Dual Element Water Heater Thermostat Settings

The standard residential electric water heater control circuit consists of a manual reset high limit switch an upper thermostat lower thermostat two heating elements and wires.

Dual element water heater thermostat settings. A dual element water heater uses two heating elements controlled. Gas and electric water heater temperatures are set at the factory but can be adjusted for your own preferences with only a couple of tools. If you set the top element too much higher then it will be used most of the time and the bottom element acts more as a pre heater. Again you lose some time to pre heat the water.

Lemonplumber fl unless you draw in cold water then the lower wants to kick in just before the circ sends tempered water back to the heater from the loop during day time timer use we have moved away from thermal clips on the circ and aqua stats and are using the 1 4 hour timers. If the heater produces a small quantity of hot water check the lower thermostat and heating element. Press the button then wait about 10 minutes for the water to warm. Having them used evenly will spread out the minimum time to replacement.

Electric water heater thermostats are a fairly simple devices that can fail from time to time. Whenever your elements do go or whenever you. The upper thermostat doesn t detect the cold water and the lower thermostat won t turn on until it cools from 140 degrees to 130 degrees. Many modern homes come with dual element water heaters.

If you have already set the temperature and are saying to yourself i have no hot water or not enough of it there are a few factors that may be affecting the heat. Testing is the only option if you want to determine whether or not one or both of them has failed. If all else fails the heating element may be failing and needs to be replaced. Thermostat setting on dual element heater.

Test the thermostat with a voltmeter and replace it if you don t detect any voltage. When power is initially turned on to the unit the upper element is energized and heats the water in the upper third of the tank see figure 1. A dual element water heater is a two thermostat system an upper and lower that heats water in its tank one element at a time. When you turn on the faucet neither element will turn on because the cold water is going into the bottom of the tank.

If the problem continues the heater likely has a defective thermostat or heating element. But i wouldn t go through too big of an effort to change the settings on an old water heater. How to set the upper and lower thermostats on dual element water heaters. See testing electric water heater elements for more information.