How To Test Your RV Water Heater On Electric

Certified Mobile RV Technician, Darren Koepp, shows you how to test your RV water heater on electric to quickly ensure that your heating element is working properly. This RV tech tip will save you time and effort when troubleshooting your water heater heating element.

[joe]

Bro, your voice and rate of speech reminds me of many successful radio/podcast hosts. You could do well in the voice world

[bobbyboy]

Darren, what I do in these cases is take a 2-Step approach. First, I will take an AC voltage reading between the load side of the breaker feeding the circuit and the neutral buss. This verifies that the breaker is good. The on to load testing. Food for thought.

[donkeltner]

I have a atwood 10 gal water heater, gas works, no electric. 9.8 with quick trick check, replaced circ board, and t stat, and eco, fuse is good on the board, and thermal fuse good, tightened all connections, still the same results .Did I miss anything?

[phillipmorris]

hello from the rainy Ozarks Darren! if the switch on the wall is turned on does the light come on too even if the heater element not working

[MrHuish]

I have a suburban water heater I'm going to try what you suggested cuz I can get the everyplace the element cuz there was no ohms reading but I'm still not able to get it to work I'll try that but I don't know if you can recommend anything else I can try if that does not work thanks for the video hopefully it'll be helpful I'll try it this this week on trying to see if my electric element works

[gregfee]

good trick, dont have a clamp meter so went back to the switch that turns the current on for the electricity for the water heater, did a continuity test on the 2 wires coming into the switch, got a beeping sound, did one on the switch, got same sound, breaker off by the way... what should I be doing now?? still no water heat with electrical on... sensors seem to check out also at the front of the water heater...

[michaelkocsis]

Can you do the same check with s probe meter instead of clamp on?

[stevenpolaski]

i have an Atwood GC6AA-10E water heater that is supposed to be a combo but it is presently only propane operated, i would like to install the components to make it electric as well, is there a kit available? I can find the heater element but not the cover and wiring harness.

[craig]

I tested mine exactly as you did and only got 6.6 Amp showing on the meter. Does that mean electric element is faulty?

[larryg]

I’m pretty sure that connecting your ammeter to the breaker wire only tells you that it has current. It does not tell you whether you have a bad water heater element. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

[robmoye]

Thank you've saved me some much time

[elizabethbrown]

Can you explain the pins, whether AC or DC on a Suburban dual gas/electric switch. and what is the jumper wire all about, and the light? I have a direct ignition water heater SW10DE. Trying to rewire it. Not sure if AC power is coming in to a pin and DC to other pins? I have to learn this. It is killing me! Thank you!

[phillipmorris]

hello from the Ozarks! thanks for the tip! how do you check the atwood electric water heater control board

[busterbuilding]

So if the amps check out correctly, would the circuit board be suspect? If it's drawing about 10 amps, then it appears the heating element should be heating...why no hot water?

[steveh]

I'm a little confused because you refer to amps and 10 amps being the sweet spot within the range. Sounds like you're confusing it with ohms, because when you ohm out an element it should be in the range of 9-11 ohms with 10 being the sweetspot.

[diawnchannell]

Followed for your awesome wasy of explaining it all. Your awesome keep up the great work!

[jasonhorst]

Ok what if it doesn’t create amps? Element or switch?

[tomspare]

I have an Atwood gc6aa-10e. Last Summer both the electric and propane stopped working. Under warranty they replaced the circuit board. This year while on our 3rd trip, the electric stopped working (and continued not to work on our 4th trip)(gas worked). I did the testing of the yellow and white wires on circuit board and had a good DC reading. I ran across your video and just tested for amperage and I got a 11+ reading. It is not convenient to put water in the tank at my home so I don't know if it's actually heating. My question is ... Does your testing for amperage method guarantee that the electric heating element is working?
I also performed the following test...
Tested the yellow DC lead going to the relay located by the electric heating element. Good DC reading.
Tested for AC voltage on electric heating element. Good AC reading.
I did find the white neutral twist on connector to be extremely loose (as in it fell off when I pulled the AC wires out of the box on the back of the tank)... I'm hoping this was the issue.

[EricGreniervideo]

Love how clearly you explain things!

My water heater keeps flipping my main breaker. It has continuity between the neutral and ground. Any ideas what I should look for? Thanks.

[joras]

Thanks ! Can you do some videos of adding a inverter to an rv with just a converter ! Thanks for the informative videos there great 👍🏻👍🏻