How to shut off hot water heater

[John Padmore]

Will be leaving the coach for another extended period.  This time I am plugged into a 50 amp circuit.  If I turn the hot water switch off and the heat off the aqua hot is still not after 2 days.  This leads me to believe that the electric heater is still on.  How can I shut it off.... I will be gone for 6 months. Thanks. 

John

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

John,
IF you've got a water heater separate from the AQH, you will have an AC circuit breaker for it in the breaker box.
Steve

[John Padmore]

Duhhhh.... Well I have a circuit breaker for the aqua hot.... I guess that will shut it off... LOL!
Thanks for bringing me back to reality.

John

[Joel Ashley]

Breakers aren't meant to be used as switches.  Shouldn't there be a less wear-susceptible switch for that electric side somewhere?

Joel

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Joel,
One would think so but with our Marquis, which had a Hurricane and a hot water heater, the breaker was the only way I could find to turn off the heater.
Steve

[Carol Moffett]

Hello John,
   We have an aqua hot and an electric water heater in our '02 Marquis.  The only on/off switch for the electric side is the breaker, in the panel, in the bedroom closet.  Beats me, but that's how they did it.  Some folks have rigged up actual switches, which is great, but that is low on OUR list of improvements!   
:^3=~
Carol

[Bill Sprague]

Breakers aren't meant to be used as switches.  Shouldn't there be a less wear-susceptible switch for that electric side somewhere?

Joel

I've read that.  But you and I may be the only ones that have. 

Most campgrounds I go to all seem to have previous campers that turn off the power pole breakers.  The Navy airplanes I flew were about a dozen years old when I was in them.  We used the circuit breakers to routinely simulate failures for training.  The same was true for most of the civilian airplanes I flew.  The only exception was the newest of Cessnas where someone read what you and I read.  When I was a kid and helped my father open or close the family Hardware store, the circuit breakers were used morning and night to control the lights.  In the old family beach house, the circuit breakers were used to turn off the well pump and the water heater when we left. 

I've never replaced a circuit breaker because it was tired of switching!

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Bill,
Makes sense when one considers the comparative size of the contacts and spring between a CB and a switch. Only advantage of a switch (IMHO) is that due to size it can be more easily located in a convenient spot and you don't have to worry about multiple loads that you may run into depending on how the CB is wired
Steve

[Joel Ashley]

I don't know about you guys, but I've run into several RV park posts/boxes that failed while I was there, and management had to install new breakers to fix the problem.  The consensus was that they wear out from being turned on and off by each new camper.  Some owner/managers discourage the practice, and prefer guests don't follow the general practice of opening breakers while plugging in and out.  I would still do it as good protective procedure for my coach, along with checking the outlet beforehand with a meter, although I'm admittedly too lax about that.

If some rigs have a lot of current draw upon plug-in/out, I would assume more possible arcing than a switch, and thus either more contact pitting or carbon build up, eventually affecting the breakers' designed capacity.

Joel

[Orman Claxton]

I know for a fact:
When you unplug your RV w/o turning off breaker, you ARE risking severe shock / Arcing. Not going to help the inverter either

[Bill Sprague]

I don't know about you guys, but I've run into several RV park posts/boxes that failed while I was there, and management had to install new breakers to fix the problem.  .....

Joel,

Could that be because they are out in the wind, rain or coastal salt air when they may be designed to be in a dry building?  I remain unconvinced that circuit breakers wear out quickly.   

My personal experience with owning several houses and a few RVs is that switches wear out more often than circuit breakers.  Of course the experience of others is probably different.

[Lee Welbanks]

Circuit breakers are not really designed to act a switches, but there are circuit breakers designed for switch service in high energy lighting service and they are labeled HID. If the rv parks wanted to really set these posts up properly they would install a 50 Amp contactor with a 120 volt switch and protect the circuit with a breaker. Contactors are happy as a clam turning off and on all day long.
If breakers are cycled without much current draw when being switched there is really no harm done, what kills breakers is hi current draw. Every time that breaker is heated up from current draw it will shorten the life. I've see breakers in rv parks so hot you could not touch it.