Electric Water Heater Troubleshooting

***Read entire article before attempting***

There are several different reasons why your electric water heater may be giving you problems, in this article we are going to help you solve the problem and get you back to that hot shower or bath, because no one likes a cold one.

THER MOS PA

When your electric water heater is not heating properly chances are that it could be an element. First turn off the power to the water heater, next take an ohms meter, and put the leads across the terminals, there is probably a top and bottom element. If the meter does not move then you have found the problem, turn off the water supply, and relieve the pressure by opening a hot water faucet until it stops running. Remove the electrical connections, prepare the new element,by installing the o-ring, because when you unscrew the old element with an element wrench, you will have to quickly get the new one in to avoid spilling water. The water will normally just glug out. Tighten the new element, attach the wires. Normally if you have hot water and it runs out quickly it is usually the bottom element that is bad, if you it takes longer to get hot water than normal and its partially warm then, it is the bottom element. There are other factor that could be causing this a bad dip tube or thermostats.

If you your elements are good the next place to look is your thermostats, only one thermostat powers at a time on a heater with an upper and lower element, with the power and water still on, run the hot water for 10 minutes, check the power going to each element, try turning the upper thermostat off, and the bottom thermostat on all the way. The bottom element should receive power. Try it the other way, turn the bottom thermostat off and the upper all the way on. The upper element should be receiving power, if there is a bad thermostat replace it, I usually replace both of them, that way your not doing this a month later.

Now if there is not power to one of the thermostats check to see if one or more circuit breakers are not tripped or bad.

Now the last major problem is the dip tube. A dip tube is usually a plastic tube about three to four feet long by about 1/2 inch in diameter, and is on the cold water side, it takes the cold water cold water to the bottom to be heated, where the hot water side draws off the top. If this dip tube is bad, you will usually have bluish plastic pieces clogging up the aerators at your sinks. To get to this you will have to cut the cold water pipe. I usually take a straight coat hanger and push down through the dip tube, if it feels like it goes in a few inches then goes freely into the tank where you can touch the sides of the tank, then you need to replace the dip tube, some of the newer heaters have one built into the dielectric nipple, I hope this article helps.

Electric Water Heater Troubleshooting

And if you need help and are in the Nashville area call Premier Plumbing at 615-554-6723.

PREMIER PLUMBING

CHURCH ST.

NASHVILLE TN

615-554-6723

[HTTP://CALLPREMIERPLUMBING.COM]

THER MOS PA