Property Manager

Unregistered

One of my tenants reported 'no hot water'. After visiting the site, I found that the 208/220V Electric water heater was being fed by a 120V single phase circuit. However, the water heater had been operating for at least five years. I was surprised that the water heater ever worked however I rewired the top element feed to the bottom element assuming that the top element was bad. I did this as a temporary fix until I can get 220V feed to the location and either replace the top element or the whole water heater.

Question, has anyone ran into this situation before? Will 220V heaters actually run on 120 V?

hatchet

I believe it will.. but with very reduced efficiency and output. Don't quote me on that though.

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

Unregistered

no
220v heater will not run on 120v
either its not a 220 heater or it has 220 going to it
be careful

hatchet

That's why I'm not a plumber or an electrician.. haha.

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

Grumpy

I'll play around with plumbing in my own home but don't know much about it. Electric is scary I'll rewire anything in a car but when it comes to 110v+ I'm a baby.

Unregistered

Thanks everyone for the comments,, I rewired the top element voltage feed (115V) to the bottom element as a temporary fix until I can get 220V feed to the heater and replace the broken top element. The heater is clearly maked 208/220V, but as noted in one of the responses, it will run with reduced efficiency on 110V (and with only one element!). --Property Manager

hatchet

I mess with all of it - it just takes me forever with electrical remodeling. New electrical doesn't bother me but trying to figure out what someone did before me is difficult. I don't have circuit tracers or anything like that so I take a best guess and pop a few breakers every once in awhile..hah. I piped and put in the electrical service for a new a/c unit in my house - didn't bother me too much other than checking to make sure breakers were off about 20 times an hour while I was hooking it up.

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

Bjd

Hi Guys
In looking at this post I must ask, the breaker that is supplying the heater is it a duplex or a single? If its a duplex you may have a bad side to it, that would send only one leg to the heater,giving the inpression of being only 115 vt.

Bernie

Fred

The heater was a 2-element duplex. I replaced the heater and ran a new 220V 2P #10 feed to the new heater and all is well. Thanks to everyone for their comments.