atwood heating element December 22, 2013, 04:22:24 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144255My atwood water heater works fine with propane, but not so with electric. I am starting the process of eliminating issues one by one and my first to-do is to replace the heating element. However, I can't find it! I have the 6 gallon 8E model. Does anyone have the info to help me, please? Thanks so much!Cynthia
Re: atwood heating element Reply #1 – December 22, 2013, 05:08:13 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144258Stopid question: did it work before. Not all HWT work on 120 volt. The one in my 05 LD does not have electric heat element.Did you first test the heat element to see if it is getting power. You might check Lowes and Home Depot. take the old unit in and see if they have one. The small 10 gal. tanks for home have a 110 unit.
Re: atwood heating element Reply #2 – December 22, 2013, 09:18:36 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144267Not a stupid question . . Actually, my water heater went out recently and I had an RV handiman off of craigslist come take a look--he fixed the propane aspect of it. He said that it is a gas and electric water heater, but the electric wires were not hooked up. He hooked them up, but it never worked. He suggested that the element may not be working. I went to a trusted RV supply store this weekend and they sold me the heating element that is supposed to go with this heater. Only problem is, I can't find the one that is supposed to be in the tank already.
Re: atwood heating element Reply #3 – December 23, 2013, 01:57:33 am Yahoo Message Number: 144270AFAIK, LDs have never come with an electric heating element in the water heater. If your LD has one, it is most likely a replacement. To make it work would have require that a 120-VAC circuit be run to the heater, most likely with an added circuit breaker. Check the circuit breakers for the added circuit.Larry
Re: atwood heating element Reply #4 – December 23, 2013, 07:43:59 am Yahoo Message Number: 144272Well, I guess that would explain the mystery. I don't think mine has one--only the wires and on/off switch to make things confusing. I may consider using a hott rod conversion kit, but I think I'll focus on getting myself connected to an external propane source so I don't have to worry about running low and then go from there down the line.Cynthia
Re: atwood heating element Reply #5 – December 23, 2013, 09:29:46 am Yahoo Message Number: 144275"To make it work would have require that a 120-VAC circuit be run to the heater, most likely with an added circuit breaker." To add to what Larry said, from the way you described it, it sounds as if the RV tech may have wired it in some hokey way that could potentially be unsafe. I'd have somebody competent (that rules out Camping World ;-) look at it as soon as possible.Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels
Re: atwood heating element Reply #6 – December 23, 2013, 09:59:50 am Yahoo Message Number: 144277"I may consider using a hott rod conversion kit"One word: DON'T. Atwood recommends against using these drain-hole add-ons, as they can corrode and "freeze" in place... and then you're really in a fix! You already have an electric heating element that was designed by Atwood for your heater. All you need is to get it wired correctly.Let me add a general comment. My experience has been that for a solo traveler, if you're plugged in, propane use by the water heater is negligible. Running you generator justo Thus there's little or no need for an electric option. (Obviously when you're not plugged in, you couldn't use electricity to heat water anyway... unless you ran your generator, and running your generator just to heat a tank of water is kinda crazy.)For example, I spend most winters in water/electric hookup sites in state parks. I run the water heater for about twenty minutes every morning before showering, then shut it off. Every week or so I'll bake a loaf of bread or some cookies.With this kind of usage, I only need to refill my propane tank about once every three months. There'd be little point in using electricity to heat water to save propane. Why bother?Most fulltimers I know use similar methods. Even when boondocking, the water heater accounts for minimal propane usage, as long as you don't leave it running all day. Fifteen or twenty minutes a day is all you need."But that means washing my hands/face/dishes in cold water!" You'd be surprised how long that water heater's insulated jacket will keep water warm. But so what if you wash the dishes in cold water? They'll get clean. In fact, if you do it right, you'll use so little water that it won't matter. See this Eureka article on washing dishes efficiently... and while you're at it, this article on showering has some great tips for saving both water and propane.The bottom line is that an RV isn't a house. If you cling to your old "house" habits--leaving the water heater on 24/7, running water down the drain until it gets hot, taking 15-minute showers, washing dishes under running water, and so on--you're going to find your camping abilities severely limited. If you learn new habits, you can be quite comfortable for weeks at a time even with no hookups. It's your choice. :-)Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels
Re: atwood heating element Reply #7 – December 23, 2013, 04:23:47 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144285Quote Quote"But that means washing my hands/face/dishes in cold water!" You'd be surprised how long that water heater's insulated jacket will keep water warm. But so what if you wash the dishes in cold water? They'll get clean. In fact, if you do it right, you'll use so little water that it won't matter. See this Eureka article on washing dishes efficiently... and while you're at it, this article on showering has some great tips for saving both water and propane."Let me add on more important fact ..... It's fiction not the soap or temp of water that cleans off the 'dirt.' Soap is a surfactant that helps the fiction to remove the 'dirt', same with the temp of the water. Btw when washing hands it makes no difference the temperature of the water as a germ killing method. We humans would have to wash our hands in over 212F degree water to make a dent in the germs. Most humans would not like to put their hands in boiling water.Yes ( smile) not a direct LD topic but we USA folk tend to be germ phobic to the point of irrationality.QuoteReply via web post Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (7).
Re: atwood heating element Reply #8 – December 23, 2013, 04:57:24 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144286"You already have an electric heating element that was designed by Atwood for your heater. All you need is to get it wired correctly. "And this brings me back to my original question, which is, "Where is the heating element on the heater?" I can't find it to see if it is in need of replacing.
