I have a few questions about hot water heaters. I have installed a number of them with no issue until now. I installed a home depot model, 1yr warranty el cheapo (client asked for THAT ONE RIGHT THERE) with seemingly no issues. However, one day last week the client called and said hot water was all over their floor. They were doing laundry in the basement where the heater is , went down and found water everywhere. I was not able to look at it right away so not sure if the TPR opened for a bit or not. Then the second thing the client complained about today was sometimes, not all the time, you only get 2 or 3 mins of good hot water in the shower while other times you get a consistent stream, and they want me to find an explanation for that. This is in the AM so they’ve not used any hot water previously that could account for such a low amount of hot water.
Finally, a questoin concerning a water heater in a house I recently bought. The hot water smells bad, sorta sulfury and it’s also yellowish. The tank sat unused for almost 3 months filled with the same water and heated all that time til I bought the place. My suspicion is the Anode rod is bad and if I replace it the sulfur-like smell will go away?
Any ideas or help on any of the above is much appreciated.
Replies
Betcha the first described WH is a "US Craftmaster" or some such fakey name? Don't ya just love the name they give the real junk. One I ran across had a 6 year gaurantee, same symptoms.
Seems they most have bad welds, spot hole leaks, weld is near heater areas, pinhole leak soaks insullation with water. First thing that happens is the 10 AWG copper wire to the lower heating element corrodes due to the water, and heating in intermittent and uncertain. After a few more weeks or days, there is only one burst of hot water due to only the upper element working, as b;y this time not only is the lower wire corroded, the lower thermostat is trashed also (bimetal rust real fast when wet).
After a few days, the pinhole can sometimes seal, then you get more 'uncertainty'
Remove the lower cover with power off and betcha the wire is black and the insulation melted back a little.
I'm assuming even a 6 year warranty is worth about the price of the sticker it is written on.
I just installed this 2 weeks ago. You're saying evenin that timeframe this thing might have gone bad pretty much right away?
Could I have done something wrong here? See when I plumbed it I cut a water line above it, and a LOT of water spilled all over the top of it until I got my bucket under it. After the install was complete I noticed a trickle of water coming from the cover of the upper element. I took teh cover off and determined I had a trickle of water coming down from the top of the heater, finding it's way between the tank and foam insulation. I reasoned it was water I spilled earlier just draining away vs an actual crack. I wonder if my dumping water all over it had something to do with causing this issue???