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Old 05-18-2013, 07:21 PM   #1
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Hot Water Heater Latching Relay

See crude drawing below. I installed this little latching relay in my Hot Water Heater, after 2 or 3 occasions of not turning it off when leaving the camp ground, only to find it heating water at home ( had I drained my system, I would have burned up the element). Cost is about 20 bucks, bought the relay off of ebay with mounting socket and mounted the entire thing next to the HW heater. I have the Hott Rod heater in mine, it is an after market mod, but this will work with any element as long as the relay contacts are sized to handle the current draw of the heater element. The way this works. Hook up at campground as usual, turn on your HW electrical switch and then hit the test on the relay. The relay will lock itself in and keep power supplied to the heater ciruitry. Now the neat part...when you unplug shore power the relay drops out and kills power to the element until it is manually reset after again applying power. No More burned up elements from forgetting about HW heater electrical switch. If one wanted to, this could be wired to use a remote switch to do the reset. I preferred the manual method.

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Old 05-19-2013, 10:48 AM   #2
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pretty creative. I like.
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Old 05-19-2013, 11:01 AM   #3
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Great idea! You should sell this to Atwood!

There's no reason the WH on/off switch couldn't just be a momentary 3-position (center-off) rocker switch that you rocked up to do the remote reset you described, and that you rocked down to cause the relay to drop out (turning the WH off).
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Old 05-19-2013, 11:03 AM   #4
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Some data (link?) on the relay would be helpful.

My Suburban's SW6 element is 1000 watts (8.33 amps @ 120 volts)
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Old 05-19-2013, 09:12 PM   #5
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Herk, these are same make as the ones I used. You will notice that they have 10amp contacts at 250vac. The link shows 3 for sale, but this is just an example.

Lot of 3 Schrack MR206115 Relay 2 Poles 120VAC Coil with Socket Base | eBay
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Old 05-19-2013, 09:35 PM   #6
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Photos of the install would be appreciated. Like this idea.
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Old 05-19-2013, 10:04 PM   #7
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Thanks Pal.
Added that mod to my "To Do" list.
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Old 05-20-2013, 07:44 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rebel702 View Post
Photos of the install would be appreciated. Like this idea.
Will get some tomorrow and post them...
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Old 05-26-2013, 05:36 PM   #9
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Here are pics..finally. To be honest I forgot until I was out in that compartment today and the lights came on!!

Mounted relay on HW water heater wood base
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Wiring to thermostat
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Old 05-26-2013, 08:22 PM   #10
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Thanks for the pics. So your description would indicate you have to access the relay each time you set-up? Is your access to the relay easy to get too?
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Old 05-27-2013, 10:38 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rebel702 View Post
Thanks for the pics. So your description would indicate you have to access the relay each time you set-up? Is your access to the relay easy to get too?
The pictures you see are taken inside the bin next to the HW heater. In this bin is my whole unit water filter. Yes easy to get to. Just open door and push switch. Forget about it till next setup.
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