Electric Water heater problem

[Marilyn. 340]

I figured I might as well ask this here as there might be some handy people here who can help.

We are renting and I have noticed that the water is always piping hot so yesterday I checked the temperature on the electric water heater. First I turned off the electricity to the tank by flipping the switch on the fuse box.. The temperature was set at 150 degrees so I turned it down to 120 degrees. I put everything back and flipped the switch on the fuse box back on. This morning my husband says there is no hot water. So I took everything off again and tried hitting the reset button but I still don't hear the tank working.

[Teddy B 17,252]

Did you try turning the temp back up?

Edited June 13, 2013 by Teddy B

[Marilyn. 340]

yeah I did that earlier... I turned it up to closer to 125 a few hours ago.. I think I had it closer to 100 before. I just had a shower and I only had the hot water on and it was good for awhile and then it when kind of warm but not completely cold. I do hear the heater working now..

[decocker 7,198]

yeah I did that earlier... I turned it up to closer to 125 a few hours ago.. I think I had it closer to 100 before. I just had a shower and I only had the hot water on and it was good for awhile and then it when kind of warm but not completely cold. I do hear the heater working now..

watch your electric bill! i had a very unpleasant surprise last month, i'm on automatic bill pay/budget plan for my electric and i got lazy and stopped checking the actual bill for our usage . apparently for the last six months the element had been going out in our water heater, causing a surge (i guess). my monthly bill went from 204 to 288 -PERMONTH. grr

[Marilyn. 340]

I am sure the element is fine.. it was working before I changed the temp. I think I just turned it down too low.. it is heating otherwise my shower would have been stone cold..lol

[Teddy B 17,252]

yeah I did that earlier... I turned it up to closer to 125 a few hours ago.. I think I had it closer to 100 before. I just had a shower and I only had the hot water on and it was good for awhile and then it when kind of warm but not completely cold. I do hear the heater working now..

That's good it's working. You may end up going up to 130 or 140 before you get it where you're comfortable with it and don't run out of hot water. Those dials aren't always accurate either, they could easily be off 5 to 10 degrees.

[Marilyn. 340]

thanks for the help guys...

[Dave&Roza 748]

I figured I might as well ask this here as there might be some handy people here who can help.

We are renting and I have noticed that the water is always piping hot so yesterday I checked the temperature on the electric water heater. First I turned off the electricity to the tank by flipping the switch on the fuse box.. The temperature was set at 150 degrees so I turned it down to 120 degrees. I put everything back and flipped the switch on the fuse box back on. This morning my husband says there is no hot water. So I took everything off again and tried hitting the reset button but I still don't hear the tank working.

First how many gallons is this hot water heater? Is it a two element 240V hot water heater or a single element 120V hot water heater (how many breakers did you turn off--one single breaker or two breakers tied together and what was the number on the breaker)? Did you turn down a single temperature or two? I will assume that this is single element 120V hot water heater. These take a long time to heat the water and if you lower the setting to 125 degrees then you are going to use only the hot water and quickly run out of the stored hot water and not be able to heat the incoming cold water fast enough. My suggestion is to raise the temperature to where you need to use cold water to keep it comfortable or the other option is to take a shorter shower.

If you have a two element hot water heater, I would suggest you raise the lower element to 150 degrees and keep the upper element at 130. This will allow the lower element to start heating the water as you begin the shower and will allow you to take a longer shower before the hot water runs out. It sounds like you have a fairly small hot water heater like 20-30 gallons. Electric hot water heaters are highly inefficient. I prefer gas for any heating like hot water, stove/oven and clothes drier. That is why they tend to be very large like 50-60 gallons versus a gas water heater of 30 gallons.

Dave

[Marilyn. 340]

we didn't realize it was an electric heater until a few days ago. I was wondering why our electric bill was higher then I was expecting...

it is a 2 element heater.. I think it is 40 gallons..

the husband is having a shower right now.. I will see what he says when he gets out..

[Marilyn. 340]

the husband said the shower was good today. so I think I will keep both elements at 125 degrees for now..

[Marilyn. 340]

I just did the dishes and yay, I didn't scald my hands with the hot water..

[Darnell 8,479]

so, what was the trick that got it restarted?

[Marilyn. 340]

it hadn't stopped working. I just had the temp set too low...