water heater quit

[srink]

ran my water heater on electric for about 2 weeks. no problems.
then...no hot water. switched to gas and works fine. back to electric, no hot water. ran on gas for another 3 weeks just fine.
Bad element or bad thermostat???????????
how do I check?

[Jetta03]

Assuming everything is turned on, switch at the heater, breaker, etc. most likely you burned out the 120v heating element. We found out the hard way that turning the heater on for just a few seconds is enough to fry it.

Its a very easy fix, $20-$30 for the replacement element depending on the type of tank.

[js6343js6343]

I went through this same problem just last year. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why the electric option on my suburban was not heating water. Gas was fine.

Replaced the element. No help. Replaced the thermostat. No help.

Turned out it was the SWITCH! That cheap plastic upside down switch they put next to the element to turn on the electric. Replaced that and I was good to go.

Just giving you something to consider when you start troubleshooting.

[Old-Biscuit]

Depends on which brand WH


Suburban
Could be bad electric element
Could be tripped AC circuit breaker for element
Could be tripped High Temp T-stat for electric element
Could be bad set of t-stats for electric element

Atwood
Could be bad element
Could be tripped AC circuit breaker for electric element
Could be bad 12V DC circuit/fuse or relay (used to activate AC power for element)

Won't be t-stats as same set used for electric and propane

Which Brand do you have?

ON EDIT:
See you have a Suburban SW10DE, have had this issue since 2/14/15.
SO.......
Did you check anything as suggested in other post---3 months ago?
Previous post......same problem

[SeaDog_BRR]

If it is running fine on gas then I would suspect that the electric element is burned out.

[donn0128]

Time to get out the VOM to find out. I would suspect the element first.