Water Heater doesn't work on Elec or Propane

[cbloyed]

I'm a newbie here! Just purchased a 2016 Solitude 375RE. I can't get the water heater to work. I Checked the fuses/breaker and OK. I am hooked up to city water so have it set according to the visual chart on the door of the water hookup. I have cold water coming out of the hot water faucet which I'm told means the water tank is full. When I switch on the gas, it fires up and I wait, but no hot water. I shut off the gas switch and turned on the electric both inside and at the hot water tank and waited about 30 min. Still no hot water. The outside shower knobs are shut off so not bypassing there.

Help! I am beyond lost at this point! Any ideas? Is there another bypass somewhere? Does it plug in somewhere that I am not seeing? It is a Suburban.

Thanks!

[FT4NOW]

It does plug in on the backside, it should be behind the false wall in the basement, but that shouldn't affect gas operation. Do all of your other 12 volt items work? The water heater needs 12v for the circuit board. Also, have you ensured the water heater is not bypassed for winterization?

Re-reading your post, it sounds like 12v is fine if the gas fires up just fine. I'd probably focus more on the plumbing part. A quick check of the internal water temp would be to manually open the relief valve on the front of the water heater, stand out of the way in case the water is hot.

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[weekender01]

Check and make sure that you do not have a switch outside behind the water heater cover. You probably do and that will need to be turned on.

[boyscout]

I'm a newbie here! Just purchased a 2016 Solitude 375RE. I can't get the water heater to work. I Checked the fuses/breaker and OK. I am hooked up to city water so have it set according to the visual chart on the door of the water hookup. I have cold water coming out of the hot water faucet which I'm told means the water tank is full. When I switch on the gas, it fires up and I wait, but no hot water. I shut off the gas switch and turned on the electric both inside and at the hot water tank and waited about 30 min. Still no hot water. The outside shower knobs are shut off so not bypassing there.

Help! I am beyond lost at this point! Any ideas? Is there another bypass somewhere? Does it plug in somewhere that I am not seeing? It is a Suburban.

Thanks!

As @FT4NOW has advised, the hot water tank may be bypassed, in which case you'd get cold water from the hot water tap.

The Nautilus panel in your water bay has a red lever that controls this, and a series of illustrations indicating how the various colored levers should be set for different uses of the trailer. Remove water pressure from the trailer to be safe (easier on the cheap valves in the Nautilus panel) by removing water supply and then running faucets or low point drains until the pressure is low. Then set the Nautilus panel for City Water (if you're connected via hose to a water supply) or Dry Camping (if your water supply is your full fresh water tank). Either of these settings will have the red lever in a different position than it would be for the Winterize setting.

Then restore water pressure and turn on the water heater.

P.S. When you have established that both the gas and the electric functions on your water heater are working, it's OK to use both at the same time to achieve fast warm-up or recovery of the water heater.

Good luck.

[cbloyed]

Yep, I had it turned on.

[Bamaman]

My water heater was working intermittently. I ordered a thermostat for about $10 on Amazon.

Then it started working on our last trip before I got around to changing the thermostat. If it happens again, I'll install it.

Next step would be an electric module--more like $125.

[Unlimitedmatt]

It sounds like the water heater is bypassed. And by bypassed, I mean the tank is bypassed the way you bypass the tank when you winterize the camper. Look on the back of your hot water tank and look for the 3 valves and check what position they are in. I bet if you pull out the drain plug on the water heater, nothing will come out. If that happens there is a good chance you have burnt up the electric insert inside the tank as running the hot water heater without water in it is very bad for it.

[boyscout]

Yep, I had it turned on.

Not clear who you're responding to, or what you had turned on. Switch or tank bypass?

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