Fixing the Water Heater

So yesterday morning we woke up to no hot water. Guess the water heater smoke signal was trying to tell us something.

After realizing that the day after having super hot water we suddenly had none, I went into the garage to investigate the tank further. Turning off the power supply at the breaker first, I then took off both of the access panels where the thermostats and elements are located. The top looked perfect and showed no signs of wear, however the bottom was quite obvious that something overheated and burned. I also hooked up the garden hose to the bottom valve and drained the tank, turning on all of the hot water faucets in the house to help push the water out.

And so with a pair of pliers and a screw driver I took off the wires, and attempted to remove the thermostat which had fiberglass insulation and plastic melted over it. When it was finally removed, I tried to remove the element itself, but no tool I used on it would help. A little internet research led me to find that they make a unitasker tool specifically for removing and tightening water heater elements. The same research also led me to the conclusion that as long as the wattage and voltage of the new element matched the old one and was the screw in hex type it would work.

 

Off to Grover Electric and Plumbing I went, armed with my melted thermostat and on a mission to replace that, the element and get a hex tool. I grabbed the parts I needed and consulted with a professional to make sure my efforts weren’t in vain, which, for those interested, the response was that if the element overheated and went out it would’ve caused the issue we had, but so would faulty electrical work, so I had a 50/50 chance. I figured $20 worth of parts was worth a try rather than spending $400 to replace the heater as my partner wanted to do.

And so for the next several hours (yes, hours) I spent trying to repair the water heater. The hex tool seemed to make little difference, mostly because it almost definitely requires three hands to operate. So a grabbed the hammer and a chisel to lightly tap around the edges of the old element in an attempt to loosen it from the tank. I then used the hammer to pound a metal rod I had put through the hex tool until it loosened up enough to simply unscrew it by hand, a feat easier said than done. After taking the element out of the tank it was quite obvious too much gunk had formed on it and, well, it simply couldn’t take it anymore. So I shoved it back in, barely hand tightening it and flushed the tank to get out as much sludge at the bottom I could and when the water seemed to come out clear, I replaced the element, put in the new thermostat, reconnected all the wiring, cut a new piece of fiberglass insulation as the old one was either burned or wet, put the access panel on the bottom, flipped the breaker on, pressed the reset button on the top and replaced the access panel to it and prayed to God I didn’t screw up.

About a half an hour later, with no smell of smoke or burning, we checked the faucets and allowed the air to plop out, along with the usual nasty water buildup, and found that the kitchen and bathtub faucets seemed to have low pressure. The kitchen eventually fixed itself just from running it for a while longer, but the tub might have some larger gunk trapped in the hot water pipes somewhere leading to it so I guess another project has formed to fix that issue now. But hey, at least we have hot water again!