#CHANGING HOT WATER HEATER ELEMENT HOW TO#
#CHANGING HOT WATER HEATER ELEMENT FULL#

In addition to this issue, because now the water will reach a higher temperature than it is what you are used to getting from the heater, it might get unsafe to open a hot water faucet alone without the cold water.Īlso, the overheating of water will increase the pressure inside the tank, which is dangerous as the pressure can cause the tank to explode, or could cause certain points to start leaking. This will then make the water heater consume electric energy for hours non-stop, which leads to increasing the electric bill. The thermostat might become faulty with time, and this might lead to letting the electric supply to the heating element to continue after the desired temperature is reached and either trip after reaching a higher temperature than the original design temperature, or even not trip at all. The thermostat is the device that is responsible of internally powering on/off the heating element by detecting the water temperature and turning off the electric supply when the temperature goes up to a certain level, and turning it on when the temperature goes down to a preset level. That’s how a leaking water heater can cause a high electric bill, in addition to increasing your water bill. Note that the leakage could happen either from inside the water heater, or even at the connection point at the hot water outlet.

#CHANGING HOT WATER HEATER ELEMENT FULL#

Water leakage from an electric water heater will cause the supply of the cold water into the heater’s tank to continue in order to maintain a full tank.Īnd when cold water keeps entering the water heater tank, it will cause the overall temperature of the water inside the tank to go down, which will also cause the heating element to work more often and for longer times, or even nonstop, in order to try to keep the water at a high temperature.Īnd more electricity consumption means more money to pay on the electric bill because of the leaking water heater.

#CHANGING HOT WATER HEATER ELEMENT HOW TO#

You can follow the video below in order to know how to safely extract the heating element in order to check it out, and if you notice any signs of calcification or cracks, you can just replace the heating element that costs around $20-$30 to buy, instead of replacing the whole water heater. This element’s efficiency might go down for different reasons, such as cracks happening in it, or due to the accumulation of calcium on the element, which then requires it to work for longer times in order to give the desired heat to water. The heating element is the metallic part that goes inside the water heater tank, gets heated through electric current, and then heats the water inside the tank.

Water heaters in general, and electrical ones in particular, work based on a duty cycle, which means that it works for a certain number of minutes in order to heat up all the water in its tank until it reaches a certain degree, then the heating element will be shut down automatically even if the electric supply is still on.Īnd a good insulated water heater will try to preserve the high temperature as long as possible, but since no insulation is 100% ideal, the water temperature will go down after a while, and the heating element will need to operate again in order to re-heat the water.Īnd a bad or broken insulation for a water heater can cause the hot water to lose its temperature and cool down faster than it should, which leads to forcing the heating element to work more frequently and for longer times in order to reach maintain the desired high temperature of water.Īnd that leads into increasing your electric bill because of the broken water heater insulation. There are different ways how a broken or a bad water heater increase your electricity bill, and here are the five most popular ones: Bad Insulation

Related: Stop missing out on this Tax Credit opportunity? (and 3 other benefits!) 5 Ways a Broken Water Heater Affects Electric Bill

Related: Don’t you want to reduce your electric bill to almost $0? Here’s how 1,000’s of US homeowners did it!

Changing hot water heater element