No hot water on electric

[Chip]

Gas hot water is fine.

There is power to the switch.

The hot water switch in the coach. Is that 12 volt or 120?

So what now? Any thoughts.

[BB_TX]

The wall switch inside is 12 vdc that energizes a relay to provide 120 vac to the water heater switch located on the lower left corner of the water heater, assuming it is a Suburban water heater.

Previous problems reported when electric not working have been;
bad heating element
bad thermostat/hi temp cutout
switch on water heater no turned on
bad switch on the water heater
loose or bad wire connection (there is a junction box on the back of the WH)
loose neutral wire in the junction box

[jeff_banning]

It is 120V, should see a breaker in your breaker panel. Others may disagree but in my opinion and experiences in several that I have owned the electric is only an assistant to keep gas from running while "maintaining" temp when not in use and some help in recovery or start up. I do not believe though that the electric is designed as a standalone use and resource or at least a efficient one. At least that has not been my experience.

[jcurtis934]

The electric heat function for the water heater is controlled by the switch inside and this switch does pass 12vdc onto a relay to connect 120vac to the element. The relay is inside the metal connection box on the side of the water heater. Trust me on this!

[Chip]

Switch test good.

Hi limit switch does have continuity. But could this still be bad?

[rohrmann]

Continuity there is not the only thing you are looking for. You need actual voltage to the heating element. Like was described in an earlier post, you must have 120 volts from the breaker in your panel, through the 12 volt DC/120 volt AC relay mounted on the water heater, through the little black switch on the face of your water heater in the lower left corner, through the hi-limit/thermostat, and finally to the element, and of course, your element must be good too, meaning it was not damaged by being energized without water in the tank. If you can remove the oval black cover from the outside of the element, with water in the tank and all the switches turned on, you should be able to read with a volt meter 120 volts across the two terminals that the black and white wires are connected to. If you don't have voltage there, something is open causing voltage to not make it to the element.

[twindman]

My 2013 hi limit reset switch is on the outside of the heater. Also a 12 V switch. They are covered with a rubber rectangular cover. The actual reset switch is under the rubber cover. Try pressing the rubber under each part of the rubber cover. Sometimes I can feel the switch poking up under there.
Mine is cutting off about every 4-5 days, so I just turn off power (which is on the outside of the heater, not inside the trailer), push both buttons, and it has almost always started back up. I was waiting to get home to have the dealer replace it because I mistakenly was trying to find the 120V switch but was looking for the 12V one and they didn't match! of course...

[shovelhead86]

To the comment of the wter heater only being a backup. I disagree. Unless I am boon docking which is not often elect is all I ever use and it heats up from cold in less than 15 minutes. I have been suprized how fast it works, I am a full timer and it works for us.

[BB_TX]

Originally Posted by Chip

Switch test good.

Hi limit switch does have continuity. But could this still be bad?

This is assuming you are comfortable using a voltmeter to troubleshoot an energized 120 vac circuit.

With the voltmeter referenced to a good neutral, you should see 120vac on both sides of the thermostat/hi temp cutout and on one terminal of the electric heating element. (This is assuming the WH is not on gas and so hot the thermostat/hi temp would be open). If you do not have 120 vac on the element, work backward from there until you do find 120 vac. That will tell you where the break is.

Note that I said a "good" neutral. Someone with the same problem recently posted his troubleshooting experience. Turned out his WH neutral wire had lost connection in the junction box and as a result the HOT side of the circuit was good but would not work because of the bad neutral. So you may not be able to use the neutral on the WH as your "good" neutral reference.

When baffled look at it from all angles.

[Chip]

Thanks for the info.

Ok, I do have 120 at the switch. Gas HW is on now. So I guess I need to wait until I can have that off long enough to cool down.

Not sure when that will be as we are heading to the rally.

[rohrmann]

Your rig is a 2012 model, as is ours, and I had to replace the 120 volt hi limit thermostat due to it failing a little over a year full timing. Turns out, Suburban got a bad batch of the thermostats, which had red reset buttons, and they would not hold up. The replacement one had a gray button and I never had an issue with it after I replaced it. Ours would not work on electric either until it was replaced.

[1retired06]

Originally Posted by jeff_banning

It is 120V, should see a breaker in your breaker panel. Others may disagree but in my opinion anexperiences in several that I have owned the electric is only an assistant to keep gas from running while "maintaining" temp when not in use and some help in recovery or start up. I do not believe though that the electric is designed as a standalone use and resource or at least a efficient one. At least that has not been my experience.

Disagree. We never use propane unless no electric available.

[Rondo]

Chip-- Didn't read all of the posts but I had the same problem as you are describing and it turned out to be the thermocouple on the water heater. I took the outside cover off and noticed there was a burnt wire to the thermocouple. Bought a new one and removed the old one(easy job) just make sure your switch inside is off when switching them out. The wire had rubbed on a piece of the metal guard by the thermocouple and it shorted out. There's plenty of wire to cut the old off and connect the new clip to it and then connect it to the new thermo. Works great now, so check it out outside to see if you have a fried thermo.

[Chip]

What is the thermocouple. I don't see it on the suburban parts list.

[rmthelen]

I also had no electric hot water heater and it was the switch on the heater itself. Bypassed it and haven't had a problem since. We use electric as our primary source and have never ran out of hot water. I use propane about twice a year and that is only to make sure it still works. We live in ours about 6 months out of the year.

[WeBeFulltime]

We have been full timing for 7 years and use electric 99.9% of the time. We had this problem once and it was the neutral wire connection in the metal junction box mounted to the water heater. Had to pull the WH out a few inches to access this junction box and it wasn't very hard to do so.

[Carl n Susan]

Originally Posted by Chip

What is the thermocouple. I don't see it on the suburban parts list.

I am sure Rondo meant to say "thermostat" and not "thermocouple".

[Rondo]

Thanks Carl! I thought it was called a thermocouple but I may have been mistaken. It is the small metal rectangular item with two round button-like items connected by a piece of wire. It has two wires connected to it. There actually are two of these one above the over on the left front of the water heater. Each are held by one nut, if I'm not mistaken, on the water heater. Anyway, that's what was wrong with mine. The wire rubbed on the metal shield and shorted out.

[Carl n Susan]

That rectangular device is really two devices. The lower "button" (for lack of a better name),left in the picture, is the thermostat. It closes (passing electricity) when the water temp falls to 110 degrees and opens at 130 (or now 140) degrees. The upper "button", right in the picture, is the High Limit (aka ECO or Energy Cut Off) Switch. It is the one with the Reset feature. Its purpose is to open the heater circuit if the temperature reaches 180 degrees.

[Rondo]

That's it Carl! I just didn't know what I put on! LOL