Electrical problems

i have a brand new 2009 2720 with a possible electrical problem in the hot water heater. any ideas are appreciated.


the TM electrical systems worked fine at home although i did not test the electric feature of the hot water heater. we hooked up to the campground shore power at the campground and the the 30 amp circuit breaker at the campground electric tripped. i metered the campground ciruit at 120 v. none of the TM ciruit breakers tripped. i then tripped all the TM circuit breakers and reset the main circuit breaker. i then reset each TM circuit breaker to see which one caused the campground circuit breaker to trip.

it turned out the TM circuit breaker for the converter and the hot water heater was the culprint. the electric hot water heater switch was turned off. i disconnected the wires to the electric heater element on the hot water heater and was able to reset all the TM circuit breakers and use all applicances etc.

so my conclusion is the electric hot water heater element was causing a short. examination of the element revealed no unusal breaks or corrusion. it looked brand new.

Sounds like you covered all the possible problem areas pretty well. The one thing that doesn’t seem right is that if you have the electric hot water heater switch turned off then disconnecting the wires to the heater element shouldn’t make any difference as there shouldn’t be any power going to it. Is it the hard to see little black toggle switch located on the back of the water heater that’s accessed from the outside that you are turning off ? The switch under the sink is only for propane. Be sure you fill the hot water tank before turning it on or the heater element will burn up for sure.

yup it's that little switch at the heater itself. It has a tiny cotter pin through it so I can't accidentally turn it on. That's the odd thing about the experience. I agree with you that if the swirch is off, why would the heating element (bad or good) trip the circuit breaker? The delimma for me is that if I replace the element and it still trips the circuit breaker then what's my next step?

[Bill]

I agree with you that if the swirch is off, why would the heating element (bad or good) trip the circuit breaker?

101 and Digger -

You may be right - since the heater element looked brand new, but disconnecting its wires fixed the problem, then the problem was almost certainly in the heater element. But since turning off the switch didn't affect the problem, it is not a hot-to-ground short. My money is on a neutral-to-ground short.

In the experience of many on this board, the breaker that trips is a GFI breaker, either in the campground or in the garage. The way to confirm this is to disconnect shore power from the TM, disconnect the white wire from the water heater element (leaving the black wire in place), and then reconnect shore power. And this is kind of what you did, 101, and it worked.

So my guess, based on the experiences on this board, is that your water heater element has an internal fault - a leakage path between neutral and ground. There are other mechanisms for tripping a breaker, of course, but you're describing the classic symptoms.

For the die-hards, here's a technical discussion.
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=7220
and the thread that confirms
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=7209

Bill

[Wavery]

Is the water heater full of water?

Yes, the water was filled with water. I even used the saftey release valve to evacuate the air.


Note: I no longer do this because the water leaks into the bottom of the cabinent under the sink.

Thanks Bill, is the solution to replace the element?

[Bill]

101K -

If you reconnect the black wire on the heater element, and leave the white wire disconnected, and it still blows the breaker, then the answer is definitely yes.

That's a pretty elaborate answer, but I don't have any idea what else the problem could be. So the short answer is also yes. Fortunately, a new element isn't expensive. Just make sure you get a 120-volt element, not a 240-volt element. A hardware store might (or might not) have what you need. An RV place certainly will.

Please let us know what you find. This is a common problem (although it usually involves a destroyed heating element), and all info is helpful to future members.

Bill

Thanks Bill, Your solution worked. As suggested -

I disconnected the white wire and reconnected the black wire and sure nuff the circuit popped. I then replaced what looked like a perfectly good heater element with one I purchased at Home Depot for 10 bucks and presto, the circuit held. The new element is rated at 120V 1500 watts while the one in the water heater was 120V 1440 watts.

Interesting discussion...thanks for following it through and keeping us posted. Just might save us some effort and thinking later on. I intend to get a spare heating element from Home Depot to put in my "just in case" box.