Atwood water heater troubleshooting

[CTP]

Good morning,
We finally set up for full timing. When we had the camper parked in the driveway we didn't hook up water.
Now we're at the CG and the electric element of the water heater is either really slow or needs some help. The LP side works great.
I did have to unplug and replug the thermostat red wire for the LP gas light to go off which I think meant there was a lighting error for pilot.
Curious if anyone has any insight on how to troubleshoot electric element?
The switch lights up and there is a subtle whine when you stand next to the water heater outside, which I might assume is the element working.
Beautiful morning here in South Mississippi.

[Mopar_Earl]

The electric element is low wattage, so it will definitely take a lot longer to heat the water up versus the LP. You can also run it on both electric and LP at the same time to increase recovery time.

I'd measure voltage at the element to make sure you don't have a voltage drop somewhere.

Don't expect the electric to be as fast as the LP.


Earl

[RedHorse1]

You can also use an ohm meter to see if the heating element is broken. A quick google search yielded this YouTube video:

Testing the heating element

Be sure to turn the power off!

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by Mopar_Earl

The electric element is low wattage, so it will definitely take a lot longer to heat the water up versus the LP. You can also run it on both electric and LP at the same time to increase recovery time.
...snip...
Don't expect the electric to be as fast as the LP.
Earl

What he said ^^^.

If we stop early in the day, we turn on the electric element and leave it on. We usually don't need hot water until after dinner and it's hot enough by then.

If we stop late in the day, or need hot water quickly, we turn on the propane for about 10-15 minutes and leave the electric element on.

[CTP]

Thanks fellas!

[Mopar_Earl]

The sticker on my water heater says 6.2gph on electric, 11.6gph on LP and 17.8gph on both electric and LP. So electric is about half of the LP.


Earl

[namusmc65]

Originally Posted by Mopar_Earl

The sticker on my water heater says 6.2gph on electric, 11.6gph on LP and 17.8gph on both electric and LP. So electric is about half of the LP.


Earl

With just the two of us, we have plenty of hot water on just electric. In really cold weather, we might use both for a short while for quick recovery. Has never even been a problem.

[CTP]

Well I finally got around to testing the element and it has gone bad. 0 ohms on meter. Now I have to shop for an element, and crawl in there and change it out.

Well scratch that, I didn't unhook one side before testing. Now after unhooking and testing element is good, 10.6 ohms.
So I pulled the relay to test that. Get OL from my meter across all contacts.
Anyone else have a better way to test the relay?

[CTP]

For those interested, I finally tracked what the problem was. I should have checked this first. The exposed copper black wire off the circuit breaker broke off and therefore there wasn't any power to relay and element.
After a quick strip and clamp, the electric element is back in business

[ALJO]

It is always good to check the torque on all the screws from the CB's and also the neutral's. Chassis ground is also a big problem on RV's because they use a washer without any die-electric grease and will corrode easy.

[hozerdude]

Last weekend I had tp replace that crappy atwood water heater. People told me it was going to coast $600 to $750 for a new 6 gallon atwood water heater. I said the hell with that and bought a 6 Gallon electric water heater with a glass liner for $250.00. It was a no brainer to install and fit in the same place as the old water heater.