Jeff Holstein
304-546-0714

WOW! Whirlpool Customer Service calls me for follow-up the day after I left the post above, as well as, one on the Consumer Product Safety Commission web site and Angie’s List. Whirlpool did the “stand-up” right thing and offered to reimburse us for a new Whirlpool hot water heater. We purchased the newer version of the “Smart Saver” at Lowes. Whirlpool would not pay for installation. We’re feeling a lot better now. Very impressed that they stepped-up and did the right thing.

Hey Josh & Dale, just had an identical scare. Plastic housing melted, wife went down the basement and said she smelled something funny. We located the smell in a utility closet where the hot water heater is, opened the door, odor was very strong of electrical and plastic burning. Turned the light on, hazy smoke in the closet, took us a few minutes to realize the plastic cover was melted and distorted on top with little curls of smoke still coming out. Their sending parts overnight (2 days) and covering shipping. The hell with their water heater, what if my house had burned down. Wife says she smelled it the night before but very slight odor. Dale, did you get rid of yours or retrofit it ??

So, I’m thinking it tripped the circuit breaker, right? Wrong.

SO, I go to take the three screws off, and on moving the back one (after noticing the plastic had melted a lot) I see sparks start flying. I can rotate it a little, and the green light is on. Some smoke coming out. Long story short – like yours, one of the 220 lines is totaly melted – copper an all. stuff in there is really charred.

For a moment, I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, that it was not the board, and it was actually due to a plumber that moved the heater, and maybe the breaker should have tripped, but did not… Now I’m convinced that it is the board, not the house power or installation.

So now my mind is thinking – what if… What if the plastic had caught fire and burned my house down. SO, now I’m thinking get rid of this sucker, or try to get whirlpool to get rid of it. Or, as an option, could I retrofit a traditional system and just give me the very dependable thermostats and control to turn on the upper and lower heating elements in the traditional manner. If it costs me $200 a year in electric – so be it…

Hi William,
I have been looking for a new water heater this weekend- as my current unit has just started to slowly tricky some water! I believed I found my possible replacement in the Whirlpool model that you wrote about in your posting (80 gal. ee3z80hd055v). However, on the Lowe’s website I found some very negative reviews for this heater. In fact, your review was only one of a few I found that was positive. So, I thought I would drop you a line to see if you could share any updates? Is the water heater still performing to your expectations or have you had problems? Any information you’d be willing to provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time, William- Hope to hear from you. (I need to make a decision quick!)
-Cameron