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Electric Hot Water heater starts on Fire ???? maradcliff 06-28-2006
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Posted by on June 28, 2006, 10:18 am
I'm just posting this out of curiousity. A woman I used to do work
for, for many years just called me to ask me for advice about her
water heater. She lives out of state now, so I can not actually see
the problem. She claims the electric water heater was smoking, and
said that after her husband turned off the breaker it continued to
"burn". Then her husband cut the electric cable to finally make out
the "fire". Although she said she did not actually see any fire, just
smoke.

I should mention that I worked as a plumber for 8 years before I
retired, not including the many years I was a handyman doing plumbing,
electrical and other repair work before that. Yet I never ran across
this type of problem. However, I worked in a city where almost
everyone had natural gas heaters. While I have worked on several
electric heaters, they were few compared to the gas ones.

Yet, I am in a fog on this matter. This woman said that she had
noticed for a few weeks that there was not enough hot water. On
Friday she went into the basement to do laundry, and noticed the
smoke, and got her husband.

Neither of them are handy, so I question this whole matter. However,
I know they are not going to lie about it. I should mention that that
water heater was just installed about 3 years ago. I know this for
fact because she had called me to find out the name of the person that
took over for me, and I know he replaced it. In fact I told her it
might still be under warranty.

Anyhow, knowing that there are only 4 electrical parts, (2 elements
and 2 thermostat controls) plus some wire, what the heck could really
burn? The element is in the water, and while I know they are the most
likely part to burn out, they can not smoke under water. This seems
to only leave the thermostat controls.......
Has anyone ever seen one of them go up in smoke?
Once I ran into a defective one, but I have never heard of them
burning....

Anyone have any opinion, or ever expreience this?
Somehow this just dont seem to make much sense to me....
Most people replace gas heaters with electric ones because of the
lesser fire hazzard, and now I hear this......

Mark

Posted by John McGaw on June 28, 2006, 11:16 am
maradcliff@UNLISTED.com wrote:
> I'm just posting this out of curiousity. A woman I used to do work
> for, for many years just called me to ask me for advice about her
> water heater. She lives out of state now, so I can not actually see
> the problem. She claims the electric water heater was smoking, and
> said that after her husband turned off the breaker it continued to
> "burn". Then her husband cut the electric cable to finally make out
> the "fire". Although she said she did not actually see any fire, just
> smoke.
>
> I should mention that I worked as a plumber for 8 years before I
> retired, not including the many years I was a handyman doing plumbing,
> electrical and other repair work before that. Yet I never ran across
> this type of problem. However, I worked in a city where almost
> everyone had natural gas heaters. While I have worked on several
> electric heaters, they were few compared to the gas ones.
>
> Yet, I am in a fog on this matter. This woman said that she had
> noticed for a few weeks that there was not enough hot water. On
> Friday she went into the basement to do laundry, and noticed the
> smoke, and got her husband.
>
> Neither of them are handy, so I question this whole matter. However,
> I know they are not going to lie about it. I should mention that that
> water heater was just installed about 3 years ago. I know this for
> fact because she had called me to find out the name of the person that
> took over for me, and I know he replaced it. In fact I told her it
> might still be under warranty.
>
> Anyhow, knowing that there are only 4 electrical parts, (2 elements
> and 2 thermostat controls) plus some wire, what the heck could really
> burn? The element is in the water, and while I know they are the most
> likely part to burn out, they can not smoke under water. This seems
> to only leave the thermostat controls.......
> Has anyone ever seen one of them go up in smoke?
> Once I ran into a defective one, but I have never heard of them
> burning....
>
> Anyone have any opinion, or ever expreience this?
> Somehow this just dont seem to make much sense to me....
> Most people replace gas heaters with electric ones because of the
> lesser fire hazzard, and now I hear this......
>
> Mark

Might is simply be a connection which loosened over the years and
eventually got hot enough to start smoking? I have seen loose electrical
connections get to the glowing and molten metal stage which took out
insulation in the process. That could explain the lack of sufficient hot
water too. Just a WAG of course...

