Electric Hot Water Heater Thermostat Test

If the hot water heater is not working one of the thermostats may be bad.

Electric hot water heater thermostat test.

In such a case there is a need to carry out a voltage test. When a water heater no longer produces hot water. Here are the steps to follow while measuring the voltage of your heaters thermostat. You can test them with the power off using an ohmmeter to measure resistance or with the power on using a voltmeter to measure voltage.

An electric hot water heater has two thermostats controlling two separate heating elements one in the upper half of the tank one in the lower half. The hot water heater must not be active have electrical power while you re testing the element. An electric water heater uses one or two heating elements to heat the water inside the tank. The electric breaker is a roughly 1 ft 2 ft 30 cm 61 cm metal box that s attached to a wall.

How to test a water heater element with a multimeter. Although most of the cases this scenario occurs for the power supply problems. Testing is the only option if you want to determine whether or not one or both of them has failed. Electric water heaters have one or two elements and each is controlled by a thermostat.

When an upper heating element or thermostat fails the entire water heater stops producing hot water. When a lower heating element or thermostat fails the top thermostat and element will continue to heat water in the upper half of the tank but you will notice the hot water quickly runs out or is only lukewarm. Look for it in your home s basement laundry room or large storage closet. Usually when the upper thermostat goes bad you will have no hot water at all while a bad lower thermostat makes itself known when there is only a small amount of hot water before the tap water goes cold.

You will also need to check the water heater thermostat with digital multimeter tools. At times the water from your electric heater could be cold and the heater not functional despite the power being on. Remaining always on is the most common issue with electric water heaters. This is important especially as open and grounded heating elements result in inaccurate tests.

Turn off the breaker that powers the hot water heater. If you want to test a thermostat on an electric water heater you will also need to check the heating element. If the thermostats are okay you need to test the water heater elements. To look for faults you will need to use a screwdriver.

Electric water heater thermostats are a fairly simple devices that can fail from time to time.