Water Heater electrical start

Greetings,
Here is my first post. I bought a 2005 Trailmanor 2710. I have it hooked up electrically to 30 AMP service, connected to city water, filled the hot water tank, and switched the external water heater on/off switch to "on" per operating instruction for electric mode heat. I also turned to "on" the internal on/off switch just below the sink, light turned red. We had hot water. Then my wife opened the gas to cook breakfast the next morning and the water heater stopped producing hot water. Turning the internal switch just below the sink off and then on I hear the hot water pilot trying to light three times then turn off. No hot water. It sounds as if the water heater is trying to light using gas not electric
I am a new owner. Is there something I am doing wrong that is not allowing the heater to work electrically? Please advise; tired of boiling water to wash the dishes.
GoPens

The only switch you need to turn on to run HWH on Shore Power (110V) is the external one. The internal switch you mention with the light is for operation on Gas. You can run both if you need immediate recovery, but If you turned both on and had hot water then shut off the gas and had none, it is likely that the electric heating element is burned out. This is very easy to do. If you turn switch on or leave it on and plug TM into shore power without water in tank it will burn out in minute or two. This is relatively easy to replace and is usually available at most RV dealers for <$20.00. I have a label on my shore power plug door that reminds me to check the WH switch prior to plugging in.

[Bill]

Bob is right. The gas and electric heating capabilities are independent of each other. Nothing you do on the gas side will affect what happens on the electric side, or vice-versa. If the water in the heater was cold, and you switched on the gas, it should have lit. By the same token, if the water in the heater was cool, and you had shore power and the outside electric switch was turned on, then the electric side should have heated the water.

Before you begin tearing into things, there is one easy thing to try. Take the outside grating over the water heater compartment, and look at this picture. At the top of the picture, just to the left of center, is a black plastic cover, with a label on it - in the picture, you can just read the word "IMPORTANT". Just above the word IMPORTANT, there are two round circles, more or less the size of a quarter (hard to see in this picture, which was taken for a different purpose). Hidden under these circles are the overheat switches, one for gas and one for electric. One at a time, put your thumb on each of the circles, and push firmly. If you feel a distinct click, the switch had tripped, and now you've reset it. You'll probably never experience it again. No one knows why these things occasionally trip, but as near as I can tell, an occasional nuisance trip signifies nothing.

Bill

OK, thanks. I checked the electrical heating element and it was definitely burned out. I replaced it as a fairly straightforward DIY project and thought I had the problem solved. But, no hot water. I tried the reset button but did not hear/feel the click. So I am left to wonder what's next? I noticed the wiring for the electrical element did not seem to matter what terminal to hook the wires, this is because of AC power, right? Not sure what the next option is except to take it to the dealer which might be expensive. I would rather learn on my own. Suggestions?

Check the power ( 110V) at the heater element connections using a 110V multimeter. It is possible that when the element blew it shorted and took out the fuse or breaker, If you have power then you should have heat.

[Bill]

By the way, in case you weren't aware, to turn on a circuit breaker, you don't just push the handle to ON. You must first push the handle all the way to OFF, then back to ON. More than one person has been fooled by thinking they had turned on a breaker, when in fact they had not.

Onward. With shore power connected, the breaker confirmed ON, and the switch on the water heater turned on, measure the voltage on the element's terminals as Bob suggested. Expect to find around 110-120VAC.

If you find the correct voltage, but it still doesn't heat, then disconnect shore power from the TM, disconnect both wires from the heating element terminals, set your multimeter to Ohms X 1, put the multimeter probes into the multimeter sockets labelled "ohms" or "resistance", and touch the other ends of the probes to the heating element terminals. You should see a resistance of a very fews ohms. Something on the order of 10 ohms. If the reading is very high (or infinite), then the element is bad (open).


Bill