# RV Water Heater



## sparkysean40 (Oct 5, 2016)

I got a call today about a water heater in a camper. Its on a 15A two pole breaker. I believe its 240V. But anyways the water heater is run off a switch in the camper. The guy told me that he noticed he didn't have hot water one day and noticed the breaker was tripped. He reset it and it didn't trip until he turned the switch on to turn the heater on. Every time it does that exact same thing. So he waited awhile, basically gave up on it and later on that day he noticed he had hot water in the sink. The next day( the breaker is still tripped by the way) the shower is hot and the sink water is cold. this has happened a few more times but vice versa, sink being hot, shower cold or shower hot and sink cold. This doesn't make sense to me seeming how he says the breaker is still tripped. The guy is actually 1500 miles away. Im just looking on some info on what I can tell him might be going on so he can test some things out. From what he tells me, Im completely lost. Im a fourth year in school and have NEVER in my life heard of anything like this. Any help would be appreciated. Ive wondered if maybe its just grounding out somewhere, switch is bad, or maybe even the heating element is bad, also possibly a bad breaker that is still making connection since the water is hot sometimes even though the breaker says its tripped. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks SparkySean


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

sparkysean40 said:


> I got a call today about a water heater in a camper. Its on a 15A two pole breaker. I believe its 240V. But anyways the water heater is run off a switch in the camper. The guy told me that he noticed he didn't have hot water one day and noticed the breaker was tripped. He reset it and it didn't trip until he turned the switch on to turn the heater on. Every time it does that exact same thing. So he waited awhile, basically gave up on it and later on that day he noticed he had hot water in the sink. The next day( the breaker is still tripped by the way) the shower is hot and the sink water is cold. this has happened a few more times but vice versa, sink being hot, shower cold or shower hot and sink cold. This doesn't make sense to me seeming how he says the breaker is still tripped. The guy is actually 1500 miles away. Im just looking on some info on what I can tell him might be going on so he can test some things out. From what he tells me, Im completely lost. Im a fourth year in school and have NEVER in my life heard of anything like this. Any help would be appreciated. Ive wondered if maybe its just grounding out somewhere, switch is bad, or maybe even the heating element is bad, also possibly a bad breaker that is still making connection since the water is hot sometimes even though the breaker says its tripped. Any help would be appreciated.
> Thanks SparkySean


You can't dope these matters out long distance. :no:

BTW, most RVs get their hot water via the propane system.

Hint.


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

sparkysean40 said:


> I got a call today about a water heater in a camper. Its on a 15A two pole breaker. I believe its 240V.
> 
> 240 volts ? useally not too common on RV useage I will fill the details below on that.
> 
> ...


Majorty of the RV I know it is dual sourced so it can be run by electric heating element that useally not very large on wattage size I belive about 1500 or so watts and also have propane burner too so it can be used either source but most case propane side have more heating power than electric element can dish out.

I know the last RV I have before the water heater is not very large at all it was 20 liter size it ran on propane but it did came with electric element but I rarely used the electric element because pretty good percentage of RV park that time most use have 30 amp 120 volt source. so I rarely run on electric on water heater.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

I take it the guy hasn't had the RV long? 

I wonder if the switch he flips is dpdt so that either the shower heater is on OR the sink heater is on but not both. 

I doubt he's reading the panel right. Some pictures / video might help.


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## smac999 (Dec 7, 2014)

it could possibly also get hot from engine heat through a heating coil. a lot of boat HWT are dual fed electric / engine heating. no propane. but I don't know about RV's. so it's possible it's getting hot by driving around.


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