Why My Simple Life Hasn't Been That Simple Lately

I Can Do It... Can't I?

Hello there! It's me, Ben!  I thought I would take the time to share with you why us "simpletons" should leave the high tech plumbing work to the professionals.  Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of the DIY (Do It Yourself) projects and consider myself to be quite skilled in many fields.  

Plumbing, however, should be left to the professional plumbers. If you insist on taking on that plumbing project with little or no experience, you may very well find that you've earned yourself a few more gray hairs and some extra wrinkles.  If your project turns out to be as stressful as mine was, you could quite possibly find that you have substantially less Xanax in your bottle then when you first began.

The Problem... Cold Showers Are Not Fun

In order to get hot water, there are a few vital things that have to take place.  First you have to have a supply of water and it has to be able to make its way to your water heater.  Next your water heater has to heat the water up.  Depending on which type of water heater you use will determine how this function is performed.  I happen to have an electric water heater so that's what I will talk about in this article.

Besides water, your electric water heater also needs power.  I have a Richmond 40 gallon water heater and it gets its power from a dedicated 30 amp breaker.  If you have a "quick recovery" water heater or a bigger model, like 50 plus gallons, you might need a 50 amp breaker.

The power in your water heater is used for two things, to power the heating element(s) (most have 2) and the thermostat(s).

The thermostat tells the elements when to activate and deactivate.  If set at 125 degrees then every time the water temperature in the tank falls below that, the elements turn on and begin heating the water.  Once it reaches 125 degrees the elements will shut off to avoid excessively heating the water.

The heating elements are of vital importance in obtaining hot water.  Without them, you are destined to a life full of cold showers.

The element has a long copper tube that comes out of one side on the back and forms a loop back to the opposite side.  That is the part that heats the water.  On the front of the unit, there are two screws that wires attach to.  Each wire comes from separate locations on the thermostat.  My wires were black and red though they may vary on different models.

Each of the screws on the front of the heating element make contact with each side of the copper tube on the back side, thus, performing a complete circuit when the thermostat directs power through those wires, into the screws, to the copper tube (remember it's a loop) and back out.

The trouble is that the water going into the tank is full of limescale and residue.  Over time, the lime and residue being in constant contact with the copper tube on the element, cause corrosion and eventually, one side of the copper tube will break.

*Tip - Using a water softener will greatly increase the life of your heating elements

So what happens when one side of the copper tube breaks?  Think about it.  You loose continuity.  You still have a supply of water and your tank is full.  The power comes from the breaker box into the thermostat and the thermostat kicks out the juice once the temperature drops below a certain point.  The electricity continues to flow through the wires and into the screws on each side of the front of the heating element.  It then travels back through the copper tube and is just beginning its return when... uh oh... there's nowhere to go!  The copper tube is broken and that was the only road the electricity could take to get home and reunite with the thermostat!  What happens next?

Your thermostat is smarter than you think.  It was sitting there patiently waiting for it's power to return so it could get it's fix.  When the power didn't come back though, it didn't waste anytime in alerting the media.  It didn't sit around and mope, cry, or pout about lost loves.  No Sir!.  It just shot out a distress signal back to your breaker box shouting at the top of it's lungs, Amber Alert!  Amber Alert!  It then demands that the breaker be shut down immediately until something is done about this madness and it's long lost love, "Mr. Electricity" has been returned home safe and sound.

Now you have a bad heating element and a tripped breaker.  You still haven't realized just yet though, that there's a problem because Mr Water heater still has 40 gallons of nice hot water on reserve just waiting for you.  But what happens when that reserve supply runs out?

Picture This (My Story)

You wake up in the morning after feeling like you just closed your eyes five minutes ago and you know you have a busy day ahead of you.  So feeling frustrated, overworked, and still tired as heck, you hesitantly pull the covers off your bed and sit up.  You perform your regular morning routine of stretching followed by some wicked yawns, followed by some more stretching, until finally your ready to stand up and make this day happen.

Now you hurry to the bathroom for that ever-so-needed relief (Don't try to deny it, everyone has been there!) because all of a sudden your bladder reminds your brain that it has went all night with no relief. After you've done your business you continue to the sink to wash your hands (we hope) and face.  You really hate how long it takes to get the hot water all the way up to the bathroom sink so you just go ahead with the cold because you figure, heck, a cold splash of water on the face wakes you up better anyways.

Skipping ahead and assuming you've already brushed your teeth and any other routine activities you may be accustomed to, now it's time for your favorite morning ritual, (except maybe breakfast) your shower.  You adjust the faucet to just the right spot so you can have that 120 degree shower you've come to love.  You take your time undressing because you know it takes about five minutes for the water to reach your desired temperature and your still not really awake.

Next you draw back the shower curtain and start to get in.  You get about 3/4 of the way in the shower before your "still very much asleep" brain registers that you're stepping into freezing cold water!  Now you're filled with goosebumps and immediately and instinctively begin fumbling with the faucet trying to determine what the heck went wrong.  The good news, you're no longer trying to wake up because the shock of the cold water has thrown you into a "wide awake" state of mind!

If you don't think this is possible allow me to set the record straight.  If the heating element in your electric hot water heater goes out, apparently you loose hot water!  Huh, who would have thunk?

That's Okay Why Not Fix It Yourself

Well that's what I thought anyways.  After all, I build computers, design websites, and I've even replaced a car engine or two.  How hard could a little ole heating element be right?  I couldn't have been more wrong.  In all fairness though, I wasn't at all prepared in terms of tools or knowledge and I was working with very limited funds.

