We got home from vacation Tuesday night to very little hot water (gotta love it). :wmad:
Wednesday, being the licensed bean counter I am, I started doing the math to determine if I should call a plumber while I was out looking over the water heater. I put my hand over each cover and the top cover was warm, the bottom was cold - element had gone bad. Well, if I called AHS, it might take them a week to get a contractor here and for $60 they were only going to replace the lower element.
So I decided to venture into the world of replacing the hot water heater elements. Step one, turn the breaker box panel switches for the HW heater to the off position, close the main valve going into the tank and make sure all of the faucets are off. Step to remove the panel covers for both elements, remove the insulation and pull the little plastic cover off the controls. Step 3 detach the wiring from the elements. Step 4, attach a hose to the drainage spigot at the bottom of the tank, open the valve to the spigot and open the pressure relief valve, making sure the other end of the hose is watering the lawn or flowers or something - have old towels on hand to clean up the mess in the garage.
Here's where things got interesting. I thought I could just use some channel locks to get the old elements out (I'd seen my uncle use vice grips), but no, they slipped way too much. As I stood there scratching my head, :icon_scra I decided step 5 would be to write down all the spec information on the tank related to the elements - 240 Volt, 4500 watts etc... Off to the hardware store I went. For $41 I brought home two elements and a special socket like tool to remove/install heating elements. I figured by the time I got home the tank should be pretty much be empty.
Top element came out first - let me tell you that little socket tool did a slick job removing those elements, easy as pie! Interesting thing - the elements I took out were 3500 watt elements, didn't look anything like the one's I'd just purchased. I checked the wattages all over again, sure enough - the specs called for 4500 watts :eusa_thin Someone had done this before, maybe?
Anyhow, both elements were a bit rusty but the bottom element was caked in sand and residue and when I cleaned it off there were chunks of the element that appeared to have rusted right off. I cleaned up the threads on the tank, removed the old gaskets and installed the new elements, following all the above steps in reverse order, and waiting to flip the breaker until the tank was full again. Bleeding the hot water lines was a little time consuming as I had forgotten to start with the one that was furthest away, but it got done and an hour after I flipped the switch, I had scalding hot water again. Yeah Me!!!!
If anyone needs to borrow that slick little tool, let me know - no sense in buying one if you're nearby.
Usually I apply murphy's law to a job like this, but mr murphy did not show up this time.
2 4500 Watt elements - $34
1 HW Heater element removal/installation tool - $7
3 hours start to finish $0 (I'm on vacation)
Not having to call and wait for AHS or a local plumber - priceless
:gar-Bi
Wednesday, being the licensed bean counter I am, I started doing the math to determine if I should call a plumber while I was out looking over the water heater. I put my hand over each cover and the top cover was warm, the bottom was cold - element had gone bad. Well, if I called AHS, it might take them a week to get a contractor here and for $60 they were only going to replace the lower element.
So I decided to venture into the world of replacing the hot water heater elements. Step one, turn the breaker box panel switches for the HW heater to the off position, close the main valve going into the tank and make sure all of the faucets are off. Step to remove the panel covers for both elements, remove the insulation and pull the little plastic cover off the controls. Step 3 detach the wiring from the elements. Step 4, attach a hose to the drainage spigot at the bottom of the tank, open the valve to the spigot and open the pressure relief valve, making sure the other end of the hose is watering the lawn or flowers or something - have old towels on hand to clean up the mess in the garage.
Here's where things got interesting. I thought I could just use some channel locks to get the old elements out (I'd seen my uncle use vice grips), but no, they slipped way too much. As I stood there scratching my head, :icon_scra I decided step 5 would be to write down all the spec information on the tank related to the elements - 240 Volt, 4500 watts etc... Off to the hardware store I went. For $41 I brought home two elements and a special socket like tool to remove/install heating elements. I figured by the time I got home the tank should be pretty much be empty.
Top element came out first - let me tell you that little socket tool did a slick job removing those elements, easy as pie! Interesting thing - the elements I took out were 3500 watt elements, didn't look anything like the one's I'd just purchased. I checked the wattages all over again, sure enough - the specs called for 4500 watts :eusa_thin Someone had done this before, maybe?
Anyhow, both elements were a bit rusty but the bottom element was caked in sand and residue and when I cleaned it off there were chunks of the element that appeared to have rusted right off. I cleaned up the threads on the tank, removed the old gaskets and installed the new elements, following all the above steps in reverse order, and waiting to flip the breaker until the tank was full again. Bleeding the hot water lines was a little time consuming as I had forgotten to start with the one that was furthest away, but it got done and an hour after I flipped the switch, I had scalding hot water again. Yeah Me!!!!
If anyone needs to borrow that slick little tool, let me know - no sense in buying one if you're nearby.
Usually I apply murphy's law to a job like this, but mr murphy did not show up this time.
2 4500 Watt elements - $34
1 HW Heater element removal/installation tool - $7
3 hours start to finish $0 (I'm on vacation)
Not having to call and wait for AHS or a local plumber - priceless
:gar-Bi