Residential Electric Water Heater Troubleshooting Guide
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There are many times when a water heater will stop working and you will get no hot water and either have to call a plumber or water heater service tech to repair the hot water heater or you can learn how to troubleshoot the unit, so you can find out what is wrong with it and then buy the replacement parts.
There are several common parts on a water heater that will go bad over time and these parts are known as the heater element, water heater thermostat, fuses and breakers and the high limit switch. The problem with repairing water heaters is that the parts can be expensive depending on which one goes bad, but the good news is that there is only a few things that can go bad or actually will so the time it takes to troubleshoot an electric water heater will be short compared to a gas fired water heater or even an oil fired one for that matter, since the other two have a lot more mechanical parts as well as electrical components.
The best way to figure out what is wrong is to do some water heater troubleshooting which will let you know what is wrong with the heater. You will then be able to decide if its worth repairing. Sometimes its just best to replace the water heater.
There are also many brands of water heaters including names like Rheem water heaters, State Water Heaters and of course Bradford White water Heaters, but the nice part is most electric water heater have common parts that will fail. Sometimes no matter what brand of water heater you buy, or what the price of the water heater was, you sometimes end of with defective parts that are fully covered under your warranty.
Taking a few minutes and troubleshooting your electric hot water heater can save you lots of money as well as time because you won’t be guessing what parts are broken, only to find out that what you had guessed was broken really was not, resulting in you being stuck with an expensive part that you don’t need and still no hot water.
Problem: “I have No Hot Water”
Possible Cause(s):
There are several things that can leave you with a “no hot water” situation. You could have a bad upper thermostat, bad elements, no electrical power to the water heater or possibly a high temperature limit switch open.
Possible Solution(s):
If you find yourself to have one of the symptoms of a no hot water situation and have read the causes then you will want to replace the part that you found broken or defective such a bad thermostat, a bad element, or even no power to the water heater for some reason like a tripped circuit breaker.
Problem: “I have Don’t Have Enough Hot Water”, ” My Water Heater Isn’t Hot Enough”
Possible Cause(s):
If you are experiencing a shortage of hot water from your heater or even insufficient hot water, there may be a few things that could be wrong. Things such as thermostats that are set to low, sediment or lime deposits in the tank that have built up or possibly the water heater is just to small for the application or job.
Possible Solution(s):
Before you right away think that your water heater is completely damaged you should think about the last time you had your water heater cleaned and if you can’t remember you could just have a build up of lime or sediment and you just might need a cleaning. Also remember sometimes you will also need to adjust the thermostat from time to time. If your experiencing a lot of hot water loss you may have a bad element.
Problem: “I Have Really Slow Hot Water Recovery”, ” My Water Heater does not Re-heat Fast”
Possible Cause(s):
Usually slow hot water recovery or when your water heater takes a long long time to get the water hot again it will usually mean your elements are bad.
Possible Solution(s):
If your elements are bad you will want to make sure to take down the model number of your water heater and the make as well so that the supply house can identify the replacement water heater element easily for you.
Problem: “I Have Water Dripping From My Water Heater Relief Valve”, “My Water Heater Is Dripping”
Possible Cause(s):
The water heater relief usually goes bad when you have excessive water pressure or when you use it to blow the air out of the heater on fill up and then some sediment gets stuck in the valve body or gasket causing the seal to fail.
Possible Solution(s):
If you are experiencing a leaking or dripping relief valve then you will simply just want to replace it with the exact type that was in there, this is very important. Make sure to show your old safety valve to your water heater replacement part dealer before just replacing or buying one.
Problem: “I Have A Water Oder From My Hot Water Heater”, “My Water Heater Smells”
Possible Cause(s):
If you are experiencing an Oder in your water and you think its from the water heater you may be right. This happens when there are sulfides in the water.
Possible Solution(s):
Removing the Oder from your water heater that is caused by having sulfides in the water can be corrected by replacing the aluminum anode with a anti-sulfide anode. Companies like American water heaters make a replacement anode specifically for this called the KA90 anode.
Water heater is now super heating the water, with thermostat set at the lowest setting.
My water heater make a whistl;ing noise at times. Otherwoise, iot seems to be all right. What Can I do about it?
We have a Bradford White electric water heater that is about 4-5 years old. The model # is M
I80R6DS13, Serial #ZG3444443, Dash No. – 130. We are currently having a problem with it in that when we sometimes go to take a shower, we have little hot water. In checking the heater, we realize that it has to be reset by pusing the red button. We then have hot water. It is now starting to happen more frequently. We had our electrician check it out and he could find nothing wrong. He went ahead and put a new thermostat in hoping that would work. Within a few days, it happened again and we had to reset it. Could it be that the elements need to be changed? In any other water heaters we have had, when the element had gone bad, we just ran out of hot water. We don’t want to continue spending money if it might be something we can fix. Can you help?
Did you change the upper and the lower thermosat if so also change the coils. If the unit is over 6 years old you may want to consider a new hot water heater because the tank my be the next thing to go.
