Community Forums

powerboatr · 07-26-2007, 06:30 PM

I routinely drain my water heater and replace teh anode road as required, but last two times my anode has been covered in a gel looking substance like, and old jelly fish sort of
but nothing in the tank except some sediment.

the last few months my circuit breaker has been popping than runs the electric element in the water heater and the refer on the same circuit (15 amp), watching my surge guard display i have noticed the load has been 10-13 amps when the water heater element kicks on.

so today i shut off the a/c power and lp to the water heater and drained it, inspected the anode and cleaned it off again, and i also pulled the heater element.
SURPRISE surprise. the element was tarnished badly and had some gunk up on the plug end that could be causing a shrt of sorts or at least an increase in current draw.
so i cleaned it up, reflushed the tank and changed the whole rv water filter (5 micron), cleaned the lp flame orifice and exhaust tube
. filled it back up with water, burped the air and re-applied a/c power. wow i got an amp drop to 8-9 amps when it was heating up.

ediited a mistake, teh deep freeze was NOT on the same circuit,

powerboatr · 07-26-2007, 06:30 PM

I routinely drain my water heater and replace teh anode road as required, but last two times my anode has been covered in a gel looking substance like, and old jelly fish sort of
but nothing in the tank except some sediment.

the last few months my circuit breaker has been popping than runs the electric element in the water heater and the refer on the same circuit (15 amp), watching my surge guard display i have noticed the load has been 10-13 amps when the water heater element kicks on.

so today i shut off the a/c power and lp to the water heater and drained it, inspected the anode and cleaned it off again, and i also pulled the heater element.
SURPRISE surprise. the element was tarnished badly and had some gunk up on the plug end that could be causing a shrt of sorts or at least an increase in current draw.
so i cleaned it up, reflushed the tank and changed the whole rv water filter (5 micron), cleaned the lp flame orifice and exhaust tube
. filled it back up with water, burped the air and re-applied a/c power. wow i got an amp drop to 8-9 amps when it was heating up.

ediited a mistake, teh deep freeze was NOT on the same circuit,

Ray,IN · 07-26-2007, 08:57 PM

Thanks for the information. I hope I can remember it at the appropiate time.

FiverBob · 08-01-2007, 03:00 PM

Another overlooked trick is maintaining the expansion air pocket in the water heater. Mine will cause a slow drip under the sink when on propane if the air pocket is low. The easiest way I have found to replenish it is clean out your water hose, then empty it - - connect it to the hookup, go inside the RV and turn on the hot water faucet in the sink. Then, go outside and turn on the water pressure. The air from the hose will go directly into the hot water tank. The faucet will burp excess air - - turn it off when it is done burping.

Bob

powerboatr · 08-02-2007, 08:00 PM

important update

after a few days the breaker started popping again and amps were back up to a higher load

so i dug around and got the real world numbers and amperage for both the fridge and water heater
fridge pulls up to 3.5 amps on a/c power, depending on how hot the heater needs to be to get the cooling effect going.
the water heater pulls a max of 12 on 120 power
this puts the total load a shade over 15 amps, which is the breaker rating
so i killed all a/c power and opened up the box and found the refer is labled to be connected to another breaker in the panel and not the one the water heater is on, which is not good because the other breakers are close to their rated load now with just a few amps to spare.
so i investigated further and found the wire is 12 gauge, so i swapped in a 20 amp breaker and it now runs just the water heater and the fridge. and geuss what its not HOT to the touch as before./
my big concern was the sudden tripping of the breaker, i geuss it just flat wore out.
basicly i added 5 amps of capacity to the coaches electrics but it still wont go over the total 50 amps per feed so i am not overloaded or have potential to overload the main breakers

i am still perplexed why the builder used a 15 amp breaker in a cicuit that has a 15.5 load demand.

Bob-Q · 08-25-2007, 02:49 PM

Hey Fiver, you want to run that by me again? I must have missed something there, or I just don't understand what it is you saying.
Thanks,
Bob Quinn

FiverBob · 08-27-2007, 11:28 AM

Bob-Q,

Hmmm, trying to figure what you might not understand. I assume you know the water heater does have, or should have, an air expansion space in the top. This absorbs the expansion when the heater gets hot - - pretty hard to compress water and it can put a lot of pressure on your hot water lines. Check you manual and it will probably give you a long method of restoring it periodically and it involves removing the anode to allow air to enter the chamber. The easy way is to periodically do it with the water hose. While the hose is empty, no water in it, hook it up to the faucet, then to the rig. Turn on the faucet. Go inside the rig and turn on the kitchen sink hot water faucet and allow that air from the hose to flow into the hot water heater tank - - this then restores the air pocket in the tank. I don't know how else to say it.

Bob

RustyJC · 08-27-2007, 12:47 PM

Hey, Bob, welcome back!!

Long time no see!

Rusty

Bob-Q · 08-27-2007, 03:26 PM

Thanks Fiver, I understand it now, guess I wasn't reading it right.
Bob Q

JimmyDee · 08-29-2007, 10:54 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">i am still perplexed why the builder used a 15 amp breaker in a circuit that has a 15.5 load demand. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Being an electrician, I can assure you there are very few licensed electricians wiring RV's. Probably ran out of 20 amp breakers or whatever. You make the mistake thinking the guy that installed the circuit knew what he was doing.
Jim

powerboatr · 08-29-2007, 05:41 PM

jimmy
i was thinking along those lines, about "who" was actually doing the building, so far we have had zero electrical issues since the swap, no flickering lights or odd messages from the surge guard. and the most important. no hot breaker box cover

FiverBob · 09-01-2007, 02:36 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RustyJC:
Hey, Bob, welcome back!!

Long time no see!

Rusty </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thanks, Rusty. Been out and about. Just got back from a long trip down into Mexico, then up the west coast to Washington, then kittywampus back to Florida hitting all the neat spots we could. Inet access was spotty a lot of the time. We were gone almost five months. Nice to go - - fun to get home.
Bob