Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: DaveWertz on April 24, 2013, 09:56:29 PM
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Hooked up my first water heater. Everything was hooked up right I know for a fact. But I turned it on today and let go for about 3hrs then tried to use the hot water, Nothing. I went down stairs and felt the cold and hot lines on the water heater and the hot line was maybe luke warm. Just a bit warmer than the cold line. Any ideas what could be wrong? I just bought this heater so its brand new. Maybe a bad heating element??? Im stumped and its probably going to piss me off if I have to unhook it and take it back.
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Some have a circuit breaker on the heater too, per element. Could have one of those tripped. I had an issue with my main element tripping and only having the smaller element active resulting in luke warm water.
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Im not getting any warm water at the faucet. Just from the feed line out of the tank itself. The heating element feels warm to the touch. I am getting the correct voltage at the breaker and the tank. I tested that today. I cranked the temp up on the heater to 145 and no differeance at all. Called Lowes and they said to replace the element, they think that is the problem. I'm going to give it a shot tomorrow and see what happens, I would like to shut down the OWB by this weekend. I can't think of anything else it could be?
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If you are getting warm water at the heater and not at the faucet, it sounds like a plumbing problem. I know you said everything is hooked up correctly, were you referring to the hot and cold water lines also?
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I decided to give a hand and sent a post into social bookmarks. I hope the popularity will rise in.
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Are you checking for 120 volts or 240 volts? You should only be checking the voltage between the two hot wires. From either wire to ground will be 120 volts but if you don't read anything between them then you won't get any heat.
If you are getting voltage at the heating elements and they aren't getting hot, turn off the power and disconnect the wires and check the resistance.
If you are not getting voltage at the elements, check the thermostat and other controls.
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I checked volts at hot wires and everything was right on. Before I went any further I went ahead and pulled out the element, only took a few minutes and am I glad I did. Look at the pic. Seems like I didn't have all the air out of the tank and lines before I fired it up.
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Here is one where it came apart.
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Did you install a sidearm heater on the tank, if you did and it is not plumbed properly then no matter how hot the tank gets the hot water will pull at least a portion of water from the bottom of the tank, also be sure that you bleed the air out of the sidearm or it will not thremally siphon.
Richard @ PM
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If the cold goes in the top of the tank, and that joint was soldered at the tanktop, it could now be feeding the cold water in at the top of the tank. Some waterheaters have a plastic tube carrying the cold supply water to the bottom of the tank.
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No I didnt add a sidearm heater. Just from looking at it, both water supply lines are feed threw the top.
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Not having enough air out will kill an element every time. Last spring when we were moving in our new house I hooked a new water heater up and it had a bad top element from the factory.
Reliance tried to tell me I had not got all the water out, and that water coming out of an open relief valve wasn't good enough. They replaced it anyway.
The relief valve is lower than the upper element and I had a real good stream of water going down the basement drain so I am pretty sure it wasn't my fault.
Not gonna admit it even if it was....
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I think that is what happned to me. I am really wondering if I had a bad element from factory? Oh well lets see how long this one last.
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May be none of my concern but why in the world would you install a new electric hot water heater and not install a sidearm heater on it Heat all your domestic water with the wood boiler during the heating season, it is simple to do and a great investment, I have all the hot water My family wants for long showers or filling up the tub and it is heated entirely by my wood boiler during the heating season. Doing this also prompts my adult children to feed the wood boiler occasionally.
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The OWB has heated the DHW for the past 6yrs but during the summer months I don't want to mess with wood. I got enought to do as it is around the house. There is only me and my women so the extra money for electric won't be very noticable. I have a general idea what a sidearm heater is but never really looked into it. Just to get my facts straight how exactly does one work? Never messed with one......
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This looks like something to be used if my water heater and OWB were tied together? I have shutoff valves for the water heater so water from the OWB would never reach my water heater when I start burning again. Am I right?
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I think I am gonna burn year round since the wood is so convenient to get to. Hardly use much wood anyway but my next step is insulating the pex lines in the basement so my ac don't have to fight as much with the constant radiant heat. I use a 20 plate heat exhanger and it works sweet.
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When properly instaled on an electric gas or oil fired hot water heater the wood boiler will heat all your hot water during the heating season and after the heating season it will automatically switch back over to the original fuel. Suggestion if you are buying a new tank go with a good quality, well insulated tank such as a Marathon as you will not want to do the installation all over again in 3 years when the cheap tank fails, also you should install purge ports and ball valves on all 4 ports of the sidearm in order to clean the minerals ( the same stuff that destroys the elements on electric heater) from the sidearm as it will eventually plug up, If properly installed it can be thoroughly cleaned by the home owner in about 15 minutes without taking anything apart.
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My electric bill drops by about $50.00 a month when I am using the Hardy. Most years I burn the entire year, I only have to put junky wood in it every 3 or 4 days in the summer. The real dry pithier wood seems to do best.
It makes me happy when the water going into the water heater is hotter than what is going out.
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I use my wood boiler for hot water, I have a hot water storage tank with a zone switch and I love it free hot water feels hotter, I do use my oil furnace to make hot water in the summer, I just turned it on a day ago, I wanted to get a elec tank so I would not need any oil but have not got around to it.