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Old 03-23-2009, 10:28 PM   #1
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Question Ever used the ELECTRIC part of your water heater?

I just found out that my water heater not only uses gas but it can also be switched to electric. I havent done this yet and am wondering if anyone else has ever used the electric heater instead of the gas and if so what are the advantages and disadvantages, other than using less propane that is.

It appears to be a standard 6 gallon heater and is in my 2006 Rockwood Ultralight 2701SS.
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Old 03-24-2009, 03:08 AM   #2
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electric heating is slower than the propane heating. but if you have electric hookups, the only advantage, i know of, is not using up propane to heat water.
also, using both at the same time, heats the water faster.

since we rarely camp with any hookups, we've only used the electric a couple of times.
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Old 03-24-2009, 05:03 AM   #3
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We, the wife and myself, use the electric water heater element all of the time. Seldom do we find that we need hot water before the electric element has had time to do the job and almost never do we run out of hot water. The best answer to your question is to try it for yourself and see how it works out for you.
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Old 03-24-2009, 05:07 AM   #4
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The DSI (direct spark ignition) combo water heaters have been around a long time, and most trailers have them now. There may still be a few around that only have gas but the combination is generally the rule now.

We use the electric half whenever we can to conserve propane. We may as well use the campground's electricity instead of our propane.

You can use both combined if you want or need a fast heat up of water. Once the water is hot, turn off the propane.
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Old 03-24-2009, 07:48 AM   #5
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We usually only use gas in addition to electric when we want fast recovery (when we want to take showers in sucession). Mostly, we use electric because it saves propane and we've already paid for the electricity. Yes, you can run both at the same time.
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Old 03-24-2009, 08:19 AM   #6
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Like the folks said, try it.
We use electric whenever we have power available.
LP gas is pricey and a bother to change out tanks.
Why burn gas when you're already paying for a site with an
electric hookup.

Do be careful and remember to shut off the electric AND gas functions
when ever you are not on either city water or electric pump.
In other words, if you don't have water pressure from somewhere you don't
want your water heater on either and now you have to remember another thing
to shut off.

That's why I always preach to MAKE AND USE A CHECKLIST.
I saw a guy drive off with his TV antenna up once.
I moved my trailer with a rear jack down-- it bends the crap out of it when you
do that.
It will immediately burn out your heater element if you turn it on with no water
in the heater tank!
Use a check list!!!!!

PS. you will probably find you have to turn on 2 switches to get electric water heat.
One is a circuit breaker found in your power panel.
The other is a little "hidden" switch found in the outside water heater access panel.
It often hides behind a gas line so you may have to look closely to find it.
It also may have a safety wire or clip in it that you'll have to remove the 1st time
you turn it on.
After that you can just turn off the breaker inside if you want the electric
heater off.
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Old 03-24-2009, 09:16 AM   #7
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I did't realize that I could use electric for a while after we bought our TT. After looking into it, I tried it and it did not work, I've always wondered if the electric element was bad when we picked up our unit. Anyway, I replaced the electric element which was bad, but I have not had a chance to tried it yet. As stated before, do make sure the electric element is off when you are done camping and make sure it is never turned on if the water heater is empty, it will burn the element. Currently the water heater in our TT is empty so I have the outside switch off and te breaker off.
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Old 03-24-2009, 11:20 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bama Rambler View Post
We usually only use gas in addition to electric when we want fast recovery (when we want to take showers in sucession). Mostly, we use electric because it saves propane and we've already paid for the electricity. Yes, you can run both at the same time.
Same for us. If you are in a campground paying for electricity why use propane which is more expensive? When in a campground we use the electricity as much as possible, with our old Fleetwood motorhome we would carry a 1500w oscillating space heater to heat the rig instead of using the furnace. In our new Georgetown we have the electric fireplace which will do a fairly good job of heating the rig as long as outside temps don't drop below 40.

Use the gas a little as you have too in my opinion, its for those times when you don't have hookups.
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Old 03-24-2009, 02:55 PM   #9
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We always camp with hookups! the electric part of the water heater stays on the whole stay and we run the propane when taking back-back showers. on our first Cherokee I found the electric switch a few months after bringing it home. I turned it on, but it still didn`t work. turns out it was never plugged in!!! plugged it in and it worked great.

