# No hot water to new water heater



## tribe_fan (May 18, 2006)

Not an expert, but I would get a meter and verify you have 220 going to the elements.


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## chris75 (Aug 25, 2007)

Sounds like you turned the power on premature, or you have a wired it wrong. (pretty hard to wire it wrong though.) You could have a bad breaker, but only way to know is if you test for 240v, is there a disconnect as well as a breaker? are both on?


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## bvsmith_1974 (Aug 12, 2008)

Yeah I was looking at the wiring diagram, and at a glance I THINK I have it wired correctly, but as mentioned above, definitely going to get a voltage meter. The guy that checked it yesterday said the breakers were fine, and I don't see where they are flipping or anything. When I undid the wire nuts from the old water heater, I noticed that the wiring was a little rusty, so one thing I'm going to try as well is to strip the wire back a bit and get rid of those rusty ends. I'm welcoming all suggestions before I make my 3rd (and God willing final) trip to Lowe's...i.e., besides a voltage meter, should I pick up a thermostat too (or does it sound like the thermostat is ok, and it's something in the wiring).


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## chris75 (Aug 25, 2007)

bvsmith_1974 said:


> Yeah I was looking at the wiring diagram, and at a glance I THINK I have it wired correctly, but as mentioned above, definitely going to get a voltage meter. The guy that checked it yesterday said the breakers were fine, and I don't see where they are flipping or anything. When I undid the wire nuts from the old water heater, I noticed that the wiring was a little rusty, so one thing I'm going to try as well is to strip the wire back a bit and get rid of those rusty ends. I'm welcoming all suggestions before I make my 3rd (and God willing final) trip to Lowe's...i.e., besides a voltage meter, should I pick up a thermostat too (or does it sound like the thermostat is ok, and it's something in the wiring).



If you bought a brand new water heater, the problem is MOST likely on what you did... so first thing you need to do is make sure you actually have 240v's at the upper heater element.


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## bvsmith_1974 (Aug 12, 2008)

Great, thanks all! I'll get a meter and follow up here ASAP.


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## bvsmith_1974 (Aug 12, 2008)

Ok, I did get a meter, and what I've got it two wires coming from the breaker box to the water heater, with each wire bringing 120V. Bear with me, as plumbing I'm decent at, but electrical, I'm sort of mediocre  The way it was hooked up to the old water heater was both of the power wires hooked to the red, and the other two hooked to the black. I'm assuming those two combined would give 240V? Or is that some kind of funky electrical that I'm not aware of?


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## TazinCR (Jun 23, 2008)

You burnt the bottom element up turning the power on with no water in it is my bet. Top element comes on only after the bottom turns off to the best of my memory. Which is not good. Turn the power off and remove the bottom element wires and using a ohm meter test the element. Infinity shows a burnt element.
You are not the first or last to do this.


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## bvsmith_1974 (Aug 12, 2008)

Naw, both times I let the water run for a good long time (45 minutes the first time, 2 hours the second time). Also, from what I understand, the top heats first, then power is shifted to the lower part.

But, just in case (because I'm pulling my hair out), when I drained the tank, I pulled both elements out and looked at them


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

ah yes, but did you open the hot water faucet in kitchen/bath or wherever to allow the tank to fill completely? if not, you fried one of the heating elements cause it did not fill both chambers.... (a friend did the same thing, don't feel like you're all alone. i'm sure thousands of elements have been replaced because of this error)

DM


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

and they're laughing all the way to the bank, no doubt.....

DM


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## bvsmith_1974 (Aug 12, 2008)

LOL  No, I actually managed to avoid that mistake, only because I had my father-in-law helping me, and he had done it before to himself 

Ok, so I just went down and started looking at the wiring. Here's the weird thing. It's a double-pole breaker with two wires, as mentioned before. One wire coming to the water heater has two wires. However, the other one has 3....one white, one gray, one pink. The pink from that one was connected to the white in the other one, and then the white from the first one was hooked to my red on my water heater. The gray ones from both wires was hooked to the black. I tried hooking just the two whites to the red, and left the gray/black alone, and I was getting 240 volts to my water heater...but then my heat pump fan outside started making a funky noise. I hooked all 4 wires together (2 whites, pink, red from the water heater), and the noised stopped and I'm getting 240v to the water heater. Guess we'll give it a few minutes and see if I get hot water.


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## SD515 (Aug 17, 2008)

bvsmith_1974 said:


> Ok, I did get a meter, and what I've got it two wires coming from the breaker box to the water heater, with each wire bringing 120V. Bear with me, as plumbing I'm decent at, but electrical, I'm sort of mediocre  The way it was hooked up to the old water heater was both of the power wires hooked to the red, and the other two hooked to the black. I'm assuming those two combined would give 240V? Or is that some kind of funky electrical that I'm not aware of?


The feed from the panel should be hooked to a 2 pole breaker with a handle tie. When it's turned on you should read 120V from one of the 'legs' to ground, 120V from the other leg to grnd, and 240V leg to leg. In the connection area of the water heater (it's junction box), the wtr htr should have 2 wires, usually 1 red & 1 blk, and a grnd screw. Obviously the ground wire goes to the grnd screw. One of the incoming (source) 'hot' wires will connect to one of the wires of the wtr htr. The other source 'hot' to the other of the htr. Then your htr will have 240V.
Is the feed from the panel a cable or in conduit, and what colors??


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

sounds like a plan, it shouldn't take but 10 minutes or so to be able to tell for sure!

DM


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## bvsmith_1974 (Aug 12, 2008)

And we've got hot water! Thanks all for the help and suggestions!


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

bingo!


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