Re: atwood heating element Reply #9 – December 23, 2013, 05:12:58 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144287You might want to start by going to the water heater page on the Atwood website:http://www.atwoodmobile.com/water-heaters.aspAt the right side of the page, there's a link to a PDF of 'water heater parts'; you should be able to locate the electric heating element from the exploded view of the appropriate model number.Joan
Re: atwood heating element Reply #10 – December 23, 2013, 07:50:50 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144290"And this brings me back to my original question, which is, "Where is the heating element on the heater?" I can't find it to see if it is in need of replacing. "CynthiaIf your heater has a electric 'Hotrod' installed, you will find it in the heater's drain hole. Do you really want to use an electric heating rod when the Manufacturer recommends not to? I would assume they know more about this stuff than we do.The small amount of propane saved is going to be minimal, space heating being the major consumer of propane.Larry .
Re: atwood heating element Reply #11 – December 23, 2013, 09:31:04 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144291On Dec 23, 2013, at 4:23 PM, Tf Hafford wrote:Indeed :-)
Re: atwood heating element Reply #12 – December 23, 2013, 09:31:39 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144292Thank you, Joan. That was an excellent suggestion! (Seems like such an obvious first step, too, but it's amazing how easy it is to forget such a resource.) I have figured out (I think) where the heating element is and will see what happens when I replace it. Fingers crossed!
Re: atwood heating element Reply #13 – December 23, 2013, 09:34:22 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144293No, I don't want to use a hott rod. I only considered it for a minute when I was thinking that my unit was gas only. I want to figure out where the electric heating element is that came with the unit. I think I found it based on Joan's kind guidance to the online Atwood manual. The electric element turns out to be buried in the back under the switch box, so was far from immediately obvious. I have confirmed from the manual that my unit is gas and electric, so I am going to move forward with trying to figure out why the electric is not working. I agree that the amount of propane used is negligible, but I still want to have both options. I have been known to run out of propane.Cynthia
Re: atwood heating element Reply #14 – December 23, 2013, 09:42:47 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144294QuoteOn Dec 23, 2013, at 4:23 PM, Tf Hafford wrote:I love this story about a great-great-aunt who had been a WW I Army nurse. In pre-penicillin days she had certainly seen some pretty awful things in both her military & civilian careers. Aunt Ethlyn had a sister (Lois) who was apparently a girly-girl who was more than a bit prissy. Re: biology experiments in the refrigerator, Aunt Ethlyn reportedly once remarked: "When Lois is sick, she goes to the DR for a shot of penicillin; when I'm sick, I just go to the refrigerator & eat mine."QuoteYes ( smile) not a direct LD topic but we USA folk tend to be germ phobic to the point of irrationality.QuoteReply via web post Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (7).
Re: atwood heating element Reply #15 – December 23, 2013, 11:06:28 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144295"If your heater has a electric 'Hotrod' installed, you will find it in the heater's drain hole."Atwood does offer a heater model that has a built-in (by Atwood) 120V heating element. My 1985 twin/king Lazy Daze, "Gertie," had one. When I needed a new water heater, they put in this deluxe model, either because it was all they had in stock, or perhaps by mistake. They never mentioned that it was a propane/electric model, and I didn't even realize the electric option was there until months later. And I never had it hooked up, because Gertie had only a 15A power system--if I'd used that power to heat water, I couldn't have done pretty much anything else.That's another thing to keep in mind about electric water heater options: they are serious power hogs, and even if a separate circuit is added for the water heater, you still only have 30 amps total to play with. Just as trying to microwave dinner while the air conditioner is running is likely to lead to a tripped breaker, trying to do anything that uses substantial power while the electric water heater element is on is likely to cause problems. Depending on what circuit it's wired into, that could mean anything from running the microwave oven to making a pot of coffee. You'll have to learn to turn off device A before turning on device B, or risk losing power to both.Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels
Re: atwood heating element Reply #16 – December 23, 2013, 11:36:45 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144296Thanks, Andy. That's a good point. I have already run into that problem while running my space heater and trying to cook dinner in an electric pressure cooker. Too much drain, so we went cold until dinner was cooked. Maybe that's why the electric on my Atwood wasn't connected to power this whole time . . . Perhaps best to let sleeping dogs lie, as they say.
Re: atwood heating element Reply #17 – December 23, 2013, 11:41:00 pm Yahoo Message Number: 144297Ha ha! I love it!
Re: atwood heating element Reply #18 – December 24, 2013, 02:00:29 am Yahoo Message Number: 144298"Atwood does offer a heater model that has a built-in (by Atwood) 120V heating element. My 1985 twin/king Lazy Daze, "Gertie," had one. When I needed a new water heater, they put in this deluxe model, either because it was all they had in stock, or perhaps by mistake."Then it should be easy to see if the wiring is there, look for the added circuit breaker and electrical circuit to the heater. If it is piggy-backed onto an existing circuit, it isn't installed correctly. A new breaker and added wiring should be observable to a RV tech or anyone familiar with home-type wiring. The circuit breaker most likely would be in the power center, along with the other 120-VAC breakers, unless the panel was full, then there could be a sub-panel or inline breaker somewhere. Another approach is to look at the rear of the heater, where the heating element is, for the 120-VAC wires and trace from there. You should also have a dual-switch control panel, not sure how old the heater is but present day models do. Propane-only models have one switch control panels..LDs have 30-amp 120-VAC electrical systems and, as Andy pointed out, it's easy to exceed the 30-amp supply, without an electric water heater. Using one requires careful electrical management, one more thing to worry about. An electric water heater, when on, would use half of the available supply. This is why you normally only see electric/propane heaters in RVs with 50-amp electrical. Conversion to 50-amp electrical is possible but would be expensive. Most RV parks supply 20 and 30-amp service, 50-amp is much less common, especially in older parks.Larry
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