Hot water is HOT!

alk

alk

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As in electrically hot. I was finishing up winterizing today, and when draining the water heater, the water would zap me pretty good, and the water heater wasn’t even on. And when I did turn it on, the reverse polarity light on my panel came on. I’m plugged in via an adapter and household extension cord, but still this is making zero sense to me.
 
Time to check the wiring to the water heater, and lines into the breaker panel. I'm wondering how the power got to the water. You might want to pull the coils and check impedance to the exterior of the coils.
 
if my extension cord / adapter that I’m using to plug into a standard outlet is reversing the polarity, that would sort of explain the fault - because i would be running unswitched hot to the ground side of the water heater. But baffles me that the reverse polarity light only comes on when I turn on the breaker for the water heater. I’m going to try and run over tomorrow with an outlet tester, so see what is going on with that.
 
Actually if the polarity into the heater is wrong I could see that making the water "hot" as well as anything around the heater. Make sure the grounds to the heater are intact and be careful with what you touch and how you move around.
 
I did not have any issues this summer, at least none that I was aware of - and I used the water heater every weekend, and never once lit the polarity light on the panel.

Only thing that has changed is that now I’m plugged into a standard outlet in the yard, as opposed to the shorepower outlet. So hoping that’s the issue. Also hoping i don’t electrocute myself this winter!
 
Start with checking the polarity at the yard outlet then at the end of the shore power cord.
 
The shore power outlet in the marina is good. Bad mistake on my part, the ground pin on my extension cord was badly corroded, and when I tried to clean it up, it snapped right off. So safe assumtion that I had an open ground on the boat. With a different extension cord, the outlets on the boat are correct, and when I power the water heater, the reverse polarity light no longer lights up.

but not confident I don’t have an issue with the water heater, or elsewhere, and having a hard time figuring out how an open ground would cause the two issues I was having.
 
Well, you could try installing a new plug on the cord, plugging it in and checking it at the outlet end. Maybe there is something else wrong with that cord.

Without a good ground how can the polarity tester tell you the truth?
 
I already threw away the bad extension cord, and replaced with a different one. Before I did that, the boat outlets showed open ground, which would be expected. the water heater was leaking current ( when not powered) and when powered would light up the reverse polarity indicator. Those two would not be expected ( at least by me) to be caused by the open ground.

With the new cord, now the tester shows the outlets in the boat are good. The polarity light no longer lights up when I power the water heater. I don’t know if it’s still leaking current, didn’t have a meter with me, and not dying to zap myself again.
 
If you are in a freeze environment then drain the water heater and disconnect it until that can be determined.
 
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