Test Water Heater Element Thermostat

You can find this information on the data tag on the side of the water heater.

Test water heater element thermostat.

Turn the water heater circuit breaker off inside the main service panel. This is important especially as open and grounded heating elements result in inaccurate tests. How to test an electric hot water heater thermostat step 1. This article deals with thermostats on electric water heaters.

Connect the multimeter pin ends on point 1 2 as shown in the picture below. When shopping for a water heater thermostat you need to know how many elements the water heater has and the voltage. If you want to test a thermostat on an electric water heater you will also need to check the heating element. To look at the faults in the upper thermostat you need to turn off the lower one.

When it goes bad you don t have any hot water at all. Check the power supply of the thermostat. Both thermostats control two different heating elements for the heater to function. Start by checking the thermostat terminals for the supply of power.

Before you proceed further with the process of testing the heater thermostat take a screwdriver and the multimeter. If the data tag is missing you can identify single element vs dual element by the number of access panels on the water heater. If the opposite thing happens that means your thermostat has defected. If the water is hot enough at appointed temperature the meter won t show reading.

The upper thermostat controls both the upper and lower element. In this case also check the current at the high limit switch. Pull away any insulation that is. Now sometimes you use the hot water tap to only discover cold water coming out.

This is when the upper thermostat has a problem. You can find the voltage written on the end of the heating element. Testing water heater thermostats is important in locating water heater problems. The access panels are on the side of.

Common residential dual element water heaters are 240 volts. If you get the reading of 240v on terminal 1 and terminal 3 then the power is on but if you get no readings then the power is off. You will also need to check the water heater thermostat with digital multimeter tools. If the water is cold the multimeter will point near zero.