Hot Water Heater Electric vs Propane Question

[L in NV]

I'll be dry camping for a few days. We are leaving in a few hours and I just realized when I flip the switch on inside for a few seconds--with nothing in the tank since I'm scared of breaking something--the FLT light turns on. The switch outside the trailer is set to off.

There must be propane flowing since the stove is turning on and the fridge has been cooling using propane for the last 24 hours. I've never had an issue in the past and to be perfectly honest never even knew there was an FLT indicator, let alone what it meant. Since we'll be without shore power I wanted to be sure everything was ok.

We'll be at an RV park with shore power tonight and I can try and mess with things if need be but the handyman gene definitely skipped my generation!

Thanks!

[MichaelS78]

Originally Posted by L in NV

I'll be dry camping for a few days. We are leaving in a few hours and I just realized when I flip the switch on inside for a few seconds--with nothing in the tank since I'm scared of breaking something--the FLT light turns on. The switch outside the trailer is set to off.

There must be propane flowing since the stove is turning on and the fridge has been cooling using propane for the last 24 hours. I've never had an issue in the past and to be perfectly honest never even knew there was an FLT indicator, let alone what it meant. Since we'll be without shore power I wanted to be sure everything was ok.

We'll be at an RV park with shore power tonight and I can try and mess with things if need be but the handyman gene definitely skipped my generation!

Thanks!

You need water in the hot water heater tank. Maybe that's why the fault light is coming on.

[gbaglo]

Turning the water heater on with no water in the tank is how you break something. Read the manual for your water heater.

[L in NV]

Well I didnt leave it on. I just flipped it on for a few seconds and saw the light which I hadnt noticed before. The manual is in storage so I figured I'd ask here for a quicker response.

Thanks.

[Crazypill]

You definitely absolutely need water in the hot water tank before turning on the heater elements, propane or electric. Electric is a little switch on the outside under the metal cover, bottom left. Inside red switch is the propane. FLT light is normal, after about 10 seconds the propane burner should ignite, and the FLT light turns off if it successfully ignites. All in, should be 30 seconds tops. If you've turned on either element on an empty tank, ensure you turn them off and leave them off for at least an hour before letting any cold water enter the heater, otherwise it may instantly turn into steam, expanding rapidly and explode. You could open the hot water on the faucets to allow steam to escape but a risky proposition. Just make sure it's cooled.

[gbaglo]

Manual for the trailers is online here:
https://escapetrailer.com/wp-content...manual-WEB.pdf
Water heater starts at page 50.
I have a binder in my trailer with all the manuals for appliances.

[Mike G]

we learn from experimentation...