Water Heater Frustration

[jinjimbob]

American Water Heater Company, which manufactures Whirlpoolｮ Water Heaters under license.

Rheem makes Rheem, Ruud, Richmond and General Electric tanks.

I have a Rheem brand propane water heater, been working ok for 14 years.

 

[AlanB]

Man Eddie, feel for you man, hate it that it goes that way for you, but it does make me feel a bit better that it is not just me.

I truly hate when I run afoul of the "policies" that are only at the return desk etc. Has driven me nuts at times, but like you, have usually found when I got to the manager, and was able to control my anger enough to continue speaking intelligibly, that they made it right.

I also hate the "lifetime" warranty, that is good for the lifetime of the applicance... Got to love that, lawyerese at it's finest if you ask me. Kind of like my HF tool warranties I now found out.

Feel for you, would probably just buy a new element and keep the shipped one as a spare.

State water heaters are made right here in TN not far from my house.

Good luck getting it going, I know my better half would be a little less then pleased at this point in your story, I would probably launch her towards the customer service department and run

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks again for the encouragment. We're heating water on the stove and taking baths the "old fashioned" way. haha

The element didn't make it yesterday. Obviously their idea of overnight is different then mine. I took out the old element and will buy a new one at Home Depot today. If the new one shows up, I'll have a spare.

It truly is amazing how water heaters keep getting worse, but then again, it could just be my luck. I don't install too many of them, but have never had any problems when doing so for a client. I've done three this year, and all went well. They were all gas, so that might be the difference.

Eddie

 

[dmccarty]

and was able to control my anger enough to continue speaking intelligibly,

And that can be so hard to do! Even when NOT angry.

Later,
Dan

 

[Dutch445]

In April 07 the heater in our home started leaking,
and after checking with local contractors that I knew
had done some work in the house, I found our propane
supplier had installed this heater 7 years prior,,, and it
had a 7 year warranty. He actually got the tank replaced
under warranty, even though we were a few weeks out
of warranty.
A few days after the new tank went in (gas, with power vent)
we had that smell also... and I was told to remove that
anode (magnesium) as that would be causing the odor.
We do have a water softerner also, so both the gas company
and the softener guy said it would be no problem to remove
the rod.

Sorry to hear of your frustrations... I've been thinking of upgrading
washing machines, and having second thoughts because of the
lack of reliability of new stuff...

 

[Chuck52]

Eddie,

If you are a member of a rural utility, they may have a deal like mine. We can get a free water heater if we agree to let them hook it up to a "peak demand" thingie that can turn it off if needed. One of those was in place when we bought our house in '01. If it has ever been shut off by the utility company I was never aware of it. It's an L.B. Green or some such brand I had never heard of, but it has given no trouble since we've lived here.

Chuck

 

[sunspot]

Thanks for the tip about Whirlpool. I was eyeing them at Lowe's for myself.

 

[ultrarunner]

I've been a property manager for 25 years and water heaters "Were" about as trouble free as one could hope. All that changed for me about 12 years ago.

I always bought Hoyt heaters made in Oakland CA and then Reno NV. When I couldn't get Hoyt anymore, I tried AO Smith and had way too many problems. Smith blames CA energy conservation regulations... but that doesn't help me one bit.

I now only buy Bradford White heaters and so far.... not one problem...

By the way, some of my old HOYT heaters are lifetime guarantee with copper tank... man what a great heater... too bad they don't sell them anymore.

 

[jinjimbob]

I thought that removing the anode rods will cause the rest of the heater to die quicker, as the rod is the sacrificial part.

 

[EddieWalker]

Just a thought -- I once had a problem with a two pole breaker and a water heater -- turned out the breaker did not function properly so I was only getting 110 instead of 220 -- drove me nuts until I checked the water heater with a meter and did the big ahaa -- felt pretty stupid. You might want to double check the internal wiring and back to the panel given it seems you have never had 80 gallons of truly hot water --

I'm starting to wonder if I was too harsh on the water heater companies. I've replaced the element and it tests good. The guy on the phone told me to do the test, which I did, but we did it wrong. I figured out that he had me test the wires on the top element, which tested good, but when we tested on the wires for the bottom element, it tested bad. I tested the wires on both elements, but just realized that the wires are not attached to the element on the bottom, so it was never tested. I need to test the old one, but even with a new one in, I'm still not getting hot water.

I have 122 volts on both wires. I'm not very smart, and this is probably my problem here. If my breaker is bad, can I still get the voltage on both wires? Will the voltage jump or carry over to each other?

I'm tired, but coudl it be the breaker that went bad, or maybe was never good from the beginning, and just barely working. It dies and I think the water heater is bad. I buy a new one and it doesn't work. I'm frustrated and take it back. I get another water heater and it doesn't work either. That's three water heaters that will not work.

The only common denominator has to be that breaker. How do I test the breaker?

