Check Gas Water Heater Thermostat

If you want to test a thermostat on an electric water heater you will also need to check the heating element.

Check gas water heater thermostat. Testing is the only option if you want to determine whether or not one or both of them has failed. If the data tag is missing you can identify single element vs dual element by the number of access panels on the water heater. I think we can all agree that waking up to take a shower in the middle of winter only to find out that all the water is cold is not the best thing to happen to anyone. Electric water heater thermostats are a fairly simple devices that can fail from time to time.

It allows the water heater to power on off automatically while it gains the appointed heating level. You know when your shower spits ice cubes instead of hot water that it s time to replace the thermostat for your water heater. When checking the thermostat in a single element water heater or the upper thermostat in a dual element water heater the process is the same. Most of the water heater contains a thermostat to maintain a specific temperature.

You can test them with the power off using an ohmmeter to measure resistance or with the power on using a voltmeter to measure voltage. When shopping for a water heater thermostat you need to know how many elements the water heater has and the voltage. To look for faults you will need to use a screwdriver. This is important especially as open and grounded heating elements result in inaccurate tests.

However if the thermostat has defected the heater does not work correctly. How does a water heater thermostat work. Either the heater always remains on or it might not get power at all. You will also need to check the water heater thermostat with digital multimeter tools.

You can find this information on the data tag on the side of the water heater. An electric hot water heater has two thermostats controlling two separate heating elements one in the upper half of the tank one in the lower half. One is in the upper level and the other on the lower level. This thermostats control the heating element.

If the hot water heater is not working one of the thermostats may be bad. It activates the heating element to heat the water when it gets cool and it stops them from heating the water once it has reached the desired temperature. Other than this the thermostat controls the current flowing from one thermostat to another thermostat or from the thermostat to the heater. Usually when the upper thermostat goes bad you will have no hot water at all while a bad lower thermostat makes itself known when there is only a small amount of hot water before the tap water goes cold.

If the thermostats are okay you need to test the water heater elements. Electric water heaters have one or two elements and each is controlled by a thermostat. A water heater generally has two thermostats. The upper thermostat is the primary one that contains the high limit switch and the lower thermostat is used to detect the change in the temperature of the water.