Water heater

[Agiligriff]

I have a Bullet Crossfire... 1750RK
I'm having a strange issue with my water heater...
All of a sudden it works great on propane, but not electric?? When I opened the door outside, there was a small drip from the pressure relief onto a wire that has a "linkable fuse" section that unplugs. Would this have anything to do with it? There was water in the plastic tube :(
Any suggestions??

[Joe2650BH]

Have you checked the circuit breaker in the breaker box located inside the camper?

[Agiligriff]

Yes... it's good. Also the switch inside to turn on the electric WH lights up when I turn it on

[Logan X]

The drip from the pressure relief valve may be from losing the air pocket inside the water heater. To restore the air pocket:

Turn off the water supply and the water pump.

Open a hot water faucet inside the trailer and leave it open.

Open the pressure relief valve until water stops coming out and let it snap shut.

Close the hot water faucet.

Turn on the water supply.

You may have to do this a couple of times.

As far as the electric side not working, did you check the on/off switch on the face of the water heater?

[Agiligriff]

Thanks Logan! I will try that to get rid of the drip... As far as a switch on the front of the WH, it doesn't have one (that I know of). The switch is inside the trailer, on the wall.

[travelin texans]

Yes... it's good. Also the switch inside to turn on the electric WH lights up when I turn it on

Mine would only light up for a few seconds when turning it to gas, once heater fired up the light goes off.

[wiredgeorge]

Just be aware if this water heater is new to you that the propane heating will be a lot faster getting the water hot than the electric. The electric is there more or less to augment the propane. If you look at the electric heating element it isn't all that much.

[sourdough]

Out of curiosity, what brand is the water heater? Atwoods do not have the little black switch on the outside.

[Logan X]

If your water heater is like mine, a suburban, there is a small toggle switch that is the master on/off switch for the electric side of the heater. You also may want to push the black reset buttons if you have them. I circled both in the picture.

[Agiligriff]

I believe mine is an Atwood (sp)
I'm not near it right now. But I looked all over it (yesterday) and didn't find any switches...

[Agiligriff]

I believe mine is an Atwood (sp)
I'm not near it right now. But I looked all over it (yesterday) and didn't find any switches...

[ChuckS]

Very easy to TS.... use multi meter and ohm out the heating element and verify 120 VAC to element connections when switch for AC side is turned on.

One or the other above items is your issue

[sourdough]

If it's an Atwood look at the control board (inside when you open the outside cover. There is a tiny fuse in the board. Check and see if it is blown.

I don't see a drip of water getting into one end of a fusible link causing it a problem; all it's doing is providing a path for the current that's riding it - a drop of water would just be doing the same thing.

As far as the fuse, that was the issue this last time with my Atwood. Well, the fuse was blown, and it blew the replacement, so not really a fuse issue. Put a solid piece of wire across the terminals for the fuse and immediately smoked the control board...hmmm, a bad DIODE! It sure beat the heck out of trying to run trouble at the component level on the board with a VOM and no schematic!! Bad part is the new board was a 6 hr. round trip and $232!! Hopefully it's just the fuse and good luck.:D

[amg55driver]

I believe mine is an Atwood (sp)
I'm not near it right now. But I looked all over it (yesterday) and didn't find any switches...

did you fix this issue?

what was wrong with it?

[bbells]

If you ever turned on the electric for the water heater when it was empty you probably burned out the element.

[dwdlt]

I have a Suburban water heater in mine, and it was having the same issue. My problem turned out to be a heating element that was burnt out. I guess we left it switched on and it burnt out the element. we changed that out, and it works fine now in both gas and electric modes. Not sure if this will help, but thought I'd share my experience in case it will