Suburban Water Heater problem

V-Lite Fun · 04-04-2016, 05:52 PM

The electric side of my water heater is not working. I checked the element. It is good. I checked the on off switch. It is good. The receptacle where the heater plugs in is hot. Yes, I do have the control panel switch on. I don't know what else to check. There is no power getting to the element. Could there be a thermostat somewhere that may be bad and not calling for heat?

TURBS · 04-04-2016, 05:59 PM

Check the reset buttons behind the black cover.

2008 2500hd Duramax
2015 Columbus 320RS
2016 nights camped "0"
2015 nights camped "34"

TURBS · 04-04-2016, 06:01 PM

Where it says push to reset.

2008 2500hd Duramax
2015 Columbus 320RS
2016 nights camped "0"
2015 nights camped "34"

V-Lite Fun · 04-04-2016, 07:24 PM

Sorry I didn't mention that I did the reset thing. There must be something between the switch and the plug. The plug is hot but there is no power at the switch. I wonder if the reset gizmo could be defective? The heater works fine on propane. The power cord goes into a box on the side of the heater but I don't have room enough to look in there.

**wmtire** · 04-04-2016, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by V-Lite Fun

Sorry I didn't mention that I did the reset thing. There must be something between the switch and the plug. The plug is hot but there is no power at the switch. I wonder if the reset gizmo could be defective? The heater works fine on propane. The power cord goes into a box on the side of the heater but I don't have room enough to look in there.

Not questioning your abilities, but I have seen this happen a few times. How are you testing the switch for voltage. It's an inline switch, that only cut's continuity. You can NOT use a multimeter and check from one terminal to the other terminal on the switch for voltage.

You have to put the positive lead of the multimeter to the terminal, and the black probe to a ground point somewhere.

Just checking.
------------------------------------------------

When you say the control panel switch....do you have two switches for the water heater there (one for gas, and another one for electric) or just one. If only one, then it's only for the gas portion?

The reason I ask this, if there is only one switch on the control panel, there is really nothing but a junction box between where your water heater plugs in and the outside switch on the face of the water heater. You have a SW?DE model water heater.

If there are two switches inside the RV, then there is also a relay that could be bad between the inside switch and the outside switch. You would have a SW?DEL model.

DougP47 · 04-04-2016, 07:42 PM

Mine did the same thing. I found the electric side thermostat was open. I had to replace it. Turn the power off to WH then remove the cover with 2 reset buttons. Check each thermostat with an ohm meter. Chances are the meter will show an open on one of them. I hope this helps Best of luck

OldCoot · 04-04-2016, 07:52 PM

Would guess the 120v hi limit switch is toast. I replaced both of mine with 142 degree ones so we use get more hot water.

**wmtire** · 04-04-2016, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by V-Lite Fun

The plug is hot but there is no power at the switch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougP47

Mine did the same thing. I found the electric side thermostat was open. I had to replace it. Turn the power off to WH then remove the cover with 2 reset buttons. Check each thermostat with an ohm meter. Chances are the meter will show an open on one of them. I hope this helps Best of luck

If there is truly no power to the electric switch, it is inline BEFORE the hi-limit/thermostat (this is what is under the rubber covers that you are pushing to reset). If the hi-limit/thermostat is bad, although it would cause no power to reach the element, it would be after the switch, and wouldn't cause any power failing to at least get to that point....assuming there is no electric at the switch.

If the switch does turn out to be good, then the next place to check for voltage is both sides of the ECO hi-limit/thermostat.

Here are some schematics for the SW?DE (only one inside switch for the propane)

but if you have two inside switches (one for propane, and another for the electric), here is the schematic for the SW?DEL. You would have a 12 volt inside switch that controls a relay that then allows 120 volt power to flow to the outside switch, hi-limit/thermostat, and to the heating element.

As you can see from the schematics, you cannot check for voltage on the switch using the terminals only since they are both connected to the same single hot line. You have to check each terminal side with only the positive probe and then place the negative on a ground...being there is no neutral wire connected to the switch (only a hot). The same holds true for both sides of the hi-limit/thermostat too.

Now once you get to the electric element, there is a hot and neutral wire connected to it, so you can check for voltage on it between the two terminals.

V-Lite Fun · 04-04-2016, 10:22 PM

I am so glad I asked this question. You have given me some homework. I will take all of your input and see what I can find. I learned a few things from some of you. Thanks all.

donniedu · 04-04-2016, 10:51 PM

Replace the limit switch pack. Simple four wire one screw replcement. Just had ro do mine last fall. Cost less than 30 dollars at any RV dealer parts counter. Under the cover you will find two thermostat packs. The one on the left is 120VAC. The one on the right is propane control pack.

V-Lite Fun · 04-05-2016, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by donniedu

Replace the limit switch pack. Simple four wire one screw replcement. Just had ro do mine last fall. Cost less than 30 dollars at any RV dealer parts counter. Under the cover you will find two thermostat packs. The one on the left is 120VAC. The one on the right is propane control pack.

Fixed it. The thermostat was the problem. Thanks again to all. I learned a bunch about my water heater.

V-Lite Fun · 04-05-2016, 04:34 PM

I posted earlier that I found the problem. I don't see the post so I will put it up again in case anyone has the same problem and wonders about the resolution.

I was checking for power at the switch in the wrong way as WMTire pointed out to me. I did have power at the switch. I checked the 120 W thermostat and found it open. I replaced the thermostat. I now have hot water on the electric side.

I do appreciate all of the posts. I learned some things about trouble shooting a problem like this. Thank you.

**wmtire** · 04-05-2016, 04:37 PM

And thank you for letting us know the final solution. This will help out fellow campers later on who are searching the forums for solutions to similar problems.

Glad you got it all solved.

Jordyn · 04-05-2016, 06:21 PM

Shut off the power and pull some covers to look at connections. I had a badly burned terminal end but also discovered a bad limit switch. It's been awhile so can't be more specific. As I recall there are a couple small cap-like covers over the 2 limit switches. They were available at a camper dealer and I think they were about $30 each. I bought both but only needed one. Good luck.

You may also like: