replacing single element water heater with dual element?

[General Geoff]

I have a fairly ancient water heater in the basement that's an electric, single element job. The element died last year and after fighting with it for a couple of hours, managed to yank the mangled element out from it, which as it turns out was completely embedded in sediment. After using a coat hanger to scrape out what sediment I could, I replaced the element as a stopgap measure, and it's worked fairly well for the past year. But now the hot water is coughing once in awhile like it did before, so it's time for me to get a new, sediment-free one. Unfortunately there aren't many single element tank heaters on the market these days.

I'm wondering if there are any tricks to wiring up a dual element heater vs a single element that I should know of. The ones I'm looking at say they're 4500W, but I don't know if that's per-element or total. The old one has a single 5500W element.

 

[Professur]

Total for both. The wiring is the same .. the elements are wired to each other with two pigtails you tie into.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I think the wattage is "per element" but the dual element tanks only power one element at a time. Usually the lower one is the one doing the heating. If the upper thermostat senses cold up top (due to an extreme use of hot water), it shuts off the lower element and powers the top element to get some water heated FAST, then, when the top thermostat is satisfied, the top element is switched off, and this allows the lower one to come on and finish heating up the tank.

Charles

 

[larry_g]

I think the wattage is "per element" but the dual element tanks only power one element at a time. Usually the lower one is the one doing the heating. If the upper thermostat senses cold up top (due to an extreme use of hot water), it shuts off the lower element and powers the top element to get some water heated FAST, then, when the top thermostat is satisfied, the top element is switched off, and this allows the lower one to come on and finish heating up the tank.

Charles

I concur with the above. If your running a 5500w element now then you will have no problem with a dual 4500w element water heater.

I've never seen anything like the professur is talking about.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[General Geoff]

Thanks guys

 

[Highbeam]

The top element has a stat that runs the top element until it is satisfied and then the bottom element fires until its stat is satisfied. Never both at the same time. Mostly the bottom element. Same 30 amp 240 volt circuit. Be sure that your ancient single element heater was not 120 for some reason.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

The top element has a stat that runs the top element until it is satisfied and then the bottom element fires until its stat is satisfied. Never both at the same time. Mostly the bottom element. Same 30 amp 240 volt circuit. Be sure that your ancient single element heater was not 120 for some reason.

At 120v, that 5500 watt element would require 45.83 amps and by code require a 60 amp breaker. I hope this isn't what he has, but he does need to check.

Charles

 

[General Geoff]

It's a 30 amp, 240v circuit already.

 

[volleyball]

You can always disable the upper element if yours runs both at one time.

 

[James-W]

If you have natural gas available, it MAY be beneficial to switch over to a NG water heater, especially if you go with a high efficiency model. They tend to recover quicker and depending on the cost for electricity in your area, the cost for NG may prove to be cheaper to heat the water. Just a possible option you may want to consider.