Thermostat Trips Electric Water Heater

First off your electric water heater can actually trip 2 different safety features.

Thermostat trips electric water heater.

How a bad thermostat causes your water heater reset button to trip. Then after a few. Water heaters have a limit switch that keeps the water from exceeding 180. Has this ever happened to you.

The thermostats are responsible for controlling the heating elements. And once the water has. Electric water heaters have 2 thermostats and 2 heating elements. When the water has cooled off the thermostats kick on the heating elements to heat the water.

This helps protect you from getting burned or scalded by the excessively hot water. The most likely cause of the limit switch tripping is a bad thermostat. Electric water heater red reset button tripping troubleshooting guide about the author based in colorado springs colo jerry walch has been writing articles for the diy market since 1974. 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.

Diagram of electric water heater. Burnt out heating element. The heating element is the part of your water heater that heats the water. Your water heater trips the circuit breaker in your house.

When the water reaches 180 the limit switch a little red reset button on the water heater trips. So you go and reset the circuit breaker. One on top and one on the bottom. A diy plumbing water.

There is an upper and lower thermostat element pairing as seen in the diagram below. When a water heater starts tripping the eco repeatedly it s time to call a plumber for service. 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. Electric water heaters have a lower and upper thermostat one for each heating element.

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. Most electric water heaters have 2 heating elements. How to easily repair fix troubleshoot an electric water heater that trips the circuit breaker or blows fuses little or no hot water.