Question Electric water heater not working

[HughA]

Good evening, guys and girls
I have a 2021 Outback with a Suburban SW6DEL water heater. The gas side is working well. (Thank heavens! as I am living in the trailer pretty much full time) But the electric side isn't working at all. The thermostat and high temp cut out seem fine. That is there is continuity thru them to the heating element. It also seems ok. 10 ohms thru the element which is what you expect for a 10 amp rated current at 120 vac.
The Suburban manual shows a relay in the circuit leading to the thermostat and cut out. Since I get no power at the thermostat/cut out it seems likely the relay is bad. My question is where did Keystone mount the relay? In the water heater compartment? Meaning pull the whole water heater to get at it?
Well, I looked a bit closer and there is an access panel below the breaker/fuse panel. Just a couple screws to gain access. The big surprise was finding a mouse nest in the area. About a quart of torn up kleenex or TP. I had trapped a couple of mice under the sink and 3 or 4 more below the trailer but I didn't know they had moved in.
So now the question is, did the relay fail or did a mouse chew thru a wire? Access is tight so I may end up pulling the water heater anyway.
Any thoughts or experience with the water heater controls would be welcome. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Hugh

 

[Kevin D Pem]

try downloading the manual

 

[B52Bombardier1]

Hello,

Here is where I get most of my obsolete RV manuals and I needed a bunch when I bought our 2007 model trailer:

Suburban SW6DEL – PDX RV

I would grab all of these SW6DEL manuals while you are there. I printed mine and have them in a book that mostly stays in our trailer for ready usage.

Rick

 

[HughA]

try downloading the manual

Good morning, Kevin
Thanks for the reply. I had the basic owner's manual and it does have schematics of the gas and electric control circuits. But I didn't know there was a more detailed "Master Service and Training" manual. B52Bombardier1 sent a link to pdxrvwholesale.com where you can down load it. It looks like they sell parts as well.

Hugh

 

[HughA]

Thanks, Rick
That link is was a big help. The service manual confirmed the A/C control relay is mounted on the left side of the unit (as viewed from the outside of the trailer). Of course the access is on the right side so I have to pull the whole thing to reach it. But it looks easy enough to drain and disconnect the water side.
As usual, I didn't check You Tube before posting my questions. There are several videos on RV water heaters. This one: was specific to Suburban heaters.

Hugh

 

[Chuggs]

Some water heaters have a switch on the unit itself. It's a quick way to interrupt power to the heating element, helpful when draining the unit, winterizing, or replacing an anode. If you are experiencing this after service, perhaps it was left turned off.

Yours may or may not have the switch, but I thought I woukd mention it just in case.

 

[Scooterfan]

The heating element could be bad. It happened to me, simple swap out and it works like new. Blessings

 

[Chuggs]

Probably the easiest step in the troubleshooting line...measure the resistance of the element, if it fails...replace it.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Probably the easiest step in the troubleshooting line...measure the resistance of the element, if it fails...replace it.

Yes!!! Fail would be open circuit.

 

[DennisT]

On ours in our old Forester we had an on / off switch on the front of the unit and a breaker that was normally off for the electric side.

Breaker was a fail safe to keep from smoking the electric element if the tank was empty.