As I'm stumped. SisIL just called and said her electric water heater isn't filling. She has a well pump, the rest of the house has good pressure, and she killed the breaker to keep from overheating the elements. WTH could be the problem? All the lines are under the house, and the only time she has a problem with lines freezing is when it get extremely cold and the lines in the pit freeze. Any help appreciated.
does she have pressure/water at a hot water faucet, if she does it is flowing thru the HW tank. if not I will have to give it some thought. theres not much can go wrong except a plugged line Hmmmm.....
Can she drain some water off the bottom tank drain and verify it is filling the tank? That would rule out everything before the tank. Does she have a mixing valve that took in some debris? I've seen anode rods drop some crusty stuff if the water has a certain chemistry.
Good point about the mixing valve, Jon.... If there is water coming out of any/all HW side of faucets, perhaps some lime has grounded the element(s)? This happened last summer here, and I drained/filled/drained the tank out and all is still working well. Back yard looked a little "oatsey" though after the flush.
I would try that first. Tank may have deteriorated and need to be replaced. At least it is fairly easy to change them out. If she has to, have her look into one of those with the heat exchange on it. Some states have big rebates on it and the cost of running them is remarkably less. They have the added benefit as acting as a dehumidifier so it this is in the basement, that can help with dampness during the summer.
She said she had done a couple loads of laundry today, but I don't know if she used warm/hot water. Ok, just called her back. She's still getting water and good pressure on the cold and hot sides, but the hot is now just warm (makes sense since she turned off the breaker). She can rock the tank, when normally when it's full, that's not possible. When she first called, I asked the obvious about the ball valve being closed......it's not. Hmmm. This tank is only a couple years old. I can suggest she drain off some water. No mixing valve. Ok, but the tank is empty (so she says). I can see a lime issue, but she had hot water this morning.
That's how ours did. Hot in the morn, cool by evening.... In our case, it was built up lime scale. As for being able to rock the tank?- something is plugging up the inlet side, for sure. Is the water there hard or soft? Could be liming up quick if it's hard water.
Could it be a blocked cold water dip tube on the inlet side? So she had no hot water pressure earlier to now having pressure? The tank can't be empty unless it was drained out the bottom valve. Confuzzled...
Thought of that. I don't know how long she waited before killing the breaker. But, if it was air locked, how would she be getting water on the hot faucets? I'm also confuzzled. How would she have water, if the dip tube is plugged? She evidently has had good pressure all along, but she's saying she's able to move the tank, as though it's empty.
Just before I posted the original thread was the last check.....I asked the same question. Still confuzzled. Aside from the cost, it would be fairly easy to change the tank.
I know that if there is enough sediment at the bottom of the tank, air bubbles can form under the sediment and release steam bubbles. This causes knocking sounds in the tank. I just don't know if it can cause enough air to cause a bound condition.
Not that this will help but inlet & outlet are plumbed correctly? Check the baffles in the inlet/outlet lines. newer HWH have plastic/rubber baffles to prevent some amount of backflow from the hot water piping from migrating back into the cold water side
Some times new heaters have heat trap nipples from the factory and they are not a full 3/4 inch opening like the pipe feeding the heater. It could be debris right at the top of the heater where the water is supplies to the tank.
Yeah, she's had it running fine for well over a year. She hasn't mentioned the problem since my original post, so I have no idea if it's still acting goofy. She'll be here tomorrow, so I'll ask her what's up with it.
There's no way the tank can be empty. Water goes in the top and out the top. basod and Stihl Livin are onto something if it's a reduced pressure problem. If it's a temperature problem I'm saying bottom element or dip tube. See if there is a reset button on the elements.
