About how long should I expect my electric hot water heater to last? Ours is 14 years old and looks fine from the outside. (it was made by State).
I have replaced the heating elements, but now am having a hard time finding a replacement thermostat that fits exactly. So, I am wondering whether to spend money to have it re-wired, or should I just buy a new one. Any advice?

 

quote:<HR>Originally posted by wahooj:
About how long should I expect my electric hot water heater to last? Ours is 14 years old and looks fine from the outside. (it was made by State).
I have replaced the heating elements, but now am having a hard time finding a replacement thermostat that fits exactly. So, I am wondering whether to spend money to have it re-wired, or should I just buy a new one. Any advice?<HR>

Water heater will last 15+ years but is pushing it, most thermosats that run under 220 volt, are interchangeable, they will work no matter where they came from, what you do is take the old ones to the homecenter and they should beable to get you the set that will work, I think there double pole thermostats

Remember how the wires attached to the stats. Always replace both upper and lower stats at the same time when doing a change out,

Why change them if there working fine, unless you want to change them, are you haveing them trip on you and you haveing to reset them?

Best Regards Plumber2000
www.atozplumbimg.com

 

Well, the full story is: Tepid water Sunday evening. Reset upper thermostat. No hot water Monday morning. Replaced both heating elements, and am back to tepid water (so I think one element is heating, but not both. So, I would like to replace both upper and lower thermostats (since they've been replaced once, 7 years ago). However, now the only replacement upper thermostat I can find is about two inches shorter than the old one. The wires coming down from the top of the tank are too short to use the new (shorter) thermostat. I would have to pay someone to re-wire it to use the new thermostat, and am trying to decide whether to just buy a whole new unit instead.

 

quote:<HR>Originally posted by wahooj:
Well, the full story is: Tepid water Sunday evening. Reset upper thermostat. No hot water Monday morning. Replaced both heating elements, and am back to tepid water (so I think one element is heating, but not both. So, I would like to replace both upper and lower thermostats (since they've been replaced once, 7 years ago). However, now the only replacement upper thermostat I can find is about two inches shorter than the old one. The wires coming down from the top of the tank are too short to use the new (shorter) thermostat. I would have to pay someone to re-wire it to use the new thermostat, and am trying to decide whether to just buy a whole new unit instead.<HR>

What you can do is what I have done before is pull the wires down to the new stat, 9 out of 10 times the wire is long enough to get the extra slack from them, by using channel locks grip the bottom of the wire and pull it down.

Another way to do this is to add a little bit of wire with wire nuts, but get wire of the same size.

I hope this helps you is your quest.

Do the stats 1st before changing an element.

Best Regards Plumber2000
www.atozplumbing.com

 

OK - I'll try to pull the wire down.
Also, next time we have cold water, I will change the thermostats first, before replacing elements.
Thank you very much for your help!

 

Why not narrow it down a little before you just start replacing parts? The elements are very easy to check with an ohmmeter. With the power off, disconnect both leads from the elemaent and place an ohmeter across the screws of the element. If you have a few hundred ohms, the element is good. If you have a dead open (no deflection of the needle at all), the element is bad. There is no middle ground.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by wahooj:
OK - I'll try to pull the wire down.
Also, next time we have cold water, I will change the thermostats first, before replacing elements.
Thank you very much for your help!<HR>