kicked breaker. Reset, water seems hotter than it should be. What to do? Thanks guys.

Do you own an Ammeter and a Multimeter ?

No such thing as a hot water heater.

There are only cold water heaters.

I do, but this is not at my place. I can get to the residence possibly to run a test.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
No such thing as a hot water heater.

There are only cold water heaters.

Sure there is, you are just repeating what you've heard others say. It's only a cold water heater on its first use. 99.9% of the time it maintains water at the set temp, which consequently is hot. Therefore it's a hot water heater. Perhaps you use your another way. Now on demand heaters are not hot water heaters, but that is not what the OP mentioned.

Your description is quite lacking. Kicked breaker? Do you mean it tripped the breaker? And then it reset fine and the water is getting too hot? Does the breaker keep tripping?

It would seem to be either a failing element, a bad thermostat, or possibly even the electrical contactor is stuck in the closed position. Though if the latter two, I'd expect the unit's relief valve to pop due to extreme hot water before the breaker tripped, or the overload to go before the breaker. Therefore, I'd be tending toward a failing element. You could try checking it with an ohm meter.

If an element burns out it could very well trip the breaker.
You will need a meter to check it as others have described.

Is the water heater in its own circuit?

Did some one replace a smaller heating element with a larger one?

How hot is the water? Run a hot water from a faucet into a glass with a meat thermometer in it.

A burned out element doesn’t complete the circuit, so I’m not sure how it could trip the breaker. A breaker needs to have current flowing through it in order to trip. There’s a solenoid inside that operates when too much current is flowing. The plunger part of the solenoid pushes against the switch part of the breaker which opens the contactors.

Turning on the breaker and burning out the element because there is no water in the tank is a common occurrence though. Happens at vacation homes up north when the owners come back and forget to fill the water heater before turning on the breaker.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
No such thing as a hot water heater.

There are only cold water heaters.

ORC didn't use the proper verbiage according to you, but how does you correcting him help him with his problem?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

A burned out element doesn’t complete the circuit, so I’m not sure how it could trip the breaker.

A burned out heater element will almost always cause the circuit breaker to trip.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

A burned out heater element will almost always cause the circuit breaker to trip.

How? I’ve burned out two elements and my dad has burned out two as well. Neither his breakers nor mine tripped when it happened. We are 4 for 4 the breaker not tripping when the elements burned out.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by trapper189:

A burned out element doesn’t complete the circuit, so I’m not sure how it could trip the breaker

A burned out heater element will almost always cause the circuit breaker to trip.

Please explain how . A burned out element draws NO current .

As applied to the most common water heaters...

Almost certainly a shorted to ground element.
A stuck thermostat by its self should not trip the circuit breaker.

Elements are 220 volt and the thermostat only cycles one line off and on, one line stays live all the time... so even with the thermostat cycled off the water can continue to heat by the one remaining hot line feeding through the shorted element to ground... basically creating a 110v heating circuit. Normally, but not always... this would not trip the breaker because there is enough resistance in the element to limit the current flow.

So if shorted the heater will continue to heat... until it pops the electrical over temp limit. (the first safety protection) only if the electrical over temp fails will the last resort pressure relief valve open.

Sometimes the breaker will trip on the initial event of the element failing/shorting. A breaker reset will either re-trip the breaker or, as likely in your case, let the element function as described above.

If the heating wire inside the element simply burns into and doesn't short to the outer jacket there is no short, thus no blown breaker.

But most of the time when the heating wire burns into it also shorts itself to the outer tube it is encased in, the outer tube is grounded.

Make sure the breaker is a 30 amp, after that replace the upper t-stat.

Ok guys thank you for all your comments, thoughts and advice. All appreciated. We have local plumber I was not sure I would be able to get a hold of but did. Met him at the location.

I did not use correct verbege, so sorry for that. What I believe happened was the overload trip on the Tstat popped. That was reset yesterday and the heater worked after that. Water was very hot though out of the tap.

Today the plumber checked the elements and thought they were working correctly. He replaced both tstat's and will come back and check them tomorrow. Felt like that should fix the problem.

He say's the tank need replacing (15 years old)
we are going to move it as it's current location is problematic. That will be our next move. New tank is $500 alone, ouch.

Thanks again guys for the quick help and advice.

Good deal ORC, the getting it fixed part, not need for replacing the tank.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
<snip>
If the heating wire inside the element simply burns into and doesn't short to the outer jacket there is no short, thus no blown breaker.

But most of the time when the heating wire burns into it also shorts itself to the outer tube it is encased in, the outer tube is grounded.

I didn’t realize the outer jacket was grounded, so that’s what I was missing. There’s a coil wire on the inside surrounded by magnesium oxide which doesn’t conduct electricity but does conduct heat.

Sorry, I was out the rest of the day sledding with the kids.

Yes, usually in my application the elements are so blown that they ground to the outer jacket. You should see what these things look like when I pull them out. But I'm talking about 3 phase 480 VAC water heaters which is what we use on the ship. That's where most of my electrical water heater experience lies, and 9 out of 10 times the breaker trips.

ORC, overload on the thermostat makes a bit more sense. Hopefully you have it sorted out.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
What I believe happened was the overload trip on the Tstat popped. That was reset yesterday and the heater worked after that. Water was very hot though out of the tap.

Today the plumber checked the elements and thought they were working correctly. He replaced both tstat's and will come back and check them tomorrow. Felt like that should fix the problem.

He say's the tank need replacing (15 years old)

That's what happens when a thermostat gets stuck closed. It keeps heating, until the high limit is tripped.

Replacing both thermostats will resolve the issue. Dont know why your plumber thinks he needs to return tomorrow to check it!?!
An electric water heater has two elements, two thermostats and a high limit (tank and anode rod). And elements are sure as hell not going to cause an over heat issue. They either work or they don't and it's the thermostat in which controls their on/off operation.

Yeah, it's 15 yrs old, so what... could last another 15 yrs.

Replacing shit due to age is the new normal...

geeez, relax a bit K.

The plumber is a friend or ours and lives nearby and told the elderly occupants he would stop buy and check things out tomorrow. At least here. That is what friends do.

The tank has issues. Build up of chemicals in the bottom. Been professionally flushed at least once. Has visible rust issues. So yeah, it needs replaced.

For crissakes get ahold of yourself.