Water Heater Questions

[SomersIsles]

We are on our maiden voyage with our 2007 23b and loving it! A lot of advice from searching this forum has definitely come in handy. The most was the mentioning of the surge guard. The campground dropped down to 95v yesterday and they had to call in the utility company and a lot of campers had major problems because of it! Not us!! Thank god!

Anyway...

1) Kind of related but we lost power for a bit. The AC was running and the electric water heater was on. The circuit breaker at the electrical pole had tripped. Was it because both were running?

2) Which makes me wonder... Are you suppose to keep the water heater on from the moment you park? We selected electric instead of gas. Or only turn it on in preparation for a shower or dishes or something?

3) I turned the water heater off after the power issues just so it wouldn't be an issue.... Forgot to turn to back on.... And DH was able to take a quick hot shower. Hot water heater was off for a good 12+hours..... How is that possible?? Residual hot water??

[jasoncw]

1) That would not typically be a problem. My guess is it is related to the electric problem that the campground was having.

2) Yes keep it on. No real reason not to. It will cycle as it needs to in order to keep the water at the correct temp.

3) The hot water tank has insulation in it, so yes it was residual hot water that was still in the tank. Although it does seem that it would definitely cool down from "hot" after 12 hours. If he wasn't to take a quick one, the water would have gone cold quickly.

[sailor]

An air conditioner can draw 12- 16 amps (probably more on start up). The water heater can use another 12+ amps. Add in some amps for the power converter even though you are not using 12 volt items. The power usage is very close to the 30 amp mark. If the line voltage is low the current draw will increase. If the circuit breaker on the power pedestal is weak that can add to the problem. On 30 amp service we usually need to run the water heater on propane if the air conditioner is on.

[Ela1948]

Originally Posted by SomersIsles

We are on our maiden voyage with our 2007 23b and loving it! A lot of advice from searching this forum has definitely come in handy. The most was the mentioning of the surge guard. The campground dropped down to 95v yesterday and they had to call in the utility company and a lot of campers had major problems because of it! Not us!! Thank god!

Anyway...

1) Kind of related but we lost power for a bit. The AC was running and the electric water heater was on. The circuit breaker at the electrical pole had tripped. Was it because both were running?

2) Which makes me wonder... Are you suppose to keep the water heater on from the moment you park? We selected electric instead of gas. Or only turn it on in preparation for a shower or dishes or something?

3) I turned the water heater off after the power issues just so it wouldn't be an issue.... Forgot to turn to back on.... And DH was able to take a quick hot shower. Hot water heater was off for a good 12+hours..... How is that possible?? Residual hot water??

Attachment 19705

When we are hooked up to 30 amp service and are using AC as well as microwave or other high amperage appliance such as toaster oven or hair dryer, we normally turn on the electric hot water when we finish making our meals. It is plenty of time to finish heating the water tank and it doesn't compete with other amperage needs. As soon as we do the dishes or take showers we turn it back off. We are never out of hot water!!