Thermostat Trips Electric Water Heater

A red button located on the water heater itself just above the thermostat that trips when the water temperature exceeds 180 f the reset button is sometimes referred to as the eco emergency cut off or high limit switch.

Thermostat trips electric water heater.

And once the water has. How to easily repair fix troubleshoot an electric water heater that trips the circuit breaker or blows fuses little or no hot water. Water heaters have a limit switch that keeps the water from exceeding 180. Your water heater trips the circuit breaker in your house.

Most electric water heaters have 2 heating elements. We highly recommend hiring a licensed plumber take care of any repairs on your water heater. Burnt out heating element. The heating element is the part of your water heater that heats the water.

Diagram of electric water heater. Electric water heaters have 2 thermostats and 2 heating elements. So you go and reset the circuit breaker. Okay with that out of the way let s look at the possible problems that are causing your electric water heater to trip your breaker.

First off your electric water heater can actually trip 2 different safety features. When the water has cooled off the thermostats kick on the heating elements to heat the water. There s a good chance that the water in the tank is dangerously hot and since the problem is usually caused by a failed component it won t get better until the bad part is identified and replaced. There is an upper and lower thermostat element pairing as seen in the diagram below.

The thermostats are responsible for controlling the heating elements. Then after a few. 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. One on top and one on the bottom.

This helps protect you from getting burned or scalded by the excessively hot water. How a bad thermostat causes your water heater reset button to trip. 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. Has this ever happened to you.

A diy plumbing water. The most likely cause of the limit switch tripping is a bad thermostat. Electric water heaters have a lower and upper thermostat one for each heating element.