When a lower heating element or thermostat fails the top thermostat and element will continue to heat water in the upper half of the tank but you will notice the hot water quickly runs out or is only lukewarm.
Electric hot water heater thermostat test.
The structure of an electric water heater is pretty simple.
If the thermostats are okay you need to test the water heater elements.
An electric water heater uses one or two heating elements to heat the water inside the tank.
You will also need to check the water heater thermostat with digital multimeter tools.
You can test them with the power off using an ohmmeter to measure resistance or with the power on using a voltmeter to measure voltage.
The electric heater has a total of two thermostats each performing distinct functions.
Lower thermostat ensures that the hot water keeps coming and it does not turn cold when you turn on the hot water tap.
When an upper heating element or thermostat fails the entire water heater stops producing hot water.
To look for faults you will need to use a screwdriver.
An electric hot water heater has two thermostats controlling two separate heating elements one in the upper half of the tank one in the lower half.
This is important especially as open and grounded heating elements result in inaccurate tests.
In this case testing the thermostat is a little bit of a technical task but not hard at all.
Structure of water heater.
Although most of the cases this scenario occurs for the power supply problems.
How to test water heater thermostat this case might happen for the defected thermostat.
Upper thermostat makes it possible for you to have cold water supply when you turn on the tap of hot water.
Electric water heaters have one or two elements and each is controlled by a thermostat.
Remaining always on is the most common issue with electric water heaters.
One should be sitting on the top of unit 1.
How to test a water heater element with a multimeter.
When a water heater no longer produces hot water.
While the other is found right on the bottom.
And when it comes to thermostats the device uses two of them generally.
If the hot water heater is not working one of the thermostats may be bad.
If you want to test a thermostat on an electric water heater you will also need to check the heating element.