Basic info: We have two water heaters (I’m guessing, from memory, that they are each 50 gallon), plumbed side-by-side (first sends hot water to second; second feeds house). They are almost 19 years old. House is about 3,800 sq.ft.
My son and daughter were both home recently and for some strange reason, we all ended up taking showers one morning (no - not together, you pervert). My 18 year old daughter takes loooooong showers. My son later complains that he ran out of hot water (showering after her).
I shrug it off as some kind of mistake because there is no way we’d run out of hot water if we each took a thirty-minute long shower.
However, I recently noticed a (double) breaker in my breaker box thrown. As soon as I reset it, it would trip again. It was labeled ‘water heater’ (and lo and behold, it was actually labeled correctly!)
My googling indicates a few possibilities: (1) wiring issue (we occasionally have mice chew stuff); (2) thermostat issue; or (3) element issue (element housing damaged so that water gets in). BTW, there is a small amount of water on top of the bad water heater, and it is scaley like water has been regularly pooling up there.
I unplugged the water heater from the outlet and reset the breaker – it stayed on. No more tripping. That told me that there probably wasn’t a wiring problem between the plug and breaker box.
That leaves me with potentially thermostat or element issues.
My main question now is: Is it worth even testing those to see if they need replacing. For one thing, we are basically empty nesters and don’t currently need the capacity of the second water heater. For another, the frickin thing is 19 years old (as is the other one).
Should we just wait until the other goes out, too?
What would you do or what do you recommend?
My son and daughter were both home recently and for some strange reason, we all ended up taking showers one morning (no - not together, you pervert). My 18 year old daughter takes loooooong showers. My son later complains that he ran out of hot water (showering after her).
I shrug it off as some kind of mistake because there is no way we’d run out of hot water if we each took a thirty-minute long shower.
However, I recently noticed a (double) breaker in my breaker box thrown. As soon as I reset it, it would trip again. It was labeled ‘water heater’ (and lo and behold, it was actually labeled correctly!)
My googling indicates a few possibilities: (1) wiring issue (we occasionally have mice chew stuff); (2) thermostat issue; or (3) element issue (element housing damaged so that water gets in). BTW, there is a small amount of water on top of the bad water heater, and it is scaley like water has been regularly pooling up there.
I unplugged the water heater from the outlet and reset the breaker – it stayed on. No more tripping. That told me that there probably wasn’t a wiring problem between the plug and breaker box.
That leaves me with potentially thermostat or element issues.
My main question now is: Is it worth even testing those to see if they need replacing. For one thing, we are basically empty nesters and don’t currently need the capacity of the second water heater. For another, the frickin thing is 19 years old (as is the other one).
Should we just wait until the other goes out, too?
What would you do or what do you recommend?
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