Water heater upper element not turning on, is this normal?

[nate379]

A trash bag of sediment is a ton.

Should be draining annually. Just need to drain a few gallons.

 

[SHOZ]

I had an intermittent open neutral at my transformer one time. It was really windy and all the sudden my old incandescent lights started to get real bright and actually hum. I checked the outlet voltage and was seeing 160VAC max. Electric co said it was a loose lug on the transformer.

 

[earlyre]

I love Alec's videos on seemingly Mundaine things...:

 

[97prizm]

I have been recently chasing an increasing utility bill over the last 3 months, to the tune of an extra $100. My gut said the water heater, and this was replaced about 6 years ago and is currently a Bradford White 50 gal.

Long-winded but trying to answer all questions...

I figured it's time to drain it again anyway so living on a well I try to do this every 3 years. There was a decent amount of sediment in the bottom, nothing crazy, maybe enough to fill a plastic shopping bag. I cleaned it all out and while I was at it, I replaced the elements since the lower one was already removed, only a few pieces were stuck to the element..they both did ohm out just fine but why not.

I didn't touch the thermostat and monitored my utility usage for the upcoming days and it stayed the same as before I swapped the elements.

My understanding is if the upper thermostat is bad, then the heater won't heat at all, including the lower element. The temp settings have been the same as when I installed the heater, when my utility bills were low. The upper element is set just slightly higher then the bottom, maybe a needle width higher on the dial.

I used my Fluke meter to log a 24 hour session with the leads clipped to the upper element, after 24 hours I had no activity on the upper element. The next session I checked the upper thermostat and turned it up and heard the loud "click" at the VERY HOT setting, then turned it back down and it "clicked" again at the HOT setting which is where it was set.

I did the same for the lower and the lower seemed to click on and off at a lower setting, about mid way between HOT and VERY HOT and turned back on below the HOT setting.

I ran another 24 hour logging session and again, no activity on the upper element. Granted this was after 2 showers and a load of laundry, safe bet the heater was depleted of more than half it's capacity.

Maybe this is normal, not sure, the upper thermostat seems to ohm out correctly, less than .3 ohms on both sides of the reset button, and when the thermostat turns back off will read low ohms and "OL" when off.

I will log another session on the lower element today but curious if this sounds normal. I understand quick usage of hot water won't trip the upper element but more than half the tank I assume it would....2 kids, laundry at night, then 2 showers in the AM...lol. no chance it didn't run down.

This was the last session for the upper element:


View attachment 181644

Is it gas or electric? Sounds like an electric water heater as gas traditionally only has a bottom burner at the gas valve. Did you check the anode rod for wear? From my understanding when I worked maintenance well water causes more wear as the anode rode is "sacrificed " instead of the tank.

 

[i6pwr]

Sorry for the late replies, holidays, family visits from out of town has kept me busy.

I'll try to cover all the questions.

Water leaks especially hot water will waste energy. Monitor the well pump make sure it does not run when no one is using water. A leak in the foot valve or the pipe going down the well will cause the pump to run repeatedly as water leaks back into the well, thus no visible water leak

We did end up with a leak, but I think that came after these rises in KW.

Make sure the line attached to the safety valve on the water heater is cold. A leaking safety valve can be a very expensive leak.

Yes, all is dry.

So you mentioned you are on a well, probably on a septic also, tell us about your septic, is there a lift pump, grinder or aerator? I have seen those malfunction or stick on in turn using a lot of unneeded electricity

I did monitor the lift pump, and that runs only when the tank is at the determined level and runs for only a couple min.

A trash bag of sediment is a ton.

Should be draining annually. Just need to drain a few gallons.

I do need to drain more often, it was probably 10 lbs of wet sediment.

Is it gas or electric? Sounds like an electric water heater as gas traditionally only has a bottom burner at the gas valve. Did you check the anode rod for wear? From my understanding when I worked maintenance well water causes more wear as the anode rode is "sacrificed " instead of the tank.

Electric. I have thought about the anode rod, bit haven't replaced it I should as they are easy.

Once I moved the temp adjustment settings my KW went from around 4KW to around 2KW per hour. Not sure how that's possible as 50 gal takes a set amount of BTU's to heat right?

Either way, my elec bill dropped $90 for that month.

As far as my leak, the following month we ran put of water, the galvanized fitting at the pitless valve outside the casing cracked and we were leaking water about 20' behind our well. Could that have been a slow leak in the prior months?? Possibly.

We do have the well fixed, no more leaks, bit now we have cold months so hard to say if all is good.

I monitored the water heater electric usage for a few 24 hr periods and it only ran about 3 times per day, nothing abnormal.