RV Hot Water Heater Keeps Tripping Circuit Breaker

by EMT
(Richmond)

My hot water heater worked OK last time camping. Now this trip camping the hot water heater keeps tripping off. I reset the breaker and after several minutes it does it again. After doing this about six times I switched over to propane and it works great. After about a hour and a half I turned off the gas and switched back to electric.

It took about two hours before the breaker tripped this time so I switched back to gas.

ANSWER: Greetings EMT thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

I am not clear based on your description whether the circuit breaker on the RV is tripping or the circuit breaker on the electrical source that your RV is plugged into is tripping.

If you are talking about the electrical source that your RV is plugged into at a campground, there is a possibility especially if your RV is plugged into a 15 amp circuit that you may be trying to run the A/C or Microwave at the same time as the electric heating element on the RV Water Heater, the problem is that you are overloading the 15 amp circuit and tripping the breaker.

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This same problem could occur even if your RV is plugged into a 30 Amp Service and trying to run too many high demand electrical appliances at the same time as running the water heater on electric.

If you are talking about the circuit breaker in the RV that is connected to the water heater, heating element then there is a good chance that the water heater heating element needs to be replaced.

I hope this helped.

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RVing Al

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