fusing for Suburan water heater

[diandtom]

I have a 10 gallon Suburan water heater and it is fused for 15 amps and it keeps tripping the breaker every few days. Is your a 15 or 20 amp breaker ?
It has had two elements and the same thing keeps happening. It does look like it has 12 ga wiring which will take 20 amps, but not sure about the water heater.

["007"]

If you have the correct element for WH it draws 12 amp's, look at figure #6 and page #15 which discuss the element.
Would say a 15 amp should be ample if its the correct element.

[diandtom]

Last Jan. it started doing this and I replaced the element with a Camco and started getting a burnt wire smell. I then called a RV tech and he claimed the problem was the Camco element I put in. He changed it out with a Suburan element and flushed out the tank. A hour later I was getting the smell again. I called him back and he said it was the tank heating up and the smell was from the foam around the tank. I then told him I knew a burnt wire smell like as I worked for the telephone office as a Co tech. I turned the breaker off and when I got to Myrtle Beach the smell returned stronger than ever. I then took the fiver to Camping World and they found a bad transfer switch. I was on fire when they found it. They replaced the switch and we not used it until this trip. When looking for the smell I traced the wiring from the breaker to the water heater. I found nothing wrong. I am now think maybe a bad breaker. I would swap it with another one but it the only 15 amp in the panel.

["007"]

Don't know why the transfer switch should have been a problem the power for element should be coming off your load center circuit breaker to the switch for 120 element in your display area.
You have 14 gage wiring and there was water in HW tank if the wiring was a smaller gage would melt wiring I have seen runs out of electric box. Why your foam melted is strange?
When the wires with spade clips are connected make sure the spade wire is pushed into the spade clip have found the spade pushed in between the plastic holder and the spade clip which will create high resistance and heat the plastic causing a smell of burning plastic.

[GaryKD]

Hi diandtom,
I have the same as you and a 15 AMP breaker. Guess the next step is to check the connections and grounds, like 007 mentioned. Double check the resistance of the element and determine if there is a path from the element to ground that should not be there.

Lastly, measure the AMPS going to the element. If it is it drawing more than it should, the problem is in the WH. If it is drawing within spec, the problem is in the wiring.

[diandtom]

Rodger, I thought the smell was coming from the water heater, but it was the transfer switch was the problem. The smell would start when the load on the transfer switch was higher. We were using the fireplace at Myrtle Beach causing the bad transfer switch to over heat.
The breaker started tripping in January while down in Florida. I turned the switch on the water heater off for a couple days and no resetting the breaker. I then replaced the element with a Camco element. The burnt wire smell started a couple weeks later and I thought it was the water heater. I traced the wire from the breaker to the water heater and found nothing wrong. I then called the RV tech, that claimed the element I put in was no good and put in a Suburan element. Then at Myrtle Beach the transfer switch problem was found. The transfer switch problem is fixed and done with, if I could just get my money back from Carriage. LOL I now have this breaker to the water heather tripping . I called Carriage today and they are sending me a new breaker. I am going to put in the new breaker and leave the water heater on for a few days to see if that was the problem.