Water Heaters - No signs of life from an electric tank heater

I just flipped on the breaker for a '97 Mor-Flo (American Water Heater Company) E52-50R-045DV but the heater does not seem to be working at all.

This apartment has been under renovation for a few months, and I have turned the water heater on and off a few times during the project. This latest time, it has been off for about 3 weeks and empty for about 1 week.

While working on the place today I replaced the T&P valve, closed the drain valve, opened the ball valve, and turned on the breaker. About an hour later, I realized that there was no hot water. The heater isn't making any noise at all...not even a faint hum. Obviously, the T&P valve replacement didn't cause the problem.

I tried pushing the reset button (wouldn't depress), I verified that there is 220V at the power terminals, and measured either 220V or 110V across various screw terminals at each of the thermostats.

The sticky posts suggest that I replace both thermostats. Is this the standard operating procedure in this situation? If so, I'd like to understand what causes both thermostats to die simultaneously. Are they like light bulbs in that they sometimes blow out when you flip on the power?

Thanks!

lilfos,

There are 2 things to concern yourself with when dealing with an electric WH -- the water and the electricity.

If I'm reading your post correctly, there is a good chance that you turned the electricity to the WH on at some point when the WH had no water in it. If that's what happened, you fried the upper element.

To determine that you'll need an ohmeter or a multimeter. Turn the power to the WH oof and disconnect both wires to the upper element. Read the resistance (ohms) between the screws of the element. You should see something around 1,000 ohms. My guess is you'll get a reading of infinity -- the element is open or burnt out.

If so, drain the WH down enough to replace the upper element. Then refill the water in the WH, THEN turn the power back on. It'll take about an hour for the water to get hot. If you turn the power on when the upper element has no water around it, you'll burn the element out in less than a second.

Interesting. I suppose it is possible that someone on the crew drained the tank while the unit was still on. I doubt anyone turned on the breaker while the tank was already drained, though...even by accident. Because it's certainly not cooling season and the dryer isn't installed, I can't think of any reason why someone would have been flipping 30A breakers.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check the resistance when I return to the job site on Monday.

You should see something around 1,000 ohms.
Sorry, Lefty, but it will be more like ten to fifteen ohms. A 1,000 ohm resistance would equal about 57 watts and that would take forever and a week to heat up the water.

Thanks guys. As suggested, the upper element was reading infinity ohms. The bottom registered 12.65 ohms. I took the upper element to HD and matched the wattage. The new one was longer, skinnier, and a different color, but it's all they had. Well, there was also the dry-firing one for twice the price, but I figured the cheap one would outlive the rest of the heater so long as I don't let it dry fire again.

I installed it today on my way home from the Inauguration. I was too tired to wait for it to heat up, so I'll check again when I return in the morning. I did check the resistance and measured about 16 ohms.