Electric Hot Water Heater Thermostat Test

While the other is found right on the bottom.

Electric hot water heater thermostat test.

Structure of water heater. The structure of an electric water heater is pretty simple. When an upper heating element or thermostat fails the entire water heater stops producing hot water. If the hot water heater is not working one of the thermostats may be bad.

You will also need to check the water heater thermostat with digital multimeter tools. Usually when the upper thermostat goes bad you will have no hot water at all while a bad lower thermostat makes itself known when there is only a small amount of hot water before the tap water goes cold. Although most of the cases this scenario occurs for the power supply problems. When a water heater no longer produces hot water.

How to test a water heater element with a multimeter. Remaining always on is the most common issue with electric water heaters. You can test them with the power off using an ohmmeter to measure resistance or with the power on using a voltmeter to measure voltage. The electric heater has a total of two thermostats each performing distinct functions.

When a lower heating element or thermostat fails the top thermostat and element will continue to heat water in the upper half of the tank but you will notice the hot water quickly runs out or is only lukewarm. In this case testing the thermostat is a little bit of a technical task but not hard at all. How to test water heater thermostat this case might happen for the defected thermostat. To look for faults you will need to use a screwdriver.

This is important especially as open and grounded heating elements result in inaccurate tests. If the thermostats are okay you need to test the water heater elements. Lower thermostat ensures that the hot water keeps coming and it does not turn cold when you turn on the hot water tap. Electric water heaters have one or two elements and each is controlled by a thermostat.

Upper thermostat makes it possible for you to have cold water supply when you turn on the tap of hot water. Testing is the only option if you want to determine whether or not one or both of them has failed. An electric hot water heater has two thermostats controlling two separate heating elements one in the upper half of the tank one in the lower half. If you want to test a thermostat on an electric water heater you will also need to check the heating element.

An electric water heater uses one or two heating elements to heat the water inside the tank.