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com

Posted by volts500 on June 28, 2006, 11:30 am
maradcliff@UNLISTED.com wrote:
.
> Anyhow, knowing that there are only 4 electrical parts, (2 elements
> and 2 thermostat controls) plus some wire, what the heck could really
> burn? The element is in the water, and while I know they are the most
> likely part to burn out, they can not smoke under water. This seems
> to only leave the thermostat controls.......
> Has anyone ever seen one of them go up in smoke?
> Once I ran into a defective one, but I have never heard of them
> burning....
>
> Anyone have any opinion, or ever expreience this?
> Somehow this just dont seem to make much sense to me....
> Most people replace gas heaters with electric ones because of the
> lesser fire hazzard, and now I hear this......
>
> Mark

As an electrician, I've seen that a few times. Usually the problem was
a combination of of loose connections on the thermostats and someone
using the wrong temperature rated wire. Sometimes even the factory
high temperature wire is damaged as a result of bad connections. When
that happens unknowing people then re-wire the thermostat with standard
building (90 C) wire instead of high temperature wire (105 C or above).
The cycle begins again, loose connections heat up except this time the
temperature under-rated wire insulation melts which then melts the
water heater insulation resulting in a lot of smoke and in some cases,
possible fire.


Posted by Jeff Wisnia on June 28, 2006, 12:31 pm
maradcliff@UNLISTED.com wrote:
> I'm just posting this out of curiousity. A woman I used to do work
> for, for many years just called me to ask me for advice about her
> water heater. She lives out of state now, so I can not actually see
> the problem. She claims the electric water heater was smoking, and
> said that after her husband turned off the breaker it continued to
> "burn". Then her husband cut the electric cable to finally make out
> the "fire".

He CUT the cable?

Jeeze, I know you said later that he wasn't handy, but it's a good thing
he didn't electrocute himself in the process.

I started to think, "Hasn't he ever heard of a circuit breaker box".

But then I stopped myself when I realized that if I asked SWMBO to go to
our breaker box and flip off the breaker for our electric water heater
I'd undoubtedly receive a blank stare from her. She has myriad other
positive abilities, it's just not something she's had a "need to know".

*********

Poll: How many husband's here are certain their wives could accomplish
the task I just described without having to receive detailed instructions?

*********

Jeff


--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength."

Posted by on June 28, 2006, 5:26 pm
I said "HE TURNED OFF THE BREAKER FIRST". But when it kept smoking,
he cut the cable. This alone proves the guy is not handy, because
that obviously did nothing and when the breaker was shut off,
obviously the power is off and there is no need to cut the cable, but
rather he should have first called the fire department after shutting
the breaker off, then opened the heater access panel and find the
cause of the fire and douse it with an extinguisher. I too was rather
puzzled about the reason to cut the cable, but some people just do not
have a clue about things like this..... I even told the woman that
once the breaker was shut off, there was no reason to cut the cable,
and asked why they did not call the Fire Dept.? She just said she
dont understand things like this, and could not answer my question.

Mark

--------------------------------


On Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:31:04 -0400, Jeff Wisnia

>maradcliff@UNLISTED.com wrote:
>> I'm just posting this out of curiousity. A woman I used to do work
>> for, for many years just called me to ask me for advice about her
>> water heater. She lives out of state now, so I can not actually see
>> the problem. She claims the electric water heater was smoking, and
>> said that after her husband turned off the breaker it continued to
>> "burn". Then her husband cut the electric cable to finally make out
>> the "fire".
>
>He CUT the cable?
>
>Jeeze, I know you said later that he wasn't handy, but it's a good thing
>he didn't electrocute himself in the process.
>
>I started to think, "Hasn't he ever heard of a circuit breaker box".
>
>But then I stopped myself when I realized that if I asked SWMBO to go to
>our breaker box and flip off the breaker for our electric water heater
>I'd undoubtedly receive a blank stare from her. She has myriad other
>positive abilities, it's just not something she's had a "need to know".
>
>*********
>
>Poll: How many husband's here are certain their wives could accomplish
>the task I just described without having to receive detailed instructions?
>
>*********
>
>Jeff


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