Water Heater Plug Meltdown!
Here's your chance to play detective. What do you think caused this meltdown?
From my RVelectricity by Mike Sokol Facebook group
2007 Phaeton - this is the hot water heater plug. The heater plugs into outlet mounted on wall on left side of heater in cargo area. First sign of trouble was circuit breaker tripping. My husband changes 120-volt thermostat, heating element, and on- off switch on heater- finally found this- plug was secure in outlet. This thing could have caught fire! No idea what caused this - any ideas?
Everyone… What do you think caused this?
Here's your chance to play electrical detective. What do you think caused this meltdown? I’ll post my diagnostics and hypothesis tomorrow.
Could it have been caused by a power surge?
What about a shorted water heater element?
Maybe the terminating screws in the plug loosened up?
Something else?
Please take the poll and leave your comments below…
If you think it’s caused by something else, please leave a comment with your theory. There’s no wrong answers here, so please make your best guess…
Let’s play safe out there… Mike
So….what’s the final answer Mike?
Is the male plug an aftermarket install, I would expect to see a molded plug from the factory. Another thought, did they need to unplug the water heater to make repairs? If so the cheap factory receptacle could have broken. If none of the above I would tend to believe that the cheap stab receptacle could not handle the overcurrent.