Fire Hazzard??? - 04/02/04 03:31 PM
I'm not an electrician, but I was hoping that I could get a question answered. Our new water heater has burned up 2 heating elements which caused the breaker to trip each time.
On the second occaision I reset the breaker and that next morning the water got extremely hot. Then later in the day the water was ice cold. I checked the breaker and it was still on, but the heating element had failed again. It was extremely corroded. Also, when we took the breaker out to check it, it had the dark brown powdered look on a little spot on the back. It looked kind of like a car fuse looks when it blows. My main concern is to make sure that my family is safe and if another heating element burns up, when the breaker gets tripped that it does not start a fire.
Anybody know for sure if that's what a breaker is supposed to look like when it is tripped?
On the second occaision I reset the breaker and that next morning the water got extremely hot. Then later in the day the water was ice cold. I checked the breaker and it was still on, but the heating element had failed again. It was extremely corroded. Also, when we took the breaker out to check it, it had the dark brown powdered look on a little spot on the back. It looked kind of like a car fuse looks when it blows. My main concern is to make sure that my family is safe and if another heating element burns up, when the breaker gets tripped that it does not start a fire.
Anybody know for sure if that's what a breaker is supposed to look like when it is tripped?