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water heater does not work on electricity

April 11, 2017, 11:43:26 am

I have been reading the posts about issues with Atwood Water Heaters and most of them have to do with them not working on gas/propane.  My issue is different- lucky me.  We are plugged into 50 amp service, but no hot water with the electrical switch on.  I checked the circuit breaker, looked at fuses, etc, but nothing obvious and easy sticks out. 

Reading Beamalarm's post it seems most of the 110v issues on these water heaters are on the back of the tank, not fun to remove it.
Also, other than the easy electrical fixes, including spicing wires etc, I am not a good electrical diagnostician, so I am not sure where to look now.  FYI- this is a new water heater with a new Dinosaur board in 2015, so I am hoping that all is ok there.

Maybe some of my Un rally buddies are better at this than I am and can help me out?

Thanks for your support and ideas- this forum is great.     

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Re: water heater does not work on electricity

Reply #1 – April 11, 2017, 01:51:51 pm

Ted & Karen,  Did the heater ever work on electric? 

Our new Atwood water heater has a heating element inserted from the rear, and had a relay on the rear to control the 120-volts with 12-volts from control panel on front.  You could find the wire (yellow?) feeding from board to rear and test for 12 volts when electric should be on.  Your heater model could be different from ours.

If one does not turn off the 120-volts to the water heater before draining the tank, the electric element will self-destruct from getting too hot.
Heating elements that are working can be measured for resistance with a meter across the hot and neutral wires going to the element.
I guess you could locate and disconnect the 120-volt cable feeding the heating element without removing water heater.
The above 12-relay would have to be energized to measure the resistance.

FYI, when we installed our new heater, I saw the difficulty of being able to access the heating element after being installed, so I ran a 120-volt cable from the rear-sided heating element connectors to a front accessible location.  Then relocated the relay in this accessible location, so we can now diagnose power, relay & element problems without removing heater.

This is a write-up on our water heater installation, but I see there is no mention of the relocated 120-volt cable.
Replacing a Water Heater

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Re: water heater does not work on electricity

Reply #2 – April 11, 2017, 02:02:49 pm

Ted
 Our coach is older so it may not relate, but something's never change and I do have a 3way waterheater. Gas, propane and engine.

  I left the power (110) on once and drained the water system for winter weather. Takes about a minute to burn out the 110 element so I know that happened.  I had the waterheater out to check for a leak ( turns out it was the overflow pipe) so I replaced the element and the two sensors for the electric heating. Could the sensors or the element be your issue ?

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Reply #3 – April 11, 2017, 03:23:41 pm

Yes Barry & Cindy the water heater has worked on electric all the time it has been in until yesterday.  We don't drain it to winterize as we live in it full time so that should not be the problem.

Bob & Sue- thanks for the idea but we don't winterize our coach so I don't think we destroyed the element.  Sensors are on the front so perhaps they are the issue? 

Thanks for the responses- since it is not an emergency I will heat with propane until I have time to figure this out, get parts, etc.  I saw what it is like to pull our the tank and I don't want to attempt that without easy access to parts, etc.   

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Reply #4 – April 11, 2017, 03:31:59 pm

T-man- the tank is new so I would assume the heating element was new then too, but you know what happens when we assume...........

Thanks

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Reply #5 – April 11, 2017, 03:37:46 pm

Do you have a thermostat reset button?

Maybe the heat element just got old from cycling and/or mineralized.

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Reply #6 – April 11, 2017, 03:51:39 pm

I don't see a reset button, unless it is on the back of the tank.       

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Reply #7 – April 11, 2017, 04:03:02 pm

Ted the thermostats on the front are probably for the gas operation. You probably have two other thermostats on the back for the electric function.
I could pull my water heater out far enough (and set it on a box) to get to all the connections on the back without disconnecting the water and electric lines.
I have also found burned wire nut connections in the 120 volt junction box at the rear of the water heater.

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Re: water heater does not work on electricity

Reply #8 – April 11, 2017, 04:09:53 pm

I would pull the water heater like John did to check things out, clean the tank and put in a new element just because it's out and not expensive to do.  You may find nothing more than a burned-out element, but there could be a potential fire-starter. 

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Reply #9 – April 11, 2017, 04:38:57 pm

John & T-man- thanks for the good ideas.  I will definitely put a new heater element in when it is pulled out. 

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Reply #10 – April 11, 2017, 04:48:04 pm

Ted,
Along with the element I would replace the thermostats. They are different than the ones on the front. Be sure you get the 120 volt set.

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Re: water heater does not work on electricity

Reply #11 – April 11, 2017, 05:35:29 pm

In 2003 Atwood changed the electric portion of the water heater. It no longer has the thermostats on the back or a reset button or an on/off switch. It runs through a relay. It sounds like yours is post 2003. There may be a hole in the compartment separation panel, mine does, to allow you access to the back of the unit to get at the relay and heat element. You need to check 110 V at the heat element. If not present you need to pull a little black plastic box also on the back of the unit to access the relay and check 110 there. If you don't have the hole....uh oh.

Barry & Cindy......I am about to replace my heater with  a new one. GREAT IDEA to relocate the relay. Gunna do it!!

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Reply #12 – April 11, 2017, 07:39:40 pm

did you make sure that no one hit the switch to off at the foot of the bed?

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Reply #13 – April 11, 2017, 07:45:48 pm

Dave- yes I did.  Thanks for keeping in mind that a senior moment can happen any time and always KISS first- it might work......

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Reply #14 – April 12, 2017, 11:10:33 am

By the way, our electric & gas GC10A-4E Atwood water heater uses a different control board and is wired differently than the gas only Atwoods.  The control board manages the on & off of the gas valve and the 120-v heating element relay.  It uses only one thermostat for both electric & gas, and uses only one higher-temp thermostat for emergency shut off of gas & electric. 

Both regular & emergency thermostats are spring held against the front of the tank in the common place exactly the same as gas only. 

There is no Atwood circuit protection on the 120-v power, other than the front of the bed breaker panel. 

We did power our Atwood with #10 extension cord plugged into a bay outlet that is not on the inverter.  We unplug the cord when we are flushing the hot water tank.

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Reply #15 – April 12, 2017, 11:10:35 am

Ted, I think that since it worked and you don't drain, the electric heating element is probably working ok.  But more likely something is preventing power from getting to the element. 

I would not remove the beast without diagnosing with volt meter.  Check 12 volt control wire to be sure it turns.  Turn both electric & propane on, when the propane lights, the small wire to the back side should have 12v.

 Locate the 110v cable best you can and figure out where there is a breaker that could have tripped of failed. If the backside relay failed that would require pull out, but if so, I would relocate the relay for future problems.

 Can you see anything on the back with mirror and flashlight..  Etc, etc.  Check the little fuse on the board, I have no idea what it protects.

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Reply #16 – April 12, 2017, 11:16:38 am

Here is our Atwood wiring diagram.  We did make a small mod to run a cable from heating element to accessible location and connect the 120-volt power, Atwood relay and coach power where we can get to it without removing tank.

In other words, we just moved the Atwood relay from back to front. . .

And an added benefit of connecting the heating element out in the open is that we can easily measure the resistance of the element to be sure it is not burned out.

Also is a model number breakdown diagram of Atwood water heaters.

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Reply #17 – April 12, 2017, 12:41:22 pm

My water heater stopped working on electric a few years ago. I found a reset on the back of the unit that you push with say a pencil eraser. I reset it and it has been working fine for several years. I suppose it could be reset without pulling the water heater if you had access and knew what you were doing. It has an opening to access the CB. Wish I had taken a picture of it.

Mark

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