Water heater electric doesn't work

[twindman]

I couldn't get either electric or gas to work. I have had a lot of trouble recently, so had a brain fart. Didn't turn on the gas switch by the switches inside - DUH!!
However, the electric doesn't work yet. I think maybe it didn't work last summer, but with everything else going on I may have forgotten. So what can cause this? I suppose the switch outside could be bad or perhaps the coil burned out?? Have never had heater problems before, so looking for help.
Thanks.

[AZ Traveler]

Tom,

With power on, check for 120v at the heater element with electric switches on.

With power off, you can use an ohm meter to check the electric element - it should have about 15 ohms resistance.

There is a troubleshooting guide in the files section.

[BB_TX]

From past postings about not working on electric, these are some of the problems I remember being found;
- bad heating element
- bad thermostat/hi temp cutout or burned wiring there
- bad little black switch on the water heater
- bad relay in the junction box on the side of the water heater
- burned wiring in the junction box on the side of the water heater
- bad neutral connection in that junction box
- tripped circuit breaker
- blown 12 vdc fuse to the inside switch

I agree with Zack to start by checking for voltage at the heating element. When checking for voltage there, check both by putting the negative meter lead on the heating element neutral screw and again by putting the negative meter lead on the metal case (which should be grounded to safety ground). The reason for this is because there has been an occasion or two where there was a bad neutral connection in the J box and made it appear there was no 120 vac to the element. But by checking to case ground it was shown that there was in fact power to the element but was missing a neutral connection.

But whether you have 120 vac measured at the element is a good starting point to decide where to look next.

[Todd & Mary]

We had 2 issues with the electric side of our WH. First time the plug came out of the 120VAC receptacle. Yes, it is plugged into a receptacle in the basement and from travel bouncing it came out! the 2nd time it was a terminal on the thermostat had a bad connection and burned the thermostat and disabled it. both were not really any problem. the worst was getting a replacement thermostat, it took the RV dealer 3 days to get it, but we could use the gas side during that time.

[BB_TX]

Originally Posted by Todd & Mary

.............. the worst was getting a replacement thermostat, it took the RV dealer 3 days to get it, but we could use the gas side during that time.

Next time try Amazon. Those are sometimes available for next day delivery to your door.

[rohrmann]

We were in our second year with our rig when the electric side of the original water heater stopped working. I checked everything and finally found the thermostat/high limit switch had failed. Found a new one at an RV dealer near Kansas City and that fixed it. Thought it was odd that the original failed part had a red reset button where the new part was tan. Later on, I found out that the part with the red button was part of a batch that were defective, made by a vendor for Suburban that were not up to specs. Had no more issues with that water heater until the tank started leaking in 2016.