|
|
|
10-11-2020, 05:08 AM
|
#121
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 680
|
I second that! Well done!
|
|
|
10-11-2020, 05:03 PM
|
#122
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: PNW, USA
Posts: 698
|
Thanks guys. You both were a big help...
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyrano
I'm guessing that HVAC pro's probably replace the thermistor with a unit that already has the thermal compound in place. Saves time...
|
The thermistor is just a tiny probe attached to two wires attached to the PCB. The place where it's inserted, on the other hand, is just a tiny copper tube brazed to another slightly larger copper tube that's brazed to two larger copper tubes that are the two heating chambers. So a "unit that already has thermal compound in place" would have to be the whole heating chamber assembly...
Whatever they use, something that's not very viscous would be easier to apply, to 'squirt' into the tube. The stuff I used - a silicone-based compound made by "SuperLube," was relatively viscous, almost impossible to 'squirt'.
|
|
|
10-11-2020, 11:24 PM
|
#123
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,035
|
did this thread show that parts were corroding inside? Indicates a ground leakage problem which causes dissimilar metals to strip material from each other, destroying themselves over time. Fix the ground leakage into the unit and it wont happen.
|
|
|
10-12-2020, 03:14 PM
|
#124
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: PNW, USA
Posts: 698
|
^ Yes, about 10 posts up. Not sure I know what "ground leakage" is. I started thinking it was leakage of current from the unit to the ground - which I think had to be happening once the heating element started to fail, and then it would continue to get worse thereafter.
But, you say, "fix the ground leakage into the unit." Where would the current be coming from, that would go into the unit? And why would it do that?
If leakage out of the unit to ground could cause the same thing (corrosion), then I'd say, yeah, seems like that could have been happening. If you scroll up those 10 posts or so you can see how one element is gashed open. The wire inside is probably damaged or broken, seems like current could travel into and through the water, or into the casing of the element (the material that's ripped open), and that 'casing' touches the copper heating chamber, which itself is grounded via the house wiring grounding electrode system (the 'third prong')...
These heating elements fit super tight in the copper heating chambers, they can touch the inside chamber wall in places. I'm thinking that could be part of the or a problem... The corrosion on these two elements has been concentrated in spots - probably spots that do indeed touch the inside of the copper heating chambers. It's tightest at the bottom of the chambers...
If that's a potential problem, I wonder if it's the source of failure, or maybe just doesn't help - like the wire inside the heating element would have to fail first in order for current to travel from inside the heating element to the chamber wall and to ground, causing the faster corrosion in those spots?
edit: hmm, just thought of something: You mention "dissimilar metals," but the heating elements and the heating chambers are both copper. Not sure where the different metals would come from...
Last edited by eq1; 10-12-2020 at 03:20 PM.
|
|
|
08-01-2022, 10:22 PM
|
#125
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2022
Posts: 7
|
I can't rate the energy efficiency or Tech Support as I have only had the EcoSmart 8 KW Electric Tankless Water Heater unit installed for 3 weeks and no problems so far.
I got tired of running the hot water in my kitchen sink for 4 + minutes before getting hot water as the kitchen sink is about 80-90 feet from hot water tank. My faucet was flowing 1.2 gallons a minute so it was close to 5 gallons of water down the drain before it got hot. I initially set the temp at 110 but that was not hot enough so went to 120 which was just perfect. I used a fairly good temp gauge to check it and it read 121 at hvaclifehack.com. so it is very close if not perfect.
I doubt I will ever recoup the cost as I had to run 110 feet of 8 ga. Romex + labor but the convenience & time was worth it to me.
|
|
|
11-08-2022, 08:28 PM
|
#126
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: PNW, USA
Posts: 698
|
Haven't been around reaper forum for a while, was scrolling through the recording tech forum and saw this thread on the second page, so thought I'd revisit it, skim through.
Want to hear a really sad story? About a year after my last post in this thread (a year and some months ago), the Rheem RTE13 for my upstairs bath, that's just a few feet from my bedroom studio, failed catastrophically. This is one that I never messed with, that I mentioned a number of posts up as 'working fine', 'never had a problem with it', 'doesn't make noise' (in my monitors), etc.
