water heater question

[revrusty]

Just purchased a Cougar 30RKD. Have it hooked up to shore power and cannot get the electric part of the water heater to work. (It works just fine on gas.) Have turned the switch on at the tank and have checked the breaker. Just wondering if I am missing something before I call the dealer about it. Thanks for any help.

[Thomasbeau]

It's possible that the heating element is bad. Have you checked it with an ohm meter? With the power disconnected the reading should be somewhere around 14 ohms, maybe a little higher or lower but in that ballpark.

[revrusty]

Thanks for the quick reply. I haven't checked anything yet. Just purchased the unit last week. I will get a friend who is more inclined electrically to check on that. I know it will take a long time to get warranty work done so was hoping it was something I had missed. Thanks for the quick and wise suggestion.

[Thomasbeau]

I mentioned because mine went bad once. If you find it to be the culprit I personally would skip the hassle of the warranty repair. I picked up a new element and cheap wrench at Home Depot or Lower for under $20. Took no time to replace. Much quicker and easier than dragging the rig back to the dealer.

[revrusty]

Yes, I agree. The last TT I had, an Outback, had no bypass valve installed in the line where it should have been on the water heater. Put one in myself for $13 . Maybe I just have bad luck with brand new water heaters!!

[travelin texans]

There's a switch in the lower left corner on the outside on a Suburban heater & 2 switches inside, 1 for gas probably marked DSI with a red led light on it or next to it that's on while it's lighting & second says electric, should be side by side.

[revrusty]

Thanks, travelin texans. I think I got the switches all on but will recheck. I have owned several campers over the years and all the others had switches like that. This one has a touchpad inside with the selections but still the same switch outside at the tank. I will recheck.

[ctbruce]

There is another switch outside. May have a pin in it that has to be removed.23675

[LHaven]

Thanks, travelin texans. I think I got the switches all on but will recheck. I have owned several campers over the years and all the others had switches like that. This one has a touchpad inside with the selections but still the same switch outside at the tank. I will recheck.

Mine had a switch at the lower left corner that was cleverly overlaid with adhesive tape the exact same white metallic color as the interior of the compartment. I had a devil of a time finding it and turning it on.

[wiredgeorge]

If the switch on the bottom left on the outside is left on with no water in the tank, the element burns up. The switch itself isn't very reliable and can also burn up. I replaced both the little switch and the element to get mine to work and bought and replaced the heating temp which if I recall is up under the rubber reset cover. I went with a higher temp for the water so the volume of hot water while taking a shower could be less so a longer shower(s) is possible. I think I went from 120F to 140F or something like that. It was a couple years ago and I ain't a spring chicken so the memory fades.

[revrusty]

Thanks for the pic. That is the switch I turned on and as the next post suggest it had white tape on it before I turned it on. I will get a friend that deals with electricity to check if the element is coming on as suggested in the first reply. If it is burned up, they did it at the dealership. They had it on and ran hot water during the walk through. They had it on gas and electric at the touchpad. Will keep checking on things and thanks for all the helpful suggestions so far.

[JRTJH]

If you look above that switch, nearly 2/3 of the way toward the top of the water heater, you'll find a couple of black rubber plugs. Under those is a thermal safety switch. If the water heater overheats or if the thermostat fails, the thermal safety switch may open. If so, you "push here" on those black discs to reset the safety switch.

Pressing all of those discs (there's more than one safety switch under them, one for 120 VAC and one for 12 VDC, so push all the black rubber discs. You may or may not feel a push button reset under one of them. Whether you feel anything or not, push the discs and then try your water heater again. It may be that the safety cutoff activated and pushing the disc resets it....

If that doesn't work then finding someone to troubleshoot it is the next step.

[revrusty]

Thanks again to everyone. I have pushed those reset buttons as well and also checked all the wires that I can see to make sure they are connected. Doing a 2 night trial run as a shakedown cruise before our annual fall trip out west to Montana. Will get my electrical friend to check it out after that. Or maybe someone at the campground will take a look. Thanks

[cliff]

One other thing. The switch on my Surberban water heater on the outside left corner was mounted up-side- down where pushing the bottom turned it on. Great when I got it home and thought it was off, it wasn't and burned up the heating element. Replaced it like everybdy else says and flipped the switch.

