Rv water heater electric heating element trouble.
Rv water heater element resistance.
You will first need to verify there is 12 volt battery power and to make sure the lp is on and supplying unit.
As we re about to show in detail one can test a water heater heating element by a simple procedure using a continuity tester or a volt ohm meter a vom.
If your water heater is not making enough hot water it is taking too long to heat water or you might have dry.
Drain the water from the water heater.
Since we know that the hot water electrical circuit feeds 220 vac to the 16 ampere heating element the resistance of that element is equal to 13 75 ohms.
Remove 1 wire it doesn t matter which one by finding its loose end and unraveling it from around the metal element.
Locate the water valve at the bottom of the water heater.
When a water heater no longer produces hot water.
Also measure the resistance between each of the two probes and the case or base of the element.
Short hot shower bad bottom water heater element.
You can check the lp system by simply turning on stovetop.
Each of a hot water heater s elements has 2 electrical wires running to screws that hold the element in place.
Take 1 of the wires off of a water heater element.
Attach a garden hose to the emptying valve and turn the valve using a wrench.
Any reading there will indicate a short in the element.
Cold water enters and remains at the bottom of the water heater.
An electric water heater uses one or two heating elements to heat the water inside the tank.
So our hot water is plenty hot but we run out in just a few minutes.
We can round that number up to 14 ohms.
Elements do have some resistance so a reading of 10 16 ohms is normal with higher ohm readings for 3 500 watt elements and lower readings for 5 500 watt elements.
Therefore the resistance measurement should be a little over 10 ohms between the two contacts on the heating element.
If this does not fix the issues additional rv water heater troubleshooting will be needed.
Replacing the water heater element in an rv.
You will notice a relief valve near the top of the water heater you can flip the handle up to open it.
In order to find the resistance of the heater element from the above described section we must algebraically modify the formula to read r v a.