SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge Electric water heater replacement scenario that is blowing my mind.
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| Member |
Replaced an electric water heater and just by chance was looking at the electrical connection a day later. Unit had a major failure and wiring (both wire nuts) were Submerged in water in the connection area which is on the top of the unit. Here's the kicker. Electric breaker never tripped. Do I have another issue with the electrical? Blows my mind that hot and neutral can be submerged in water and not trip a breaker. | ||
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| Staring back from the abyss  |
Waater proof wire nuts perhaps. ________________________________________________________ It is long past time for a Convention of States. The Founding Fathers gave us this tool to fix an out of control government and we need to use it. | |||
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| Member |
Very clean water? | |||
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Quit staring at my wife's Butt |
look at well pumps they are totally under water along with the wire, one tiny crack and one would think they would short out. and how about electric fuel pumps inside a gas tank that blows my mind just thinking about it. | |||
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| Member |
Never let your cars gas tank get below a quarter tank or at least an eighth. It exposes the fuel pump which gets hot and when you pour cold gas into the tank it fries the pump. A radio diy call in mechanic I listen to said 95% of all fuel pumps come in with a full tank of gas. Just my two pennies. | |||
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| Smarter than the average bear |
Fresh water is not a very good conductor, more so depending on the impurities. It can be conductive enough to be dangerous, but perhaps not enough to trip a breaker. It certainly isn’t as conductive as copper wiring, so the connections being submerged are not like a direct short. | |||
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Oriental Redneck |
In all my years of driving, I ran until near empty more often than not before refueling, and I never fried any fuel pump. Q | |||
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| Needs a check up from the neck up  |
.[/QUOTE] In all my years of driving, I ran until near empty more often than not before refueling, and I never fried any fuel pump.[/QUOTE] That's like those investment commercials, past performance is not indicative of future success. __________________________ | |||
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| Member |
Powers77 there is usually only 2 hot wires and a ground on a water heater. Paint is an insulator under your ground screw. Depending on just how the moisture is touching the wires inside the wire nuts and resistance path to ground would be a factor in breaker tripping. It would take a low enough resistance phase to phase to have the breaker trip on overcurrent. | |||
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| Member |
Thanks for the replies. We just finished up installing the replacement to the defective heater we installed yesterday. I'm becoming an old hand at this stuff but I did NOT really enjoy the learning experience. Especially as the Home Depot is a 2 hour RT. | |||
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His Royal Hiney |
Free home delivery on the app not an option? I have two Home Depot stores near me, one less that 4 miles and the next less than 7 miles in the next town. I can opt for free delivery usually next day on the app. "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946. | |||
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| Member |
Not sure if that would have been an option. It's for my 87 YO mom so didn't want her to be without. Especially on the redo. | |||
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| Member |
Home Depot carries the low end water heater. Plumbing supply house is where to go. | |||
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| Oriental Redneck |
Of course. But one can also say that following expert recommendation is not a guarantee to trouble-free performance. And God knows how following expert recommendation within the past few years has turned out. Q | |||
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| Member |
That is scary situation to have. I don't know much about electricity other than I don't like playing with it. We bought a Rheem water heater from Home Depot years ago and it is still going strong, Lord willing. | |||
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