Introduction
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How electric water heater works and some troubleshooting tips.
Troubleshooting tips such as:
1. Do both elements come on at the same time?
2. How to set the water temp?
3. How to determine the resistance of one element?
4. Typical terminal numbers for the upper thermostat and the lower one
5. What is the thermo reset?
6. How is the lower thermostat controlled?
7. Which thermostat has priority? Upper or lower
8. Two ways to determine if the heating element is good or not, with power on and with power off.
Here's some parts that you may consider, please check the recommended parts for your water heater
1. Rheem SP20060 Electric Water Heater Tune-Up Kit, 2: amzn.to/31sBjTf
Disclaimer: This video and its description contain affiliate links and I receive a small commission
Video
Hello, this is Farshid with another just for you video today, I'm going to talk about the electric water, heaters and how they work and give you some troubleshooting tips.
So here I have a electric water heater that water comes in water goes out.
And we also have the temperature pressure relief side of the water heater, the controls of the water heater.
There are two panels one, what I call the upper panel, the other one lower and behind each one of these control behind each one of these panels, we have a heating element that is submerged in to the water.
So what you're gonna see instead of this as you open up, the panel you kind of see this? And here where our electrical connections are made and for the upper portion of this water heater, we also have a module that looks like this.
This is the thermal reset module.
And this is a temperature controller for the upper module as well as providing power to the lower module that's.
This is actually the heating element.
So the upper module for the heating element.
Okay.
So let's, take a look at the wiring of this water, heater we'll, take it one step at a time.
So the overall connections for this water heater, it looks something like this where we have or 240 coming in through l1 and l2 going into our our thermal reset module as long as the temperature of the water heater is within what's considered a safe zone.
Then we'll have our current flowing from 1 2 to 3 to 4 from there.
We have a jumper that takes our connection from terminal 2 to terminal 1 of our upper element controller as well as this.
It provides power to our lower element controller as you can see, it's connected from Terminal four to Terminal one of their lower element controller.
Then we have our upper element.
Upper element is connected to terminal 2 of this module.
The other side of the upper element is connected directly to terminal 4 of our thermal reset the lower section of the water heater is heated up and controlled by this controller and lower element.
Lower element.
One side of it is connected directly to our thermo, reset module.
The other side of it is connected to our controller, which is again, it's, powered through the upper element controller.
So now let's take a look at each stages of this water heater.
So this is our first stage that we have where the water in the top portion of the water heater when the temperature of that water is below the setting that we have.
This is our dial that we can set the temperature of the water heater.
This is for the upper portion of the water heater as long as the temperature is below that setting what we're gonna have is our terminal one providing current to Terminal two, which in turn turns around and provides power current to upper element, which powers up the upper element.
The other side is connected to L 2 through or reset thermal reset module.
So once this is satisfied, meaning that the temperature in the upper portion of this water, heater is satisfied by reaching our desired temperature, the and one possible condition could take place, which would be conditioned to assuming that the temperature at the bottom of this water heater is below our setting so we're going to call for heat.
And when we do call for heat, this module comes into play comes into action.
Let me move this over here, no, but I think I missed the mark on few of those things.
But this module comes into play.
And when this module comes into play, we have a current flowing from terminal 1 to terminal 2, which powers up our lower element, the other side of lower element as we've shown here, it connects up to our thermal reset.
So once the temperature at the bottom is satisfied, then we could have a condition where this lower element is off.
So is the upper element.
So let's, take a look at this thing with that a little mock-up that I put together for us.
Okay.
So we can see that and the video, yep, okay, good.
Keep in mind I'm running this at I think 5 volts.
But when you're out in the field you're going to have 240 across these two terminals here and everything here take precaution to make sure that you don't get electrocuted all right.
So right now I'm showing this upper element with this LED it's calling for heat and their lower element it's off just because that as long as we're calling for heat on the upper element, the lower element, which is connected to terminal 4 does not see any current at all, because we got only one of these two conditions possible, either we're gonna take or l1 feed it from 1 to 2 or feed it from 1 to 4 either.
The top element is going to see current, or the bottom element is and a/c current.
Both elements cannot see current simultaneously all right so let's.
Go ahead and take a look at this thing and I want to use lighter to heat this thing up.
So we can start switching our temperature.
So the temperature of the top of the water.
He just got satisfied.
And the current now is flowing from 1 to 4, which provides power to our lower module since the temperature at the bottom of this water heater is below our setting then we're gonna have power current actually going into our lower element powering up.
Our lower element there we have it right there so that's, the second condition now we could have the third condition, which the bottom element is satisfied.
Oh, the top element is also satisfied.
I'm.
Sorry.
The bottom element is satisfied.
So the temperature at the bottom of the water heater is satisfied.
The temperature at the top is now it's calling for Heat I'm gonna go ahead and satisfy it by heating it up there that satisfied and that's satisfied.
So this is the third condition that both of these elements are turned off because the water heater is happy.
The water at the top is satisfied water at the bottom is satisfied.
So that's, the our third condition.
Now another troubleshooting technique is to see if these healthy heating elements are actually working or not right.
So each each handy heating element has its own power rating.
So this one is 4500 watts, so based on 4500 watts, using the Ohm's law, we can figure out that the current is 4500.
We got 240 volts coming in.
So in that particular case is 18.7 am.
So the current draw using again, Ohm's law, we can simply calculate that resistance across these two terminals should be twelve point eight.
So once I get the power turned off one of the connections removed at least one of the connections.
Remove using my old meter I should get twelve point eight or somewhere around that neighborhood.
That tells me that element is in good condition, it's, not broken.
If I get no continuity at all that element is broken.
So then I need to replace that element.
The other way to test.
This is with the power on I can knowing that I have eighteen point.
Seven, five, amp of current draw I can put my voltmeter across these two terminals with the power on.
And assuming that that terminal is that heating element is calling for heat.
I should get 240 volts at the same time.
If I put my clamp, my amp probe around one of these wires, then I should get my eighteen point, seven amps that tells me that the element is getting or it's, getting its 240 volts.
And at the same time, the element is in good condition because it's drawing current and that's, drawing eighteen point, seven amps.
So there you have it that's a quick rundown of how electric water heaters work and some troubleshooting techniques that will hopefully help you guys with fixing any issues that you may have what water heater as always thanks for watching.
And if you like these videos, subscribe to my channel and leave me any comments or questions that you have.
Thanks.
