Neutral Wire on Water Heater?

Does anyone know how to find/disconnect the "neutral" wire on the water heater?

I opened the exterior cover and there are two black wires, two brown wires, and a thick red wire. I don't see a white wire, which I presume would be the "neutral."

Thanks for any help.

[commodor47]

Here is a copy of the wiring diagrams and a description of the connections. Note the two different diagrams - one is for the 12-volt and the other for the AC side of the connection. You should find the white wire is the neutral for the AC feed. Do make sure to isolate the white wire once you disconnect it from the electric element.

Dick

The brown and black wires you see are for the 12 volt parts of the water heater. The red one is the automatic ignitor wire (it looks like a spark plug wire because that's basically what it is).

The wires you are looking for go to the heating element. They aren't exposed for safety reasons. You need to remove the black plastic cover that is under (and behind) the 4 wire connection you see in the water heater compartment - note that one of the screws is rather difficult to get to, and you'll have to remove the part in front of it (which includes where those four 12 volt wires go). That shoudl expose the heating element and the contacts. Obviously, make sure you don't have 110 volt power plugged into the TM when you do this!

I think they make a connection somewhere behind the fridge, too, but I don't know how to find it there, at least easily. Someone else here might know that though.

Grakin, your description was spot-on. I found it and disconnected it, and now my GFCI tripping problems seem to have stopped. I'm going to try to find a replacement element for the w/h and hook everything back up.

Thanks so much.

Until you replace the electric heating element, just disconnect the wires and you can still use it on propane.