Water Heater Switch with Power-on Light

[Willis]

Here are the steps to install a water heater switch with power-on indicator light inside the cabin.

Water heater shown plugged into existing 110AC outlet. It should be an obvious point, but please turn off the power source at the panel before starting!

[Willis]

Existing box removed and new deeper box installed. This view shows wires coming from the existing 110AC source.

[Willis]

This view shows the new box wired up.

To install a lighted switch requires a 3-conductor wire. Normally, a simple switch loop only requires 2-conductors in which the black wire is hot and the white wire is used as the return loop to the power source to be switched. In the normal switch-loop the white wire MUST be marked as hot, usually with black tape on each end.

A lighted switch, however, needs a neutral wire to work correctly so the normal 2-wire loop will not work. With all that in mind, use 3-conductors as such:

1. The black wire (TO switch) is joined with a nut to the black (hot) power source.

2. The red wire is the hot return FROM the switch (seen below attached to the brass screw).

3. The white neutral source is joined with the neutral from the switch and a short jumper which is attached to the silver screw on the receptacle (left side just out of view in this photo).

4. All ground wires are joined together and a jumper attached to the receptacle's grounding screw.

[Willis]

Next, a box is installed to receive the new switch.

[Willis]

The 3-conductor romex is run to the new box. In my case, the new switch is just on the other side of the under-sink cabinet door which can be seen on the right of the photo below. So all I had to do was run the romex over the top of the door opening and attach with some cable ties. Obviously, the location of the switch and the routing of the wires will be different on every installation and is beyond the scope of this post.

The black wire goes on the brass screw (top right in this photo, out of view). The red wire goes on the black screw (shown below). The two black screws are connected internally so it doesn't matter which one is used. Finally, the white wire is attached to a silver screw (bottom right, out of view in this photo). This white (neutral) wire is what allows a circuit to light the switch when it is turned on. And of course, don't forget to attach the ground.

[Willis]

Finished view of the switch. Plug in the water heater and the job is done.

[bresdogsr]

Nice work. I'll pass this on to my son for his Surveyor.

[SaskCampers]

Very nice job, looks like a modification for spring.

[VTX Al]

Nice job. On our 8315BSS the water heater location is very similar to your rig, and I have been planning a similar mod. My thought was to use a smaller snap-in type of lighted switch for the water heater switch instead of the box/switch combo used in your mod. Also curious why you replaced the original receptacle box with a deeper one. No room inside it to make the connections ???

...VTX-AL

[Willis]

Originally Posted by VTX Al

Nice job. On our 8315BSS the water heater location is very similar to your rig, and I have been planning a similar mod. My thought was to use a smaller snap-in type of lighted switch for the water heater switch instead of the box/switch combo used in your mod. Also curious why you replaced the original receptacle box with a deeper one. No room inside it to make the connections ???

...VTX-AL

The OEM receptacle is a snap-in connector type and very shallow. I actually started with one box (the grey one shown in the very first photo) and had to go to the deeper box (blue one) because I felt uncomfortable with how hard I had to cram the wire back in. I actually got a short across the ground the first time I powered up and popped the main...so thought a bigger box was prudent. Not shown in the photos, but I also put tape on all the nuts and across the side of the screws just as simple insurance.

When researching switches I discovered that there are two types of lighted switches. First type is a switch that is lit when the switch is OFF. This is the most common type and usually the switch itself lights up showing that the power is off. This type would be used for something like a furnace system that would normally always be on and the light would warn that the system is off. The lighted-when-off switch doesn't need the 3rd neutral wire.

The lighted-when-on switches apparently always need that 3rd neutral to complete the lamp circuit. I couldn't find one that didn't nor did I find one where the switch mechanism itself lit up when on (as opposed to a separate switch and light like this one). Not saying such a switch doesn't exist...I just couldn't find one at any of the big-box stores nearby nor even after a brief internet search.

One minor thing that I think I could have done differently...I suppose rather than wire-nutting the white wires together and using a jumper to attach to the receptacle that I could have connected one white wire to one neutral/silver screw and the other white wire to the other silver screw. That would have freed up some space by eliminating one wire nut. Didn't think of that until I studied my wiring photo and tried to explain how I wired it.

[f150k]

Nice job, I did the same mod on our 24RL Wildcat and plan on doing on our new 5vr.

[The_Stuff]

mine came with a light switch to turn the hot water heater on, and it lights up when powered on.

[Willis]

Originally Posted by The_Stuff

mine came with a light switch to turn the hot water heater on, and it lights up when powered on.

I believe most of the newer FRs have dual gas/electric (Suburban) and a switch on the control panel that turns on the gas portion of the WH. And my gas WH switch lights up when on too. Are you sure you aren't talking about the gas switch? Before doing this mod the only way I could turn on the electric part of the WH was to go outside, drop the panel cover on the WH, and try to reach the tiny switch in the bottom left corner. Not so easy to find sometimes, even in broad daylight. But of course yours might be completely different!

On my previous TT (2000 Fleetwood) it came with a switch for electric WH in the kitchen area, but you had to light the gas manually from outside! And the switch was not lighted so I was never quite sure if it was off or on.

Before doing this mod I looked around for a switch with a light right in the switch itself. The ones I found like that for 110VAC would only light when the power was OFF. I could have made do with that, but preferred it to be lit when ON. The smaller lighted switches like on the control panel are 12VDC I think and wiring one of those in this circumstance would have required some sort of controller and just seemed like more trouble and expense than it would have been worth.

It would be nice if FR would just put a switch on the panel for both gas and electric modes. But like I said, wiring DC circuits to control 110VAC just adds time and expense and I'm sure that's why they don't do it. Maybe they do on the higher end models?

[bill and theresa]

Thanks for the info Willis. I did the same mod to mine today after reading your post. Nice mod which should come from the factory. Took me about an hour after picking up everything I needed at Home Depot. Total cost less than $15.

[Cmmjmoore]

What a great idea, one of the best mods I have seen. Thanks for sharing and great pictures. Can't wait to add this to our camper.

[Rsbcool]

Does anyone know if this mod is still necessary on a 2013 Windjammer 3008w? I think I asked the salesmen this question and I thought he told me it's all done on the inside control panel.

[TURBS]

Do you have an electric switch inside on your control panel that says "hot water heater electric" and one that says "gas" ?



Turbs