DIYbanter - View Single Post

On 16 Jan 2004 13:26:46 GMT, (WbSearch) wrote:

By mistake I turned the power on to my water heater before the tank was full of
water and burned the upper element. I thought the lower element would provide
heat, but obviously at a lower rate. I found no power at the element. It
appears from the limited wiring diagram I have, that the upper thermostat
switch provides power to the upper element until it reaches the set
temperature, then provides power to the lower thermostat and element. Is that
correct? I needed to wire the lower thermostat to the upper element to get
heat last night until stores opened today and I could get a replacement.
I thought both elements were powered at once, but appears that is not the case.
The heater has what the supplier calls typical 2 element wiring.
My questions are 1) are indeed the elements powered as I described or am I
missing something?, and 2) is there a suggested temp. setting for the elements
if that is true, i.e. should the lower element be set at a higher temp then the
upper?
Thanks in advance.

The wiring is correct and the temp settings should be the same. The
idea is that you want to heat the water at the top near the outlet
first. This arrangement works better than having each element carry
half the load. Some HW heaters will run both at the same time.

-Chris