Water Heater

[Leslie Lowrie]

Water heater isnt working. Have electricity at both upper and lower elements. Replaced upper thermostat after checking both elements with meter. Then replaced both elements. Worked for 12 hour and then back to cold! Have rechecked elements, and thermostat and all appear to have juice. Breakers appear ok. Help! Jim

[James EkholmParticipant]

: Water heater isnt working. Have electricity at both upper and lower elements. Replaced upper thermostat after checking both elements with meter. Then replaced both elements. Worked for 12 hour and then back to cold! Have rechecked elements, and thermostat and all appear to have juice. Breakers appear ok. : Help! : Jim well lets see, youve replaced the the upper thermostate and both elements, that only leaves the lower thermostate. having elect. at the various points does not indicate working. did you check the ohms on each element, did you check the amps they were pulling, did you operate the thermostates to see if they were cutting on and off,did you reconnect the wires on the correct lugs?

[James EkholmParticipant]

: : Water heater isnt working. Have electricity at both upper and lower elements. Replaced upper thermostat after checking both elements with meter. Then replaced both elements. Worked for 12 hour and then back to cold! Have rechecked elements, and thermostat and all appear to have juice. Breakers appear ok. : : Help! : : Jim : well lets see, youve replaced the the upper thermostate and both elements, that only leaves the lower thermostate. : having elect. at the various points does not indicate working. did you check the ohms on each element, did you check the amps they were pulling, did you operate the thermostates to see if they were cutting on and off,did you reconnect the wires on the correct lugs?

[James EkholmParticipant]

: : Water heater isnt working. Have electricity at both upper and lower elements. Replaced upper thermostat after checking both elements with meter. Then replaced both elements. Worked for 12 hour and then back to cold! Have rechecked elements, and thermostat and all appear to have juice. Breakers appear ok. : : Help! : : Jim : well lets see, youve replaced the the upper thermostate and both elements, that only leaves the lower thermostate. : having elect. at the various points does not indicate working. did you check the ohms on each element, did you check the amps they were pulling, did you operate the thermostates to see if they were cutting on and off,did you reconnect the wires on the correct lugs?Turned out to be simpler . . . Apparently a fuse blew after the new elements were installed. The fuse was an exact copy of the old fuse . . .20 amp on each side of a 220 vlt circuit. New element either drew enough extra current or fuse was not as tolerant of excess draw as old and blew after about 30 minutes of operation. I replaced the fuse with the old fuse and all is well . . . except 20 amps on each side isnt enough for a 4500 wt upper and lower element according to my calculations. I am going to go to 25 amp fuses. Thanks for the help. Jim

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