Just thought I would pass this on for anyone having issues with the electrical side of the Hot Water Heater on their Montana. I have a Suburban SW10DE Hot Water heater and recently the electric side failed. Gas worked just fine. Figuring it was the element, I jumped at replacing it but when I did it looked ok and later checked out ok. What I found then was the switch mounted on the outside left lower corner of the water heater was intermittent. Sometimes it worked, other times it failed. Eventually it failed altogether.
When I pulled the switch out to replace it I found that the Hot side wire had burned through its insulation and was starting to burn through the neutral wire running next to it. Caught that just in time. The lug on the switch was also causing the plastic housing of the switch to melt. Bad switch contacts caused high current to overheat the switch and eventually melt the hot side wire insulation.
The problem is with the switches. They are really cheap and when they start to fail, you best replace them at that time or you may wind up doing a rewire for the water heater the hard way. Don't ask me how I know! Either you pull the entire water heater out and do it where you can work on it or you see how flexible your body is in crawling under the cabinet and cut a hole in the cabinet side (inside wall) to get to the junction box on the water heater. I took the latter being too lazy to disconnect the gas and electrical to pull it out.
The switches are cheap, approximately $9 with shipping if you order them online. Don't rely on Camping World to have them. I tried that route in Portland OR and all they could provide me was a 12v switch even after I brought the old switch in. The parts clerk didn't understand the difference between a 12vDC and 120vAC switch!
Even after giving them the Suburban part number for the switch they still could not find one in their shop.
If you need one do a google search for "Suburban 232362". I bought mine through Amazon.com. I purchased three of them so I have spares should it fail again.
Happy Travels!
Tom
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