My first mistake was sending someone else to pick up the new heating element from Lowe's.  I needed a 4500 watt element but what I got was a 5500 watt quick recovery one instead.  After doing extensive research as to whether or not it was safe to interchange the two, I decided to give it a go.

I will tell you that if you ever run into that same problem don't just assume they are interchangeable without doing your homework.  Mine uses 240 volts and I have a 30 amp breaker.  To determine if the 30 amp breaker will suffice, you have to divide the number of watts the element uses by the number of volts your system uses.  Providing your result is less than 30 you are okay on that part of it.

The next thing is to make sure your wire will support the higher wattage element.  The wire coming out of the top of the heater and running back to the breaker box can't be higher than 10 gauge.  12 gauge or higher would run the risk of burning up and starting a fire.

I suppose you could say I lucked out because my unit met all the conditions to use the higher watt element.  What I noticed, however, was the tubes on the back of the element were shaped a little differently.  This isn't really a big deal but it did make seating it in the housing slightly more difficult.

It seemed like it barely fit through the hole in the water heater and the different shape made it harder to hold onto while lining the threads up and screw it back in.  I'm not sure if the problem was my lack of experience or if the odd shape really is more difficult to install but regardless, it created a problem for me.

The next problem came when I tried to drain the tank.  I hooked up a hose to the bottom drain on the water heater, ran it over to the drain in the basement floor and opened the drainage valve fully expecting water to come gushing out.  It didn't.

I knew there was water in the tank because I turned the hot water faucet by mistake many times that day when I was washing my hands just out of habit.  So I gave the water heater a little shove and to my surprise it felt empty!

This really had me baffled and nothing I read on the internet could explain this.  I was Googled about anything you could think of regarding water heaters.  The good news was that I was becoming quite educated in all things water heater.  The bad news was that nothing could explain where the water went and it was really seeming as though it defied all logic.  I'm not sure if it's because I'm more left brained or just my personality but I don't do well when I can't figure out how something works or doesn't work.

After hours of research, posting new threads in forums, asking everyone on Facebook if they had an explanation, and calling a few friends for guidance, I finally decided that some things just don't make sense so I would just have to live with it.

I then attempted to remove old element.  Guess what?  The tool I borrowed from my uncle wasn't all I needed.  You see, he supplied me with the 1 1/2" socket but it was for a 3/4" drive ratchet.  The biggest ratchet I had available to me was 1/2".

That's okay though.  I'm pretty creative so I can make this work.  That's what I told myself right before making my next mistake.  I decided placing a large pipe wrench on the back of the socket should work pretty good because everything I've read online leads me to believe these things aren't installed very tight.  In fact, many of the articles I read actually warned against over-tightening.

That is definitely true when referring to installing the new element.  The old one, however, can be in there pretty darn good because of all the lime build up.

When the old element finally started to come loose I made my next discovery.  I could hear water coming out!  How could this be?  Well that's what I wanted to know!  What I eventually discovered, was the hose I had hooked to the drain was for high pressure and wasn't the best choice for draining a water heater with nothing to help pump it out other than gravity.

I didn't have another hose but I found that if I backed the high pressure house off the drain a little bit it would do the job.  That brought me to my next problem.

The water just kept coming and coming and coming and coming... Then it hit me!  I forgot to turn the water off!  Luckily for me there was a shut off valve right above the hot water heater... or so I thought.

When I turned the shut off valve water started spraying out of it like it was Niagara Falls!  I stood there watching water spray all over my boots for about 10 seconds before realizing that it wasn't going to stop.  Yes I know, I can be a little slow sometimes but I eventually get there.

Come to find out that shut off valve was for a second supply like a refrigerator or something. (Although I don't think a refrigerator uses hot water.)  Whatever it was for it wasn't to shut off the water supply to the heater.

I ended up just shutting the main water valve for the house off to avoid any further problems from happening.  Then I waited.  I waited and waited some more for the tank to drain and while I was waiting, I was reading some more information on water heaters.  Finally, the tank was completely empty, for real this time.

Then I finished removing the old element with now more difficulties.  Next it was time to install the new element.  First thing was to clean the threads to the housing on the water heater itself.  You are supposed to use a wire brush and only brush in the direction of the threads, never across the threads in fear of damaging them.

I, on the other hand, didn't have a wire brush so I used a dish rag.  This resulted in me not being able to adequately clean the threads and made things much more difficult to seat the new element.  In addition to not having a wire brush, as I explained earlier, the different shaped element posed a problem for me as well.

After I got the new element in and the water turned back on, I noticed a small drip.  No worries, I'll just give it another turn or two.  And that's what I thought to myself right before making yet another mistake. Your probably thinking that I stripped out the threads on the new element right?  Nope... Okay yeah I'm just kidding.  That's exactly what I did.  In my defense though, the tool I had rigged up didn't make it too easy to tell how tight I was actually getting the stupid thing.

Now I had one broken element and one stripped element.  You know what I didn't have?  Hot water!  So I was basically back to square one.

Since I had to go back to the store anyways, I picked up the correct element, teflon tape, and a wire brush.  The lady at Lowe's even exchanged the other element for the right one!  That was the best news I had heard all day.

After having the correct element and the right tools and accessories to do the job, plus a whole lot more knowledge than when I first began, the rest of the job went off without a hitch!  Well it went as smooth as it could have I guess for someone with "less than professional" plumbing skills.  

What I learned from this project is that I should stick to computers and writing.  It was a good learning experience, however, and if you find yourself in that same situation ever, make sure you have everything you need before hand and be completely sure you know what you are getting into ahead of time.

Thanks for reading and I hope this story can make life simpler for someone else... or at least gave you quite a laugh reading about all the dumb things I did during my project!