Hot!!!

The morning before the Derecho hit the mid-atlantic our power briefly went out during a little thunder-boomer of our own.

When it came back on, something had changed – changed for the worse.

Our water heater went wacky. At this point I can’t remember the entire sequence of events, but the outcome was the bottom thermostat (our water heater has two) failed and failed badly. Instead of not heating at all, it super heated the water.

At one point I tested the temperature at the kitchen sink. It was coming out at 140° F. That’s way too hot for little hands or even my hands.

The quick fix was to turn off the water heater. The super heated water actually persisted for 24 hrs.

Then we went to my mothers.

Upon coming home and turning the water heater back on, we had super heated water again.

The fix is easy (hopefully). Finding the time was the most difficult.

Finally off to Home Depot and home with a new thermostat, I replaced it in a matter of minutes. Considering the length of time the super heated water lasted last time we turned off the heater completely, it’ll be a day or two before we know if the new thermostat indeed was the fix.

Stay tuned. If it doesn’t work, I’m pretty sure we’re ripping the whole damn thing out of here and going with something different.

Water heaters shouldn’t be this much work (remember the elements and wiring cleaning?).

– b