Water heater

[Mac90483]

Why would I have to have both gas and electric switch on for my atwood water heater to work on electric only or is there something wrong. I would think that it would work with just the electric switch on and the gas switch off but it doesn't and I have no gas hooked to it. Thank you

[hddecker]

Check the circuit breakers and find where the water heater is plugged in. Depending on where your water heater is, there should be a receptacle hidden away under the fridge or a cabinet.

You should be able run it on electric only.

[RickNTee]

hddecker is correct, you should be able to run only on electric. You wouldn't have the need to have both switches on.
I usually run mine on gas because the water is hotter than on electric. Sometimes I'll shut the water heater when I'm not going to use it for quite some time. Like I turn it off at night and turn it back on when I start the coffee. It doesn't take that long for it to heat 6gal of water.

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by RickNTee

hddecker is correct, you should be able to run only on electric. You wouldn't have the need to have both switches on.
I usually run mine on gas because the water is hotter than on electric. Sometimes I'll shut the water heater when I'm not going to use it for quite some time. Like I turn it off at night and turn it back on when I start the coffee. It doesn't take that long for it to heat 6gal of water.

If you run it with both the gas and the electric on you get a faster recovery rate.

We typically run ours on gas, faster than the electric. And don't have to worry about overloading a circuit if we turn something else on. Do you have an Atwood or Suburban unit? Ten or six gallon?

Aaron

[TomW]

Mine has a switch for the electric in the water heater compartment hidden behind the gas valve near the bottom. Make sure it is on. Sometimes they are pinned in the off position.