For what they cost, I'm probably just going to buy another in the morning and see what happens.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[toy]

Eddie
I hate that you are having problems with your water heater [I hate water problems] , seems like everything you can buy anymore is an import. Our dishwasher went out this spring, the water inlet valve stopped working and since it was old I decided to replace it with a new one rather than ordering a $10 valve and paying sears $30 dollars to ship it [sears used to have a parts department in their store where you could buy any part that you needed but not anymore]. I wonder why sears is having financial problems? Well we shouldn't worry about that, they probably have one of those really really talented ceo's that they pay millions to. I heard one of wall street defenders say the other day that it took a talented ceo to run a corporation in the red, that was a light bulb moment for me I always thought it took a really talented ceo that could take a corporation that was in the red and bring it into the black, I'm learning. Back to the dishwasher[ I'm absent minded] the new one isn't anywhere near the dishwasher the old one was. If I hadn't already got rid of the old one I would fix it and take the new one out. I hope you get back into hot water soon, maybe I shouldn't have put it that way, here you go I hope you get your hot water fixed soon.

 

[irvingj]

Eddie-- just a thought, maybe foolish.... You say you have 120+ on each leg; do you also have 220+ across the legs?

 

[Bedlam]

Irving,If you have a chance could you possible post some easy to understand instructions for easy testing?

 

[studor]

This is probably going to be confusing but depending on the panel, the breaker may not be capable of drawing 220 - hence the above comment about when you put the meter on both the red and the black (Legs) does it read 220 --I am assuming the heater is wired to the panel with two wire 10 guage and not three wire. On some panels they make two pole breakers that do not connect to both sides of the buss bar and hence can only draw 110. If you wire it in with two wire it will only draw 110 since there is no white common to draw from both sides of the panel . The cheapest and fastest way to fix this is to buy a new breaker that will draw from both sides -- Home Despot should have the right breaker
hope this helps
regards Steve

 

[tallyho8]

A 220 volt circuit breaker is a double breaker with 2 wires connected to it. To test the voltage coming out of the breaker, put the 2 leads of your volt meter on the two wires. You should have about 220 volts. If not, try turning your circuit breaker off then back on a couple of times and check it again. If still no 220 volts, then either that breaker is bad or your main breaker is bad. To check if your main is bad, first check another of your 220 breakers, if you have more. If they have 220, your main is good. If you have no other 220 breakers, then you put your 2 volt meter wires on the two strips in your breaker box that the breakers are connected to and see if it reads 220 volts. If so, your water meter breaker is bad. If not, your main is bad. If your main is bad there should be other things not working in your house also.

 

[randy41]

rather than test the voltage on the breaker just to see if its good i would just temporarily use another similar breaker on that circuit...like if you have an electric clothes dryer the breaker for that is probably like the one on the hot water heater. I have an electric hot water heater that i got from lowes about 10 years ago and it has been faultless (but there i go i just jinxed it). Installing a gas fired water heater means you need to install a flue too...right? I just looked and its an American Water Heater...whatever that means.

 

[ByronBob]

I thought that removing the anode rods will cause the rest of the heater to die quicker, as the rod is the sacrificial part.

This is correct. Magnesium anode rods will react with the water and make sulfur dioxide gas worse when heat is applied to the water.

Tanking the rod out just allows the oxidation process go from the rod to the tank itself. Think about it. Why would they put a rod in there in the first place if it wasn't needed.

I have an aluminum anode rod in my tank. It's better for well water where sulfur is present in the water. I'm on my second rod in 5 years. The first one rotted to nothing in 3 years.

Tanks start leaking in 5 or 6 years when the rod dissolves and people don't pay attention to them.

 

[ultrarunner]

Not to add confusion...

It is possible one leg from the utility isn't working... I've dealt with it before.

An elderly neighbor had his garage door up and I saw water running down the driveway. He said his old chest freezer gave out and his 220 dryer wouldn't dry. It would only tumble.

I ended up checking the main at the utility meter and found only one side was hot. Last night there was a 80+ mph windstorm that probable caused the problem. The utility came out and re-crimped the feed wire at the pole...

It would be nice if it turns out to be something simple.

 

[EddieWalker]

This is kind of embarassing, but when I checked the both wires, I didn't get any voltage at all. Black and groung gave me 120, Red and ground gave me 120. This is what I checked, and it's what the tecks had me check when I called Whirlpool, and then when I called GE.

Re-reading everyones posts, and surfing online, I found out about breakers that stop working. I never came across this before, and didn't even know it was possible. The either work, or they don't

A new 30amp GE breaker at Home Depots cost under $9 with tax.

I put it in and checked the red and black wires. This morning they read zero. Now they read 240. I also heard something make noise in the water heater, which is something new for me too!!!!

It actually makes allot of sense, it just cost me allot of money and grief to learn this lesson. The original water heater is probably in perfect condition. I'll save it and when this one goes, give it another try. Or if this one sucks, I'll give it away and put the 80 gallon Whirlpool back in. I have options!!!! haha

Thank you,
Eddie

 

[studor]

Yep -- embarassing ain't it
My last go round like that gave me a spare water heater which is now in my shop for summer use -- maybe a new outdoor shower? Preheater for the hot tub?
Oh well at least you are back in hot waterh
What brand is your panel? As I said -- I like assumed that the double breakers could all be 220 -- not in all panels -- Glad ya got er fixed
regards
Steve