water Heater Connection Flameout - WWYD?

[chops101]

I have a dangerous situation that happened in the past 24 hours, that went unnoticed involving my electrical water heater.

The backstory: I had the local power company install an "On Call" supervisory control box on my water heater a year ago. This allows the poco to turn off high current draw devices during extreme conditions. I had them at my other house for years and I don't ever recall an interruption, so I subscribed again at my new house.

Basically the poco sends a contractor out, and breaks the power and installs their box in series to the water heater.

Fast Forward to today and we run out of hot water. I open the water heater closet and immediately sense a burnt smell. The On Call box looks dead (it usually has a green LED status lit).

I open the poco-installed all metal workbox (installed to make the transition from power to On Call box), thinking that the On Call box is fried, and to my horror open up a box filled with soot and charred wires.

I kill the CB and start pulling wires to see if I can determine exactly what happened, as wires just don't fry for no reason.

Assessment: When the poco contractor wired the on call box, he must not have properly wire-nutted the connection tightly.
One phase (Red) between the On call box and feeding the water heater, completely melted down.
The loosely wrapped wires, over time, started arcing.
Arcing added carbon buildup.
The carbon buildup added resistance.
The resistance added much heat due to the ever increasing current draw until the wire fried with the wire nut attached.

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I'm waiting on a return call from the power company. This would be an easy fix but I want to start a paper trail of this disaster ,in case this flare out damaged the 2 year old water heater....So we wait with no hot water.
What would you do? Fix it and move on?
Or wait for an authorized power company contractor to come out and see this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dfiler2]

I would probably run another wire and leave that one the way it is so they could see what happened, I wouldn't want to be out of hot water that long. Hopefully they'll get someone to your place tomorrow.

 

[CNGsaves]

Take pictures and video ASAP and . . . . LEAVE IT EXACTLY as it is right now !!

Kill the Breaker . . . . . . AND . . . Do NOT touch anything.

Take showers and do laundry at the neighbors or your friends/family.

I'd be demanding NEW hot water heater and removal of that blasted contraption.

The PoCo's "better way" just about burned down your house !!

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I would take pics and video of everything.

The problem is you already touched it so they may cry foul!

To get hot water temporarily, i would disconnect the fed to the water heater at the unit and run a temporary line to the panel if possible.

 

[checkthisout]

I have a dangerous situation that happened in the past 24 hours, that went unnoticed involving my electrical water heater.

The backstory: I had the local power company install an "On Call" supervisory control box on my water heater a year ago. This allows the poco to turn off high current draw devices during extreme conditions. I had them at my other house for years and I don't ever recall an interruption, so I subscribed again at my new house.

Basically the poco sends a contractor out, and breaks the power and installs their box in series to the water heater.

Fast Forward to today and we run out of hot water. I open the water heater closet and immediately sense a burnt smell. The On Call box looks dead (it usually has a green LED status lit).

I open the poco-installed all metal workbox (installed to make the transition from power to On Call box), thinking that the On Call box is fried, and to my horror open up a box filled with soot and charred wires.

I kill the CB and start pulling wires to see if I can determine exactly what happened, as wires just don't fry for no reason.

Assessment: When the poco contractor wired the on call box, he must not have properly wire-nutted the connection tightly.
One phase (Red) between the On call box and feeding the water heater, completely melted down.
The loosely wrapped wires, over time, started arcing.
Arcing added carbon buildup.
The carbon buildup added resistance.
The resistance added much heat due to the ever increasing current draw until the wire fried with the wire nut attached.

[/URL][/IMG]




I'm waiting on a return call from the power company. This would be an easy fix but I want to start a paper trail of this disaster ,in case this flare out damaged the 2 year old water heater....So we wait with no hot water.
What would you do? Fix it and move on?
Or wait for an authorized power company contractor to come out and see this?

Thanks in advance.

Like many people, I have never liked wire nuts on stranded wire, if that was even the issue?

Just remove the box, fix it and get your hot water back and then deal with it.

Is the hot water heater even yours or are you leasing it from the utility?

Are you getting some sort of credit or lower charge on your bill for letting them turn it on and off when they want?

 

[Rockhead261]

Bad wire nut connection. Rewire with bugs (split nut connectors). The heater is not damaged and you'll be fine once power is restored.

 

[chops101]

***UPDATE***

FPL sent an emergency on call tech out, and they arrived around midnight Sunday night. It wasn't an emergency and I told them so, but they came anyway. So props to them for coming on a Sunday at midnight.

The electrician did not really show much surprise at the burnt connection, he said he had seen this happen once before. He R&R'd all wiring with new; and yes went back with 'new' wire nuts...

Now, this happened once, it could certainly happen again. As posted above, do I need to redo their work with split nut connectors? I'm seriously considering installing a smoke alarm in the WH closet. Since it is in a closed space, and no real reason to open the door, things could be blazing in there before it would be noticed. As much wire that had burned, it probably got real smoky. The WH seems to be performing fine.

Scary stuff. All my kids were home for Christmas.
Thanks all for the advice.

 

[gungatim]

how much do they pay you to put that box on? if it isn't much, I would get rid of it altogether...just one more thing to break on you as you have already experienced...

 

[tdkkart]

Before you freak out, realize that every wire-nutted connection, LOTS of them, in your home, has the potential to do the same thing. Higher current circuits have a higher probability, but all of them have the potential.
Of course so does every screw fastened connection, and every plugged in connection.



Don't slip on your steps on the way out the door......

 

[404]

My opinion is that burnt red wire nut should have been the next size up, blue.

 

[rockwithjason]

***UPDATE***

FPL sent an emergency on call tech out, and they arrived around midnight Sunday night. It wasn't an emergency and I told them so, but they came anyway. So props to them for coming on a Sunday at midnight.

The electrician did not really show much surprise at the burnt connection, he said he had seen this happen once before. He R&R'd all wiring with new; and yes went back with 'new' wire nuts...

Now, this happened once, it could certainly happen again. As posted above, do I need to redo their work with split nut connectors? I'm seriously considering installing a smoke alarm in the WH closet. Since it is in a closed space, and no real reason to open the door, things could be blazing in there before it would be noticed. As much wire that had burned, it probably got real smoky. The WH seems to be performing fine.

Scary stuff. All my kids were home for Christmas.
Thanks all for the advice.

Splitbolts can be loosely installed too. If are that concerned about it check all the connections for tightness and tug the wires to make sure they are in securely.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Unless they wrap the split bolts with splicing tape which would eat up a lot of space in that little 4sq box Id stick with wire nuts.
If you wanted a bigger box like a 4 11/16" on there or a box extention on there then Id go with split bolts.
Looking at the picture again,the whole install was a sloppy mess done by somebody who didnt own a level or didnt know how to use it.
The cast fitting/greenfield and seal tite are the icing on the cake!