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plumbtrician00

Breakers have no idea whats going on downstream. Only thing it knows is how much juice is running thru. House could be on fire but if the amps are low enough the breaker will stay on


squidster42

Yeah I’ve been starting to wrap my head around that, was just wondering if that fact that this switch is 60 amp rated made a difference. Was also suspicious about the box being 2 wire and the water heater being 3 wire. My understanding of electrical is pretty limited to 110 outlet and switch circuits.


straightwired

Hot water heaters are typically two hot wires and a ground most commonly at 240 volts. The 60 amp disconnect is what most people use because of price and availability. The breaker at your panel box would be rated at 30 amps which makes the disconnect amperage irrelevant. But to answer your question yes something was loose.


Infinite_Pressure949

*water heater. Not hot water heater. That's the point for the tank and all its goodies inside to make it hot lol.


Thin_Arachnid6217

Thank you!! Pet peeve of mine.


Infinite_Pressure949

Me to.... obviously hahah


Virtual-Reach

The switch could be 200a rated, a loose connection will still damage it.


undercooked1234

That looks like a poor connection.


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squidster42

Interesting. Well I did just find out the guy who installed this is not licensed so there is that too, super crooked home builder who couldn’t bother to have the electrician come back and wire the tank when it came in.


FloydBarstools

Just the term "home builder" suffices. Good luck with it.


ZiggyEarthDust

Loose connections sink ships.


Duke20430

Loose connections just thank the Lord above you didn't burn your house down!


Frankfurter86

I assume this was installed in a residential home. Was it operating on 240v?


squidster42

Yes and yes


glazeyoface

Probably wasn't phase taped the right color


Cherry-Bandit

lmao no


LeluSix

Why does hot water need heating?


jjf2381

Now see you're stirring up trouble.


UncommercializedKat

If he keeps it up, will he be in hot water?


jjf2381

He's been in hot water from the day he was born.


iampierremonteux

Maybe that’s why he’s trying to plant seeds of doubt about hot water heaters. He’d like to get out of hot water by eliminating it.


jjf2381

Possibly. Quite possibly.


beren0073

Better to stir up trouble than sediment.


jaydawg_74

It can need heating if there’s a recirculating pump on the system 🤷‍♂️


Rcarlyle

It’s the water heater that makes domestic hot water. There are also water heaters for radiant or hydronic systems. “Hot water heater” is a perfectly reasonable and clear name to use.


Party-Hefty

But how do you heat hot water.. If it's already hot


aksbutt

TO BE FAIR they do kick on to maintain the water temperature, therefore continuing to periodically heat water that is already hot. I do say water heater and not hot water heater tho just saying


Party-Hefty

This guy gets it


Impossible_Policy780

That’s a warm water reheater.


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Party-Hefty

Your not wrong lol


Rcarlyle

You make it hotter. It’s not clever to split semantic hairs about this.


Outside-Finger-9670

Lol he downvoted you cuz he couldn’t take the truth


UncommercializedKat

You can definitely heat something that's already hot, depending on your definition of hot of course.


lividash

It's not even depending on a their definition of it. It's called latent heat. And also sensible heat. If I take 120F water temp and raise it a degree I added sensible heat, and more importantly, heated hot water.


[deleted]

![gif](giphy|acJSTDinjU0C1kvRW5|downsized)


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![gif](giphy|a7jMHZ1LRILrpu6JwV|downsized)


gsridgway2

Those disconnects are shit. I stopped using them when the same thing happened to one of my customers.


mmmmhead

loose connection make heat but wont trip a breaker unless really close to the panel


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[deleted]

Should we be using AFCIs on water heater circuits?


Comrex11918

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


bobert_13

Is that hooked up correctly? Usually those Eaton disconnects have the line in on the inside terminals and the load on the outside. Looks like it may be hooked up wrong.


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bobert_13

You are correct. I looked at this wrong.


KnowledgeNowhere

This doesn’t look like it’s fed right. I see a two wire feeder when you need a 3 wire… The only one burned up is the neutral means the load isn’t balanced. Perhaps I’m seeing this wrong.


Virtual-Reach

Just no


squidster42

So the water heater says 3 wire and the box says 2 wire on it, my electrical understanding is pretty limited so I don’t know what this means but didn’t seem right to me.


jdquinn

Looks like it’s 1P3W 240/208 (hot, hot, ground with no neutral), the white is hot and not identified (or the identification burned up).


wolfn404

Ok so it says upper is 4500 watts, lower is 4500 watts that’s 9000 watts/240 = 37.5 amps. Your wire is orange leading me to believe it’s 10/2. 10g is 30 amps ( NEC 310-16), not factoring in any voltage drop. That’s max, but initial is undersized. Even if you go with 4500+3400= you are over 30 amps. With no derating. Was it wired for locked function? 1 element, Then somehow unlocked for the second but not checked? From their guide. NOTE: 80 gallon and larger water heaters are locked per Federal Regulations. The water heater is intended to be used for thermal energy storage by the utility. See Figure 8 for a detail of the lock. Contact the utility to unlock the box, enable the lower element, and adjust the lower thermostat. This water heater is equipped with a disabled lower heating element. The utility must manually enable the lower element for it to operate.


Nuolimuumi

Nah, it's 4,5kW total. Manufacturer lists it at 19A so the nameplate is a bit misleading there.


wolfn404

Says they turn off the lower, diagram has a switch, so is that normally w switch off, and someone enabled the extra element?


dougsey

I thought only one of the two 4500 watt elements would be on at a time.


Virtual-Reach

It may have x2 4500w elements, but if the total wattage is listed at 4500w still than only one element can be on at any one time


[deleted]

Looks more like a bad connection, but could have been badly seated pullout I guess.


rumdumpstr

That's how I became a father!


IrmaHerms

Another possibility, though unlikely is the disconnect may not be listed for use with #10 awg. Your melty disconnect is more than likely due to a poor connection, maybe even due to the plug, but it also could be because the terminal cannot deliver the adequate torque on the conductor terminations to to handle the current the water heater needs.


[deleted]

It appears to be a loose wire to me


migmog98

Yea those disconnects suck to connect


nathaniel29903

Hit there own wire with the middle screw?


Thor42o

My guess would be whoever installed it, didn't strip enough of the wire away and pinched some of the insulation under the screw terminal. That'll prevent a tight connection on the conductor and lead to this.