Water Heater woes

[N8]

I have a GE profile performance 50 gallon electric water heater.
The home and heater sat vacant for 7 months with the water heater on and no water.
When we moved in I started the water service again, the tank filled but there was no hot water. I checked and replaced the thermostat and heater elements.
With this done I get hot water for a few hours then nothing.
The in tank reset switch seems to keep tripping.

Any suggestions?
I hope this is not to far O/T.
Thanks.

 

[VHF]

The thermal cut-out switch is supposed to trip around 180F. Either your thermal cut-out is defective (tripping at a lower temperature) or you are creating some very hot water. See if you can measure the water temperature at its hottest.

If the thermal cut-out is tripping at a significantly lower temperatures, replace it.

If the tank is actually heating up anywhere close to 180F, then either a thermostat is defective or an element is miswired so it is always getting power. Is it possible that things got rewired incorrectly when the elements and thermostats were replaced? The wiring for the upper thermostat is a little tricky because there are 3 terminals… a N.O. terminal to supply the upper element on demand and a N.C. terminal to send power to the lower thermostat. See if there is a wiring diagram for your unit (maybe on the inside of one of the access panels) and confirm the wiring is correct.

Whatever you do NEVER BYPASS THE THERMAL CUT-OUT SWITCH! MythBusters demonstrated what happens with an electric hot water heater when all safety devices fail or are disabled… it turns into an impressive steam-powered rocket that goes up through the roof blowing the structure apart in the process!!!

 

[N8]

Thanks VHF.
Turns out the tank sat so long there is over a foot of sediment trapped in it.
(I am on a well and that went without filtering for the time the house was vacant)
So bad that when you open the bottom drain, nothing comes out! We even stuck a wire up in it to try and de-lodge the sediment and still nothing but we know water in being delivered to it.
This was a forclosure so unfortunatly there are to many unknowns for me with this unit.
Time to look for a new ones I suppose.

 

[VHF]

While not impossible to get the sediment out, it's not very easy on a residential water heater lacking a hand-hole access cover. With that much sediment--and given the unknown history of the unit--replacement may be the better choice.

Figure $300 for an equivilent new unit, $550 for a quality unit (such as Bradford White or A.O. Smith), and $850 for a Marathon. Note that Bradford White has louvers on the bottom of the cold water dip tube to swirl around the sediment and keep it from building up; the Marathon is all pastic, has 4" of foam insullation, and a lifetime warranty--many utility companies have a rebate or special purchase program for the Marathon which can bring the cost down.

Whatever you get, get in the practice of drawing off a few gallons of water from the drain each month to keep sediment from building up. This should be done by anyone with hard water. An old washing machine hose & a 5 gallon bucket will do the trick if you aren't close to a floor drain.

P.S. If you really wanted to try to save your existing unit, I would uninstall it, remove both elements, set it up outdoors horizontally on a couple of sawhorses (with some way to secure it so it doesn't fall off) with the element holes facing down, and then flush it with a garden hose--either hook the hose to the various fittings on the tank and/or stick it up inside the tank through one of the element holes. Might need to rock the tank a little end-to-end and side-to-side while flushing. That should eventually wash most of the sediment out.