Water heater element

[Happy Camper]

I replaced the switch, element and finally the thermostat. the last one is where I should have started - one wire was burnt in two. All good to go again, but will watch the wiring closely.

[Shane Wood]

Glad to hear you found your problem
The best way to find a short or bad ground is to start at one end and work your way to the other checking for voltage

[Bill n Diana]

Excellant comments Michelle. I never knew there was this much to getting power to an element WH elements.

[mhs4771]

I learned the hard way when I had to trouble shoot ours. Here a pic of the Relay box on the side of the HW.

[5th_Time]

I had the same problem as Michelle. Dealer didn't have a clue and wanted to pull the unit out - but I didn't want to disturb the Full Body Painted sealers, etc. No one at Redwood could help so I decided to do it myself. The issue turned out to be that the orange wire from the monitor panel switch fell out of the poorly connected relay wiring bundle and not energizing the relay. Ugh... that's a few days of life I'll never get back.

Last year, the upper thermostat burned out and was able to identify & replace in 5 mins. Cost $19.65. School of hard knocks ha ha

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by mhs4771

I learned the hard way when I had to trouble shoot ours. Here a pic of the Relay box on the side of the HW.

M & A........thanks for the picture and your comments. I had totally forgotten about the relay on the back side of the water heater. When I first purchased our 36RL, I had always wondered why there were two switches to control the WH and I think you may have posted a comment about this a 2 or 3 years ago. Since that is a 12 volt relay, is that an automotive type relay or is it some type of a module with a relay in it? Can the relay only be replaced if need be? Again, thanks for the info.

[mhs4771]

Sorry don't really know about the relay, other than it is operated by 12VDC with contacts that can handle 120VAC @ approx 15 amps.
Our problem was a poor wire nut install on the Hot AC lead, resulting in a high resistance connection which eventually melted the wire nut and allow the wires to touch the case, tripping the breaker on the panel. Could just barely reach in over the furnace to reach the relay box and redo the connections.
The sad thing of all these problems, I sent RW photos to the melted wire nut plus the wire running from the little black on/off switch up to the t-stat that was also melting where it was pinched between the cover and the tank.