[revrusty]

Good info. I actually tried it with the switch both ways just in case it was backwards. Have a friend who is a contractor working nearby next week and he said he would test the element as suggested. If that isn't it I will have to talk to dealer about checking it out. Maybe the newfangled pad is not actually communicating with the electrical part of the tank.

[chuckster57]

One other thing. The switch on my Surberban water heater on the outside left corner was mounted up-side- down where pushing the bottom turned it on. Great when I got it home and thought it was off, it wasn't and burned up the heating element. Replaced it like everybdy else says and flipped the switch.



The switch is installed “upside down” on purpose. I’m not positive of the reason but I think it’s so you have to “know” you turned it on

[Dadmech]

Some have found an electric connector plug by or behind the heater tank inside the TT was unplugged, would be two white wire connector.
Just another thought.

[JRTJH]

The switch is installed “upside down” on purpose. I’m not positive of the reason but I think it’s so you have to “know” you turned it on

Just speculation on my part, but there is a safety clip that is inserted in the switch when in the OFF position. This safety clip prevents the switch from being accidentally turned on. If the switch were installed so the off position was on the bottom (lower part as most switches are located) then it would be virtually impossible to insert the safety clip behind the ON side of the switch as it would be blocked by the gas tube and the mixer assembly.

So, I'd guess "some engineer (probably a junior one at that) at Suburban" made the decision to install the switch "upside down" so the safety clip hole is accessible and can be used.

[Two snowbirds from Pa.]

We had the same problem about 3 years ago with our new camper. Tried everything and could not get it to work. Finally we decided to just start at the beginning of the electric line at the breaker. Turned out the wire was not wrapped around the screw on the one side of the breaker. The screw was so tight in the plastic breaker, the manufacturer just shoved the wire behind the breaker. We loosened the screw, wrapped the wire and then tightened the screw.

[revrusty]

OK. Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. Got my electrician friend over today and we found the problem. We checked the element and it was fine. Went to look under the cabinet for a plug as suggested. Couldn't see one over the panel that separates the lower part so pulled panel off and found a regular electrical corded plug lying next to a wired outlet. Plugged it in. Waiting for a while to check hot water but everything checked to be powered up. No way to see this with out knocking that panel out of the way. So Special thanks to Dadmech!! This would seem like a wonderful piece of information to have written down in a manual somewhere. Will try to figure out how to show a picture of this later.

[LHaven]

Just speculation on my part, but there is a safety clip that is inserted in the switch when in the OFF position. This safety clip prevents the switch from being accidentally turned on. If the switch were installed so the off position was on the bottom (lower part as most switches are located) then it would be virtually impossible to insert the safety clip behind the ON side of the switch as it would be blocked by the gas tube and the mixer assembly.

So, I'd guess "some engineer (probably a junior one at that) at Suburban" made the decision to install the switch "upside down" so the safety clip hole is accessible and can be used.

This post intrigued me. I examined my own Suburban heater, and found that the switch was indeed the reverse of what is traditional, but well labeled and the labels were rightside up (as in the photo). However, I don't seem to have a pass-through hairpin hole on mine. I feel cheated. :confused:

[JRTJH]

This post intrigued me. I examined my own Suburban heater, and found that the switch was indeed the reverse of what is traditional, but well labeled and the labels were rightside up (as in the photo). However, I don't seem to have a pass-through hairpin hole on mine. I feel cheated. :confused:

I think (can't be sure) that somewhere around 2015 or 2016, Suburban stopped installing switches with the hole for the safety clip. Mine has the hole, I spent far too much time trying to keep up with the little steel clip and finally lost it somewhere... No, I didn't go looking for it, and haven't missed it, not even a little bit....

So, I'm in complete agreement with Suburban's decision to just eliminate it LOL

If I were you, I wouldn't "feel cheated"... just think of all those "moments of angst" that you were spared by not feeling the need to "keep up with that little clip's location".....

[LHaven]

Meh. If I feel too cheated, I always have a Ridgid.