No power to water heater

[Castaway]

The water heater in our 2012 FC works only on gas, so I replaced the controller board with one from Dinosaur. After installation it still will not heat up on electric. A green light is supposed to be lit on the new board if it is getting power, the light is not on. The gas side still works. I reset the breaker with no change. Any thoughts or ideas on what to do next?

[CBWELL]

Check the conductivity on the heating element with an ohm meter. If the element is burnt out it will not heat. Also check all the 110 volt connections. You must have 110 volts for it to work.

[jaybauman]

You might even need to check the continuity of the heating element when it's hot.

Last year, my Flying Cloud water heater stopped working on electric. I measured resistance across the contacts, and everything looked good. I had my wife switch on the power, and current flowed for a half minute or so before it became an open circuit. I had some sort of element failure that only manifested when hot.

While this took quite some effort to diagnose, it was relatively simple to replace.

[Castaway]

where is the element?

[GCinSC2]

My SWAG on the inside of the trailer opposite of where the water heater is located on the outside. On mine it’s accessible under the lav sink open doors and there is the backside of water heater.

Disconnect all 120vac power before testing.

[telcoman]

it could be something as simple as a loose spade tip on the back of the main switch. I would take a look behind it. That board also requires 12v to work, with no green ight I would make sure its getting 12 v on its input. Once again that could be the main switch. On my hot water heater the main switch puts 12 v to the heater not 110v. I think it operates a relay. The 110 connection is right on the hot water heater. On an Atwood its a pair of wires at the top you can see them if you can see the inside top portion of the heater. The feed should be on its own breaker in your convertor box. I changed mine out form gas to electric/gas. I used a ground fault breaker. Actually i put in a ground fault outlet to connect it to. I suspect a stock one will also be on ground fault, so maybe that has tripped.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by Castaway

..... A green light is supposed to be lit on the new board if it is getting power, the light is not on. .....

Hi

That light would strongly suggest that 120V is *not* getting to the water heater. Grab your multimeter and start tracing the 120V. First check would be at the output of the breaker ( breakers sometimes fail ). Next step would be at the input the hot water heater. Assuming it's ok at the breaker and "gone" at the heater, star looking for wire nuts or other connections in the wires that service the heater.

(.... never rule out a mistake. Breakers need to be fully cycled (switched all the way) to reset. Double check the wiring on your new board for "I missed that wire" sort of mistakes ...).

Bob