP fuse in the circuit board, checked the green ground wire for a good ground, burped the water tank, checked all wire connections and even replaced the circuit board as I had an extra from earlier issues. As the RV was sitting in the storage lot I had to run the generator as an electrical power source, but I let it run for about 60 minutes. What am I missing? TIA for any and all suggestions....

Sounds like the only thing you didn't check was resistance on the heating element. I am not sure what people consider normal, but I know if bad it will show open.

[bhb1]

when you fill the tank be sure to fill the tank with water until all air comes out of the tank and faucet. If you don't do this you will dry fire the tank which will burn out the electric element. Disconnect all electric to the tank. With a ohm meter check the the element terminal to terminal there should be a reading if the element is good. No reading would be a burn element. Than from each terminal to the tank body there should be no reading. Do both terminals. Put the meter on 120 volt ac scale, turn on power to the tank there should electric to the thermostat. Most likely the heater is burnt. check it before buying parts