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My Daughter Needs Help With Her Electric Water Heater (I'll leave it there)

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Comments

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 16,316
    A megger is a must when working on something like this.

    Testing a circuit with 1.5V or 9V isn't near enough in many cases.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

    SWEI
  • ratio
    ratio Member Posts: 3,790
    Agreed. The one I use has several test voltages from 50 to 1000 volts. Like I mentioned a minute ago, it found an intermittent weak spot in the control line of a mini split the very first day I took it in the field. The service guys ran out of fuses so they called me... :/
  • 4Johnpipe
    4Johnpipe Member Posts: 485
    Where is the tank located in th home? Was there abnormal amount of condensation on the tank wall when you replaced T stats? Was tank wall smooth and clear of any debris?
    LANGAN'S PLUMBING & HEATING LLC
    Considerate People, Considerate Service, Consider It Done!
    732-751-1560
    email: langansph@yahoo.com
    www.langansplumbing.com
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 17,384
    That's not a Federal Pacific breaker panel, is it?
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • Larry Weingarten
    Larry Weingarten Member Posts: 3,597
    Hello: This is sort of a band-aid, but another thing you can try is to rewire it to 120 VAC. It will take four times as long to heat up, but should calm down most of the electrical supply questions. It might not hurt to "look" at the panel and heater with an IR thermometer.

    Also, the anode may want to be looked at since you've replaced so many other parts. I've kept heaters going fifty years by changing anodes. I'm the one who developed the Muck Vac that Hot Rod mentioned and personally serviced over 4000 heaters with it. I didn't have problems with leaks. As nearly as I could tell, the yearly failure rate remained under half of one percent for heaters that had been maintained. People mostly wanted gas heaters cleaned out to get rid of noise. Efficiency is not affected much by sediment removal.

    Anyway, it's REALLY unlikely to be a ghost. Are you able to monitor for power surges? Dirty power could be a problem. Hope that helps!

    Yours, Larry
  • Harvey Ramer
    Harvey Ramer Member Posts: 2,261
    Flip off the main electrical service disconnect and measure the incoming voltage from hot leg to hot leg and also to ground. Then turn the breaker back on and make every electrical appliance in the house run and measure voltage again to see if you have a significant drop. If you do, check all the service connections.

    I recently had a gas furnace tripping the breaker. The cause turned out to be the overhead service drop connections to the entrance cable. Instead of using an approved connecter like an H-tap, the fly-by-night unhandyman used romex box connecters and wrapped them with electrical tape. They almost completely lost there ground and the lady actually got shocked while taking a shower. She wasn't very happy about that.
  • ratio
    ratio Member Posts: 3,790
    I bet it was cheap...

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