[C320-list] Water Heater update

[Doug Treff]

Not at my boat either but I think it's a 20 AMP.

--
Doug Treff
doug at treff.us

On Wed, Aug 30, 2017, at 11:45 AM, Guy Smith wrote:
> Hi Doug,
> I'm not at the Boat at the moment. Would you remember the amperage one
> needs to order a replacement breaker?
> Best Regards,~g
> Guy And Liz Smithsv Pleiades '97 C320 #452Worton Creek, MD
> 
> From: Doug Treff <doug at treff.us>To: "C320-List at Catalina320.com"
> <C320-List at Catalina320.com>Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2017, 8:56:56 AM
> EDTSubject: [C320-list] Water Heater update
> A while back, posted a question about replacing the water heater
> element. My question was regarding how difficult it was to get the old
> one to turn.
> I was having no luck getting the element to budge with the large Channel
> Lock pliers that I had on board. I finally broke down and purchased a
> water heater element socket from Amazon (1 1/2" special socket) and was
> finally able to budge the element with a breaker bar. But it was still
> difficult to turn it and I thought for a brief moment that the water
> heater was going to come loose from it's mounting points.
> The rest of the story is the following. Originally, the problem that I
> was having was that the circuit breaker would trip as soon as I turned
> on the water heater. Naturally, I assumed that the element was blown or
> rusted out, so I bought a replacement element. Fast forward to Monday, I
> finally got the new element installed, refilled the water heater and
> purged the air out of the system, but the circuit breaker would still
> trip instantly when activated. I just happened to have a spare breaker
> on the panel due to some changes made by a previous owner, so I decided
> to try moving the water heater over to the spare breaker. It worked!
> So, the lesson here before you automatically assume that your element is
> fried, see if the breaker is bad. I'm guessing that these push-button
> 110VAC breakers have a limited number of times that they can be turned
> on and off before they wear out.
> The other lesson here is that there's nothing like having the right tool
> for the job! I already had an 18" breaker bar and the cost for the
> socket from Amazon was $13.99 and it was well worth the cost in the end.
> Any of you in the MD area who need to do the same job, feel free to
> contact me and we could probably work out a loaner situation.
> --
> Doug Treff
> doug at treff.us
> 
>