Water Heater Thermostat Burnt

Cut out the overheated wire.

Water heater thermostat burnt.

Keeping the hatch covers on tightly is good as it likely prevents much oxygen from getting to the fire snuffing it out. Thermostat burned up etcetera. Burning rubber or plastic if you smell burning rubber or burning plastic turn off the power source at the breaker first before trying to pinpoint the smell. Remove the cover panel s from the front of the heater and then disconnect the wires from the heating element terminals.

The pilot light will ignite your water heater s burner and if it goes out there is nothing to heat the water. I need to go and buy a volt ohm meter to test the element. By the second day it was getting stronger and smelt like a burning smell coming from the water heater area. The heating element could be grounding out which will result in the heating element staying on.

After opening it up we discovered the red wire on the bottom element was burning. I have a 3 year old kenmore electric water heater. If the electrical contacts on the thermostat mounted outside the water heater are overheating the plastic parts around the switch may overheat and burn. Using a continuity tester available from electrical supply houses place one test probe on each of the element terminals.

Water heater smells like. Water came from somewhere possibly upper head weld caused corrosion and arcing of contacts inside thermostat. To check it remove one wire from the element terminals and set a volt ohm meter to rx1. You can see if the pilot light is out by removing the cover of the water heater and inspecting the light.

Hj az a shorted element depending on where it is shorted would either cause the water to overheat and trip the eco or trip the circuit breaker but not overload the thermostat or its connections. Thoroughly clean the bare wire ends of any coating or corrosion to bright copper and crimp the wire ends together tightly insulating the resulting connection with heat shrink tubing. When this happens the heating element will burn out prematurely after heating the water to excessive temperatures. The lower thermostat melted i am not sure why just yet.

It had bared the red off the wire about 6in along it and also burnt the plastic cover. Finding the source of the leak will tell you where fault lies. To test for a burned out element first turn off all electrical power to the water heater. What causes burned wires on electric water heater thermostat.

If this is beyond your expertise get an electrician to do it.