View Single Post
  #2   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
Colbyt Colbyt is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,353
Default electric water heater question


"albee" wrote in message
...
I'm not getting any power to my upper thermostat, but checked the
breaker and have 120 and each pole there. I checked the top of the
heater, where the wires come out of the wall and attach to the wires
going into the heater, and I get 2.5 volts coming out of the wall.
Any thoughts on where/what happened?! Do I have to dig through my
walls?! FWIW, I'm in Tampa, FL area, home of massive lightning, which
we had yesterday, but only noticed no hot water today, after two
people showered okay. Possibly they had enough hot water even if it
went out yesterday? But still, I have power out of the breaker...?
Thanks.


I am far from an expert on electric water heaters. I do know that they are
designed so that both elements can not be on at the same time. Because of
that you may not have power to the top element or the bottom at a given
point in time.

I doubt very much that the wiring in you walls has failed. You should be
able to verify 220 to the disconnect box near the water heater.

I suspect you had one dead element and the other failed in the last day or
so. Good news is that replacing an element or even a pair of them is fairly
simple on most units provided the water cut off will shut of the supply.


Colbyt