Water Heater Issue

[auttienkassiemom]

My husband and I just purchase 1999 mobile home. It was sold as is. During the walk through everything was working fine. Approx. 4 days after we moved in the hot water would not work so we called a plumber in to look at the hot water heater. Well he told us that the circuit breaker was messed up because it would not stay in the on position. He said I needed to call an electrician for it. I called an electrician to fix the circuit breaker and he said yeah the breaker was bad. He installed a new one. Hot water worked for a few days just great, but we would run out of hot water very quickly. Now we are back to no hot water again and the circuit breaker box keeps popping the switch over like something is shorting out. Anyone have an clue what it might be? I don't know how old the hot water heater is and we have another plumber coming out on Friday to look at it. I would love to take a hot bath in my new house but I don't know when I'll get to do that. LOL

[Greg]

Hi And welcome. It sounds like a bad element to me. Depending on the age of the water heater you may just want to replace it with a new one. For what new units cost it is worth it for peace of mind plus you may be money ahead for what plumbers & electricians charge. Greg

[shadow745]

What I'd do is drain the heater and take both elements out. Look/feel around the inside of it the best you can to see what type of shape the tank is in. If all looks OK and there aren't any signs of leaking externally I'd replace both elements (maybe $25) and see how that works. They are easy to replace. Just use the old ones for reference when buying the new ones (length/wattage). Later!

[flcruising]

http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/ ... ssues.html

[oldfart]

M'am, generally speaking I'd have to agree with Shadow on this one. But....yes..my big "BUT"... again...how old is the water heater? Look for any signs or labels to give it's true age. Is it leaking? How comfortable are you/hubby doing the repairs? Most likely the elements are bad...a simple $12 each replacement...x 2 if that's the only problem. ($24 and the cost of the socket to remove&replace them..) The best way I know to replace the elements is to shut off the water and power and drain the tank...disconnect the elect. wires....then take it outside an pull the elements. It's a helluva lot easier to do it outside and roll it around rather than to wrestle it around inside the home. How hard will it be to get it out of the house? Once it's outside pull the elements and flush the tank to get rid of all the gunk that caused this problem in the first place. (Usually a build-up of lime or hard-water gunk and crap that solidifies like concrete in the bottom of the tank and shorts out the lower element.) Sometime ya can use the Shop-Vac and dredge all this smutz out...sometimes not. And this presumes the thermostat isn't the culprit. Yup..they only cost about $20. But is it worth the hassle? I'm just askin' is all. Sometimes it's just easier to rip out the old hot water heater and chuck it for a new, possibly more energy efficient water heater. And replace that old breaker as well. Breakers trip only so often and then they don't work. They're not on/off switches like light-switches. Every time they trip...they weaken. JMHO of course...Audie..the Oldfart..