Posted by Gary Childers on November 29, 1998 at 05:43:34:

From: Washington State

I have a 4 year old, 50 gallon, electric hot water
heater. A few weeks ago it began cranking out water
as hot as ever for the first 2 minutes and then over
the next few minutes it cooled rapidly until you
needed to turn off the cold entirely. You don't end
up with cold water, just a tank full of luke warm
water after 3 or 4 minutes.

I checked the continuity on both 4500 watt elements.
The needle jumped to 0 ohms. So I replaced both the
thermostats. Same problem. I assumed I'd bought
faulty replacements and tried again with new
thermostats. Same problem. Yesterday I replaced
both top and bottom elements and cleaned out a small
bit of deposit on the tank bottom. Today, yep, same
problem. I'm starting to wonder if I have a faulty
ciruit breaker or if it's possible the cold water
fill tube is blasting cold water in near the top
of the tank or .... I'm baffled and to stubborn
to admit defeat at this point.

Gary Childers

Replies:

• Re: Hot Water Heater Puzzle blm189 09:31:01 11/29/98 (0)