BTW, never run the electric heating element without water in the tank! it will burn up the element within seconds!
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Old 03-24-2009, 03:56 PM   #10
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electric water heater

Thanks everyone for this post. I just went out to my trailer and found the electric hot water heater switch(hidden), that I couldn't find before. I too was unsure if there was a electric heater in the tank.
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Old 03-24-2009, 10:02 PM   #11
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Thanks for the replies.
My follow up questions are these:
If I understand this, I fill up the tank with water. Then I can turn on the electric heating element by turning on the breaker AND the hidden switch (which I did find).

If I want I can also turn on the gas heat part of it by turning on the siwtch inside of my camper that reads WATER HEATER. Am I correct? Apparently that particular switch has nothing to do with the electric elements, right?

What about the two switches located behind some sort of black round rubber covering on the heater. Some sort of reset switches. I couldnt get my heater to work on gas the other day. I pressed both of those and it came on. Did I imagine this? ANyone know what they actually reset?
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Old 03-25-2009, 06:46 AM   #12
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They reset the electronic board that controls the gas burner.

The electric heat element is separate from the gas.
You can use either one or both if you are in a hurry to get hot water.
The inside red switch labeled water heater is for the gas side.
It will probably light up red when you turn it on but go dark when the burner lights.
On mine, the switch is only red if there is a problem or when the gas burner is
in the process of lighting.
Once it lights successfully, my red switch light goes out.
If it is unable to light, the switch stays red to let you know there is a problem
with the gas burner.
Sometimes you can reset the gas burner simply by turning it off and
back on.

You can still use the electric side even if the gas side is off or not working.

Good luck!
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Old 03-25-2009, 07:44 AM   #13
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Those "switches" located behind the rubber cover are properly named High Limits or Cutouts. They are high temp switches that have to be manually reset. If your heater gets too hot for any reason they trip.

Dan did an excellent write-up on the operation of the gas switch. Mine operates the same way.
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Old 03-25-2009, 05:50 PM   #14
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Thumbs up Water Heater

I sure appreciate this fellas! I cant wait to use the electric portion of the heater. So far we just used the propane and of course I didnt want to leave it on all the time an use gas. Now that I know my options I am ready to keep my water warm AND save on gas when needed!
Thank you!
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Old 03-25-2009, 10:19 PM   #15
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You learn something new every day. Just walked out to check and found that mine has an electric element too, leading to another question that wasn't answered in the manual.
Can the electric and the gas be on at the same time so the electric could maintain the temp and the gas would kick in for a faster recovery time?
Thanks for the info.
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Old 03-26-2009, 05:02 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hogrydr View Post
You learn something new every day. Just walked out to check and found that mine has an electric element too, leading to another question that wasn't answered in the manual.
Can the electric and the gas be on at the same time so the electric could maintain the temp and the gas would kick in for a faster recovery time?
Thanks for the info.
Yes, both can be on at the same time to reduce recovery time or provide a quicker heat up when first starting up.
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Old 03-31-2009, 12:55 PM   #17
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I sure appreciate this fellas! I cant wait to use the electric portion of the heater. So far we just used the propane and of course I didnt want to leave it on all the time an use gas. Now that I know my options I am ready to keep my water warm AND save on gas when needed!
Thank you!
We're still waiting for the factory to finish building our first travel trailer, but we have had a tent trailer (pop-up) for a few years now. It has a 6 gallon water heater in it and what I have found is that after the initial lighting and water heat up, the heater can maintain a full tank of hot water simply by switching it back to "pilot". With anything but heavy use, we haven't had a problem keeping it that way the whole camping trip (but then we weren't taking showers in the p-up either)
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Old 03-31-2009, 09:25 PM   #18
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I keep a few of the small ceramic space heaters in the rig. If it gets a little chilly we fire one of those up instead of using the propane.

We couldn't see ourselves in a 373, so no fireplace.
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Old 04-08-2009, 03:21 PM   #19
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My husband will be so excited to read this when he gets home. Now I'm wondering if we can find the switch in our Rockwood 8233SS 5th.
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