RV Doctor, Inc ---- Gloucester, VA (area)...Be sure to see post #7

[JEBar]

Joe Saunders, owner of RV Doctor, INC, offers mobile RV repair services in the area in and around Gloucester, VA .... he doesn't have a website, Primary phone number : 757-509-1455 .... Secondary phone number : 804-832-4231 .... he carries a strong recommendation from the folks at Thousand Trails Chesapeake RV Resort .... based on that recommendation we had him work on our camper's water heater .... both while working in the RV industry and from personal experience while traveling, I've gotten to where it doesn't usually take me long to spot an RV Tech who does or doesn't know what he is doing .... I was impressed with his approach to diagnosing the issue and making initial repairs ... parts are being ordered, after he returns and completes the repairs, I will post an update ... based on early experience, I can recommend him to anyone who may be traveling in the Gloucester area and who may be in need of repairs to their camper

[JEBar]

true to his word, he returned early this morning and yep, it was raining and I do mean raining .... I couldn't get a good picture of the the problem with the OEM relay .... 3 of the 4 metal contacts are badly corroded ... one of them was burned .... the 2005 OEM heating element was still functional but clearly in need of repair .... the water heater is now heating on electric and Maureen says the water is the hottest it has been in a very long time

[Bkins]

Your mechanic may of put in a hotter element. Sunnybrooks came with a less powerful element. I don’t remember the exact numbers but it was something like 1600 watts from Sunnybrook and 1800 watts on the open market. The lower wattage elements were, are, harder to find. I put a hotter one in ours when I had to change it out. It was to hot and we now need to mix in cold water to tone it down some.

[JEBar]

interesting .... info appreciated, I wasn't aware of that .... it has an upper and lower thermostat, hopefully that will take care it .... adding cold water to tone it down doesn't concern me

[wiredgeorge]

The more cold the less hot is needed equals longer showers before running out of warm water. Just be a little more careful in the kitchen and bath sinks. It takes a few minutes for hot to run and you don't want to forget that the temps are up. I replaced our propane and electric thermostats, the on/off electric switch (not located in cabin) and the heating element. The on/off switches in Suburban hot water heaters burn up easily if the power is left on with an empty tank. Having the switch on the tank outside and hardly visible is not a great idea. Most of the time we just use propane except when it is pretty cold out.

[JEBar]

precautions understood .... ours is an Atwood .... it is supposed to have an upper and lower thermostat that determines when the electric heating element and/or propane burner flame cuts on and off .... with that being the case there should be a maximum high temperature .... the rating of the element can most certainly make a difference in how long it takes to heat/reheat the water .... thankfully, ours is working well

[JEBar]

MAJOR UPDATE :
as can be seen above, the work by this mobile RV service took place about 3 years ago .... as it turns out, that service has turned out to be poor .... as can be seen in comments and pictures in post For Sale in this thread ===> https://www.myrvtalk.com/forum/rv-li...-t-broke/page2 , they did the least they could do and get paid (well) for their time .... I can no longer recommend them