Electric Hot Water Heater Thermostat Test

Electric water heaters have one or two elements and each is controlled by a thermostat.

Electric hot water heater thermostat test.

This is important especially as open and grounded heating elements result in inaccurate tests. How to test a water heater element with a multimeter. An electric water heater uses one or two heating elements to heat the water inside the tank. Testing is the only option if you want to determine whether or not one or both of them has failed.

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. Working of a thermostat. One is the heating element second is the power switch to avoid overheating problem and the last one is the thermostat. 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.

When an upper heating element or thermostat fails the entire water heater stops producing hot water. When a water heater no longer produces hot water. In general there are three main components in an electric water heater. How to test water heater thermostat this case might happen for the defected thermostat.

Structure of water heater. Upper thermostat makes it possible for you to have cold water supply when you turn on the tap of hot water. If you want to test a thermostat on an electric water heater you will also need to check the heating element. If the thermostats are okay you need to test the water heater elements.

You can test them with the power off using an ohmmeter to measure resistance or with the power on using a voltmeter to measure voltage. The electric heater has a total of two thermostats each performing distinct functions. Electric water heater thermostats are a fairly simple devices that can fail from time to time. Remaining always on is the most common issue with electric water heaters.

You will also need to check the water heater thermostat with digital multimeter tools. When a lower heating element or thermostat fails the top thermostat and element will continue to heat water in the upper half of the tank but you will notice the hot water quickly runs out or is only lukewarm. To look for faults you will need to use a screwdriver. Although most of the cases this scenario occurs for the power supply problems.