I am going to be going over some basic troubleshooting about standard cheap water heaters, this way we can decide whether you actually need to replace your water heater or just need a new heating element, or maybe a new thermometer. First off, there are only a few reasons that you would need to actually replace a water heater, one of those reasons might be that you just want to upgrade, because your old one might not be as energy efficient as the older one, the water heaters that were made 10 years ago will run your power bill up a lot more than the ones they make currently.
The second reason, or a good sign of your water heater is about to go bad and needs to be replaced, is if it is leaking water, there is usually no way to fix this in most cases, and it is a common problem for older water heaters. Now if you have water leaking from one of the hoses, than that’s a whole different story. Many times the hoses will wear down and start to leak, especially if there are no nipples connecting the hoses to the water heater itself. If this is the case then you must replace the leaky hose and nipple, if there is one.
Replacing A Water Heater Hose
Before you go replacing hoses though you must make sure that the cold water inlet to the water heater is shut off, you make sure that it is fully shut by opening a hot water valve somewhere in the hose, there should be no water coming out of the faucet.
This will fully determine that the water is shut off, it is also a good idea to secure the breaker that is powering the water heater also, you should have a voltage tester to make sure that you have the right breaker turned off, even though lots of homes have all of the breakers labeled, it is not certain that the electrician labeled them all correctly.
You will need a good pair of channel locks to get the hoses loose. Make sure that you have a towel in handy because there will be some excess water that is going to pour out from the old hoses. When installing the new hose, you may or may not want to use some Teflon tape, my rule of thumb is that if there is a rubber gasket in the hose it is not necessary, but if you are installing a nipple to the water heater then I would use some Teflon tape to secure it to the top of the water heater, and I would leave the Teflon tape off where the hose is connected to the nipple.
Water Heater Not Heating
Now let’s say that your water heater is not heating properly, or maybe not heating at all, the first thing that you should check is to see if the breaker is on, or if it is tripped. If the breaker is tripped, reset it, if it trips again that means that you have a faulty ground somewhere in the electrical system, meaning that a piece of bare wire is touching on some metal.
There are a few ways to find this, but if this is the case I would highly recommend hiring an electrician to get the job done. If your breaker is on, and wasn’t tripped, you can test the breaker to make sure that it is good, most water heaters use 240 volts to power the heating elements and the thermometers. You will again need a voltage meter to check if it is getting the right amount of voltage, this should be done by professional electricians though, if you do not know what you are doing then you could get an electrical shock that could cause a very serious injury or even death.
Testing Water Heater Elements
If you have some electrical experience, and have worked with multi-meters before, I will tell you how to check your water heater elements and thermostat, and you don’t even need to have the power on. In fact, to check the elements and or thermometers for proper operation, the very first thing you do is secure the breaker to the water heater.
Open up the service panel on both the top and bottom if applicable. Locate the heating element, remove one of the wires that are going into the element, just one. Set your multi-meters to ohms, put one of the probes on the open screw and leave it there, with the other probes check the other screws that are on the element, if there is a good connection than your multi-meter will read .1, this means that the element is good, if your multi-meter is reading something like .001, than this means the element is bad and needs to be replaced. You will check the thermometer for proper operation the exact same way.
Replacing a Water Heater Element
If you find that your heating element is bad, then you will have to replace it, this is easier than it sounds. Turn off the breaker to the water heater, if you checked the element for proper operation than this step should be done already. Make sure that you secure the water coming into the water heater. Next make sure that you have the right kind of replacement water heater element.
Now most people will suggest, and tell you that you have to drain the water heater completely in order to replace the heating element, you can do this if you choose but I never have, I just have a couple of towels in front of the heater to catch the little bit of water that’s going to come out in the middle of the switch.
You will need a lug wrench to loosen up the old element, but before you do that disconnect the wires from the heating element, then loosen the heating element quickly with the wrench. Water is going to be pouring out slowly while you are doing this so make the switch as quick as possible, insert the new heating element and tighten down on it with your wrench, re-hook the wires, put the access panels back on.
Now turn the water back on to the water heater, make sure that you have a hot water valve open in the house somewhere, when the water starts coming out of the faucet you know that the water heater is full, once the water heater is full you can turn the breaker back on. Wait about 30-45 minutes depending on the size of your water heater, until you once again have some hot water. Now I hope this has given you some insight on how to trouble shoot a cheap water heater, until the next lesson.