Water heater not working

seanlou · 05-21-2021, 08:44 PM

Hi Bill,

I was wondering if you help answer my naive question about water heater for my 2013 2720 Trailmanor, which I haven’t used for the last 4 Years and started! Today I went to a campsite to test it out to see if anything still works and found out the water heater isn’t working, and there is no hot water. We have a full hookup RV site and with electric and city water connected. After turning on the city water, we turned on the hot water faucet to make sure the water heated is filled before turning on the water heater on the panel and the red light is lit for water heater. We waited long enough (about one hour, still no hot water), we also checked the breaker box, nothing is tripped, but we turned everything off and back on just in case, to no avail. My question is - did we do anything incorrectly in the process of turning on the water heater?

If the water heater is broke can we go to any RV repair dealer to get it fixed or we have to go to a Trailmanor dealer to fix it?

Thanks in advance!
Sean

**Bill** · 05-22-2021, 06:44 AM

First thing to do is open the outside panel behind the water heater. Look for the two black rubber-covered buttons toward the upper left of the heater. Push both of them firmly. If either one clicks, you have probably found the problem. This is a rare problem, but sometimes it happens, and it is easy to check.

Much more likely is that one way or another, one time or another, the electric heating element got burned out. You can replace it yourself - it is easy, and will cost you less than $30. Or you can go to any RV service place including any RV dealer with a service department. Expect to pay a bit more, but the bigger problem will be getting an appointment. RV service places are very busy right now.

If you decide to do it yourself, there is a step-by-step tutorial in the TM Technical Library titled Replacing the water heater's electric heating element. It is somewhat wordy, but tells you everything you need to know as you walk through it. You can also see the black buttons mentioned above in the photos included there.

Incidentally, you should see hot water within 10 minutes of turning on either the electric element or gas burner. No need to wait an hour.

Bill

seanlou · 05-22-2021, 08:41 AM

Bill - my wife TOUCHED a “magic button” this morning and the water heater worked!

This morning, it was cold so we tried to turn on the portal heater and found the electric outlet that worked yesterday stopped working, so we checked the breaker box again, nothing tripped, my wife then pushed the fuse into its holder in case it’s loose, she pushed every one of them, that did the trick! Electric and water heater both started working!

Thank you so very much for the quick and very detailed reply, deeply appreciated. I saved your message and will also get the water heater replacement guide you mentioned for my future reference!

Thanks again!
Sean