Hi Linda,
Sorry to hear your water heater is acting up.
The red reset button or high limit known as the ECO trips when the water in the tank becomes too hot cutting off power to the elements.
There are a few different things that can cause the ECO to trip:
1. A bad thermostat that does not shut off allowing continous heating of the water even after the set temperature has been reached. Your water heater has 2 thermostats an upper and lower under the two access panels as well as two elements. Either thermostat being bad could cause the problem.
2. A loose electrical connection either where the wire connects to the upper thermostat or internally could be generating heat inside the thermostat causing the ECO to sense the heat of the bad connection rather than the temperature of the water in the tank causing the ECO to trip.
3. A bad element that is shorted to ground near the center of the element may also cause the problem. Because the element is shorted to ground near the center of the element the short does not have a high enough current draw to trip the circuit breaker and it continues to heat. However, the way the water heater electrical power is switched the power still is applied to the element even when the thermostat shuts off. The water heater is supplied with 240-volts which means both of the power leads are hot leads. Only 1 side is switched and in normal operation that is fine. But, when the element is shorted to ground there is still the power on the unswitched side available which will flow through 1/2 of the element to ground as 120-volts continuing to heat the water untill the ECO trips.
Your water heater is wired for 240-volt non-simultaneous operation where the power is initially applied to the upper element, then when the upper thermostat is satisfied it switches power to the lower thermostat for heating the bottom end. here is a link to a service manual with wiring diagrams and troubleshooting information. http://www.bradfordwhite.com/images/shared/pdfs/manuals/238-47104-00A.pdf
I don’t know if you have meters to measure the electrical resistance or, amperage your self or, are hiring a pro.
If you measure amperage to both wires of each element when the element is operating it should measure around 18 amps and the 2 measurements should match. If they don’t the element is shorted causing the imbalance or lower reading on each side.
If you measure the resistance of each element it should measure around 12 ohms of resistance across the 2 screw terminals and it should measure infinite ohms or open circuit from each screw terminal to the tank.
If you have a bad element…
My crystal ball says it’s the lower element… But do trouble shoot to be sure.
It’s just that the lower element works the hardest and often gets buried in lime deposits from hard water causing it to overheat and burn out…
I would recommend replacing it with one that looks like this one for a long lasting fix. http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1276831&cp=2568443.2568452.2631246.1260882
This element is made with a incoloy sheath which is corrosion resistant, and the element is very long with all the loops and bends giving it what is called a low watt density. It still puts the same amount of heat into the water in the tank at the same rate but each inch of the element is a lower temperature making it last a long time without burning out.
The comparison between a low watt density element and a high watt density element is kind of like the difference between the large and small burners on an electric stove. The large burner spreads the heat out. They say the low watt density elements can even be dry fired without failing which would burn out a high watt density element in seconds.
I hope this information helps you or, the person you have troubleshoot the water heater solve the problem.
I purchased a new h20 tank (pro max model gvc 40 100 ) in march of 2008 for my second home ,at that time the tank still worked so ididnt install it right away .the tank was manufactored in 2005, its been installed now for 7 months ,the pilot keeps going out it re-lites with no propblems but still goes out ,sometimes Im not there for weeks and when I check its lite but as soon as it goes off and on a couple times it goes out ,I replaced the burner kit part 9003563005 Iv benn thinking about changing the control valve but the one on the tank only been in use 6 or 7 months please help thank you
My water heater keeps tripping the reset button in the heater. It has done this three times. It seems to happen when there is a heavy demand for hot water (washer)
Any clues?
Thanks
my hot water gets scalding hot then trips now It won’t get hot should i CHECK THE THERMOSATAT OR ELEMENT
I have replaced the heater element & thermostat- it work for a day and stop no hot water
what to do?
I need help I have changed the element and the thermostat- water heater will work for a day and stop working
what can I do? it have just one element.
can someone help Please
I HAVE REPLACED BOTH ELEMENTS AND BOTH THERMOSTAT AND STILL NO HOT WATER
My hot water heater continues to drain into the overflow pan and it sound like the motor is constantly running. What do I need to do and do the pressure relief valve need to be open to release pressure or do the elements need to be replaced. OOPS, I forgot to include the model number which is: MODELS 6-120 FOR POTABLE HEATING ONLY, I’ll get it right eventually.
My electric water heater keeps trippen my breaker why is it doing this
Hello There.. we just found water on the cement floor where the water heater lives. after checking every thing out we found that the water is pooled in the little depressions at the top of the water heater, where the connections protrude… what’s going on? Is it time to replace this baby?
I am starting to see yellow water in my bathtub and clothes washer. My water softner seems to work fine and my water system is on a shared well. Could my water heater be the problem?
My water heater shuts down (trips) whenever we get a hard rain. it usually remains off for approx. 2 days. I’m sure water is leaking into the heater from the roof. Do you have any suggestions on possible safe waterproofing.