water heater trips breaker

trepka2001 · Post by **trepka2001** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 1:57 pm

everytime I switch on my water heater it trips my circuit breaker, any suggestions on what could be causing this?? bad water heater or worn breaker?? thanks

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 2:02 pm

could be either one or a short in the wiring , is it poping the breaker for the water heater or the main ? If its the main is anything else on at the time ?

If it is the heater then the heater then element can be replaced , Just make sure you don't replace it with one thats is to high of a wattage .

trepka2001 · Post by **trepka2001** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 2:20 pm

it's popping the breaker for the water heater. it was working fine then one day it popped and hasn't worked since. happened at the end of the season so i haven't really put in a solid effort on my investigation but thought i would ask for the easiest solutions first before i go in and spend a whole lot of $$$ when it was only a bad wire or something.

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 3:39 pm

kill the power and remove the cover on the heater and look for chafed wiring . if thats OK Its cheap and easy to replace the element just get the right size/ wattage . do not turn on the heater unless its full of water . and of course turn off the power when working on it

alexander38 · Post by **alexander38** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 5:18 pm

You can get the parts at RV shops and of all places ace hardware.

LandVF36 · Post by **LandVF36** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 10:28 pm

When my element went bad, it was tripping the breaker. They stocked the part at the local hardware store (check there first, the RV version is like a Marine version... same part, 2x the price and still the same part number).

alexander38 · Post by **alexander38** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:28 am

Oh and you can get temp control at Ace too

randyp · Post by **randyp** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:39 pm

Same problem with mine, too. Breaker tripping due to bad element. Replaced the element and all was good.

trepka2001 · Post by **trepka2001** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:52 am

Thanks everyone!!!