wdk450
Well-known member
Gang:
The other morning I flipped on the inside red wall switch for my Suburban water neater, and noted on my EMS readout no corresponding amps draw on L2. I ran the hot water faucet for a while to be sure the tank had cooled enough to trip the thermostat, then went outside with my voltmeter to troubleshoot the problem. I found no AC votalge on the heater element, so then I moved my probes to the left hand set of thermal switches. The top switch with the reset shaft read 0 volts to ground on both terminals and the bottom thermal switch read 120 volts on 1 side and 0 volts on the other - for a moment - Then I heard a soft "click" (probably due to the touch of my meter probes causing a mechanical movement within the switch), and then I heard the soft bubbling sound of the AC heater going to work. Everything now measured OK, and the water heated. I got on E-Bay and ordered a new AC thermostatic switch assembly.
So I would share that when your water heater kicks off (electric or gas since both sides use the same type of thermostat pairs) that beside pressing the "Reset" buttons for the overtemperature thermostats, that you might bang on the water heater face near the thermostats sharply, to possibly reset an open temperature regulation thermostat (that doesn't have a reset shaft on it).
Here is a picture of a water heater thermostat pair showing the upper overtemperature thermostat with the reset shaft and the lower temperature regulation thermostat without a reset shaft. Note that the 2 thermostats are wired in series so that if either one of them opens, water heating is defeated.
The other morning I flipped on the inside red wall switch for my Suburban water neater, and noted on my EMS readout no corresponding amps draw on L2. I ran the hot water faucet for a while to be sure the tank had cooled enough to trip the thermostat, then went outside with my voltmeter to troubleshoot the problem. I found no AC votalge on the heater element, so then I moved my probes to the left hand set of thermal switches. The top switch with the reset shaft read 0 volts to ground on both terminals and the bottom thermal switch read 120 volts on 1 side and 0 volts on the other - for a moment - Then I heard a soft "click" (probably due to the touch of my meter probes causing a mechanical movement within the switch), and then I heard the soft bubbling sound of the AC heater going to work. Everything now measured OK, and the water heated. I got on E-Bay and ordered a new AC thermostatic switch assembly.
So I would share that when your water heater kicks off (electric or gas since both sides use the same type of thermostat pairs) that beside pressing the "Reset" buttons for the overtemperature thermostats, that you might bang on the water heater face near the thermostats sharply, to possibly reset an open temperature regulation thermostat (that doesn't have a reset shaft on it).
Here is a picture of a water heater thermostat pair showing the upper overtemperature thermostat with the reset shaft and the lower temperature regulation thermostat without a reset shaft. Note that the 2 thermostats are wired in series so that if either one of them opens, water heating is defeated.
