Water heater full?

[ManWonder]

I think I burned out the element in my Roadtrek's water heater. To avoid in the future, I understand I need to ensure it is full before I switch on the electric element. My question is how do I do this? I see no fill line on the tank. It is covered in insulation. I had thought as soon as I drew water from it that it had to be full. But I'm thinking that's not accurate.

 

[hepcat]

The water heater has a pressure relief valve on the outside. If you open that and get water out, then the water heater is full, and it should be ok to turn the element on. If you were getting water out of the hot water tap though, AND the winterizing bypass valves were turned to send water into the tank instead of bypassing it, then you should have been good to go.

 

[Gary Mn]

Which model RT you have ? Does it have an electric water heater? If not you should be ok. The other responder is correct too

 

[ManWonder]

I have a 2004 190 Popular and it does indeed have an electric water heater. I noticed not long ago that a GFI switch located near the side door had tripped - resetting it got the hot water heater going - but that was weeks ago, since then no go. :-(

 

[Doneworking]

This is a great forum! I have owned a 1996 190P and 2007 210P Roadtreks and I never knew that somewhere between those years that RT had a gas/110v water heater. I looked up the 2004 brochure specs on Roadtrek.com and sure 'nuff.....there it was: a two way water heater. I looked at the surrounding years and the dual lp/110 is shown for 2003, 2004 and 2005.

I have had to replace most of the GFIs in our 2007 RT over the years. They just seem to fail. Recently, I had an electrician tell me they were having a dickens of a time with GFIs because they are virtually 100% made in you know where now and have high failure rates. He said he had three in a row out of the boxes fail. Wow.

I think I would cut the power, replace the GFI and then see what happened. I am surprised that the water heater won't apparently work on propane even if the 110 circuit/element/whatever is failing.

Roadtrek was always trying to take a few models for the first several decades of its corporate life and just tweak and improve them every year. We will keep our 2007 210P until we sundown because we love the quality, twin beds, Chevy chassis and really great cabinetry. Same applies to your 2004 190P.

Paul

 

[ManWonder]

I am surprised that the water heater won't apparently work on propane even if the 110 circuit/element/whatever is failing.

the heater works on propane - it's just the electric part that's broken - the GFI circuit works fine -