Water heater going haywire?

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Water heater going haywire?

Author: Eraserhead187 (IN)

Hi all,

We have 2 water heater tanks. One siphons energy off the geothermal to preheat, then is plumbed to the main electric unit. It's an AO Smith I believe, 80 or so gallons. It's one that is no longer available due to its capacity. Had no hot water the other day, so I went down and sure enough it was tripped on the unit. So I reset it, it fired up, and things were okay. It happened once again, reset, fine. However, it is now in this cycle where it gets the water scaldingly hot and then trips itself. I can reset it and it fires back up, but the water gets far too hot. I'm no expert, but I would imagine that it is shutting itself off due to the excessive temperatur with a safety mechanism.

Clearly it needs replaced, right? However, we are a family of 5 that uses a lot of hot water. What would be a suitable replacement option that wouldn't require me to replace one big tank with two smaller ones? I can certainly do without having 3 water heaters.

Thank you!!

Re: Water heater going haywire?
Author: steve (CA) You might just need a thermostat replaced and not the entire heater.
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Re: Water heater going haywire?
Author: bernabeu (SC) ditto read the manual the mfgr WILL (MUST) send you one upon request ============================================== "Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638
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Re: Water heater going haywire?
Author: packy (MA) exactly... just call an electrician to troubleshoot the wiring and to replace whichever component is giving you trouble.
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Re: Water heater going haywire?
Author: hj (AZ) You have at least one burned out element. Call a plumber to check the heater and repair it.
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