Buying a new electric water heater

Repair help for the do-it-yourselfer.
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flcruising
Posts: 606
Joined: Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:18 pm
Location: Florida Panhandle

Betsy wrote:He checked it today and he says the element is fine, it's showing full power or whatever the meter says that indicates the element is working...The handyman said it could be the thermostat but he didn't want to mess with that.
I'd hope that he measured the resistance Ω of the element and not simply checked to see if there were power to the element (that would tell you if the thermostat was working). To do this, he'd have had to shut off the power to the wh. The fact that he said he didn't want to mess with the thermostat inclines me to tell you to call someone else. The t-stat is easy to test, and even easier to replace - typically. A 10yo tank is not old, but if it would allow you to sleep better, you might as well continue with your plan to replace it.
[color=blue]Aaron[/color]
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Greg
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Location: Weedsport, NY

OK Betsy, Since you have a newer home I would bet a paycheck that you are right about no galvanized pipe in your home, but I would question the pipes in the ground.

As Aaron said it may be a bad element and that is a quick & easy fix. At this point it may be a toss up which way to go. On one hand you have a cheap repair, on the other you have peace of mind and a warranty. I guess it's time to get the quarter out and hope it doesn't roll under the refrigerator


Greg.
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
Betsy
Posts: 73
Joined: Mon May 26, 2008 2:07 pm

Aaron - thank you AGAIN for your input. What I did was to call an appliance repair man. Amazingly he was able to come by this afternoon and he was iffy about the element. He said it was drawing power but not as much as he expected but maybe that was because it's a 3500 instead of 3800. So he went to Ace and bought a new thermostat and installed it. Now it's wait and see. If the WH still doesn't do like it should he'll come back and install a new element. MEANWHILE unbeknownst to me the WH's drain has been leaking ever since I tried the flush-out. Lucky for me I had one of those "absorbs 20 times its weight in water" pillow things in there and it soaked most of the water up. It now weighs about ten pounds and is hanging on a hook outside. Ive got a small fan aimed at the very wet particleboard floor hoping to dry it out. For now I'm out $65 and am betting I'll end up needing a new element because after running the hot water I don't hear the WH heating up water like I used to. Not only is it not quite ten years old but it's only been used by one frugal person who has always run it only long enough to heat up a tankful, usually once a day, so in terms of hours it's really quite young. Still I have a sinking feeling that I'm throwing money down a hole and probably will wish I had just bought a new WH.
Betsy
Posts: 73
Joined: Mon May 26, 2008 2:07 pm

Hah! I am just certain the quarter would indeed roll under the fridge, or to a place where it could do some kind of damage.
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