[halfmile]

You bought the house in June but the heater was 4 years old?

You could have jolted internals moving it. There should be parts available for repair, talk to them.

HM

 

[kd185]

sounds like the tstat went bad
you have to pull a cover off to make any kind of adjustments

 

[stokinpls]

I think I'd stay away from that brand in the future. My son's Bradford
White 6 year gas unit began putting out rusty water this summer (after 5 years 1 month)and when we read up on the warranty, it stated that rusty (or dirty, or smelly)water was our problem, only an active leak would qualify for a warranty claim. So, $800 later (I paid for the installation), he can finally wash his whites.

You should have better luck since it's likely only the thermostat. Good luck.

 

[Butler]

Either a bad thermostat or sediment in the bottom over the top of the bottom element, that way thermostat can't read true water temp.... You might want to drain the water heater, with electric turned off, if it doesn't drain good than it probably has a lot of sediment in the bottom of it Butler

 

[cubancigar2000]

What Butler said... Drain and clean, then replace stat if needed which I doubt. When you hook a hose to the d rain, you will have to open a valve at top for air or it will drain very little

 

[Haskins Bill]

Drain it under pressure so the incoming water can stir up the sediment. Humorus anecdote on electric water heaters: My friends father in law burned out his elements when he returned from winter vacation and forgot to turn the well on before turning on the electric to heater. Well just remove the old elements after of course shutting water and electric off and replace them. My friend spoke with the man a couple of days later and asked how it went. Great the man said except for hard time I had geting the new elements bent to same shape as the old ones!!! Yes they walk among us!!!

 

[Pull & Mark]

Jono2, It is still a good recommended maintenence to drain all hot water heaters tanks once a year to get the sediment out of the bottom of the tank. I do mine every 2 years and found this to be OK with the type of water from my city lines. Yours may vary. Do clean and check the dryers vent line and clean out, and clean out the bottom of the referator compressor area once every year as well. The Number on cause of home fires are a result of a clogged up dry line. The lint in the line can start to burn easily from a spark when the dryer itself over heats try to dry cloths when line clogged up. Just a heads up for all. These 3 items are offen overlooked by most homeowners and will add years more service to them. BReak-em all. Jeff

 

[Catpower]

You can waste your time draining the tank if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy, but unless your water is real hard and has alot of minerals in it it really isn't worth the time, as the chunks of lime that cause the problems won't come out of the valve that drains them, you need a hand hole to clean if it's that bad

Bradford white is a pretty good heater, when stuff is mass produced there are always mistakes, at least they are still made in the states but they all use the same electrical parts, probably from China

State was the best back in the day when it was family owned but they were bought out some time ago, and as usual it all went to hell

 

[Dark Horse]

It just sounds like a bottom thermostat went bad. Also the cause for the wire being burned.

A bad contact in the bottom thermostat could have caused arcing in the thermostat causing the contacts to weld together and overheating (burning) the wire. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen. Without actually seeing and testing, this is my best guess.

Don't necessarily blame the heater manufacture because the thermostat is probably a sub-contracted part. There is one manufacture makes probably 90+% of all the thermostats used in all residential electric water heaters

I have also seen when an element opens up to expose the inner heating wire to water. Current continues to flow through water then to ground and continues to heat with 120V power even if the thermostat is shut down because the thermostat only controls one side of the 240V circuit.

This was one of my specialty areas when I worked for a wholesale distributer of water heaters and was called on by two different Manufactures Reps to help solve electrical problems for Plumbers. Plumbers are great to control water leaks but many lack the tools and knowledge to electrically test water heaters.


Mark