Not sure what the initial cause was, but the ultimate failure was the thermostatic breaker - a breaker that's supposed to trip if the unit gets too hot. That failed, the input water got hot and burst the input supply line. This is a second story bathroom - the water just flowed freely and flooded my house. No one was home. I walked into the house through the back door, that opens into my kitchen, had been gone for at most 2 hours, and there was water flowing out of my kitchen ceiling light fixture. And pouring out of the living room ceiling...
I'm still dealing with this, rebuilding, etc. It's been a nightmare.
|
|
|
11-08-2022, 09:56 PM
|
#127
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 3,409
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by eq1
I'm still dealing with this, rebuilding, etc. It's been a nightmare.
|
Just read through this thread for the masochistic pleasure of it. I've coveted on-demand water heating for my studio outbuilding for years (it has a hot water radiant floor heating system), but this has all given me pause. :-)
|
|
|
11-08-2022, 10:31 PM
|
#128
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: PNW, USA
Posts: 698
|
Yeah, "masochistic pleasure" and "pause"...
There must be some good, reliable units out there, small, electric, not the big gas types. There's just not a lot to them. I've still got the Eco11s, two of them, and still have the RTE13 I described refurbishing/fixing in this thread. As long as they keep working, they work. But, I'm pretty...nervous about them.
One's in the garage, so don't worry too much about that (ECO11, for laundry). One's on the ground floor - that's the one I fixed, the one that gets the most use, RTE13. And one's upstairs for the upstairs bath (ECO11), a replacement for the one that failed catastrophically.
I also installed an extra water line running from the downstairs water heater location to the upstairs, thinking I might get rid of the water heater upstairs and have one bigger, better unit downstairs that serves downstairs and the upstairs bath. But, for now I've just got the replacement unit and I'm not using that extra line. I might also use it for a pressure relief valve for the upstairs unit, so that if it fails again like it did, the valve would trigger and vent out this line... Too many other things to do though, so for now I just cross my fingers and hope these things don't fail like the other did.
Last edited by eq1; 11-08-2022 at 10:36 PM.
|
|
|
11-08-2022, 10:38 PM
|
#129
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 3,409
|
Yeah I'm surprised they don't have pressure relief valves built-in like tank heaters? Or it's an option and you weren't using it?
Maybe you could get one of those whole-house smart water meter things that watches your usage patterns and sends an alert when it detects leaks (and has a remote shut-off option.)
|
|
|
11-08-2022, 11:27 PM
|
#130
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: PNW, USA
Posts: 698
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by clepsydrae
Yeah I'm surprised they don't have pressure relief valves built-in like tank heaters? Or it's an option and you weren't using it?
|
Maybe some of them do, mine don't. The manual for this unit says you don't need one, but I know some building codes require it...
I don't know, you'd think the flow switch and/or the electronics board (power control + water temp sensor) would be enough to prevent catastrophe, and on top of this there's the thermostatic breaker. I know when I originally installed my first unit I thought that should be enough. Of course, it wasn't.
|
|
|
11-11-2022, 07:23 PM
|
#131
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: St Petersburg FL
Posts: 999
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by eq1
hmm... I don't have a UPS, is there some other way I can test for airborne RFI/EMI? I was thinking maybe I could use an AM radio, battery powered, turn it ON near the monitors, turn hot water heater ON, see if I hear new noise?
|
It’s not airborne, it’s coming through your house wiring. All house wiring is messy AF. Spend $80 on one of these and never worry about it again:
Ebtech Hum X Ground Line Voltage Filter,Black
https://www.amazon.com/Ebtech-Hum-Gr...-4513d670b6bc#
|
|
|
11-14-2022, 05:59 AM
|
#132
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 680
|
" it’s coming through your house wiring. "
Yea, sadly as eq1 posted it's water coming through the wiring now.
Not at all nice to come home to that. Hope you have insurance that you can claim on.
.....loooook on the brighter side (if there is one) lots of sympathy from fellow reapers and it could always have been worse.....
|
|
|
11-14-2022, 10:16 PM
|
#133
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: PNW, USA
Posts: 698
|
^ hey, allybye, good to read your voice again...
The actual water is long gone now - it's been like a year and a few months since the accident. Funny thing is - I mentioned that this was 'feet from my studio', but none of the water actually went into it, it all ran down through the wall and 1st floor ceiling. I guess that's a bright side!
Yes, insurance covered it, sort of. Long story, not worth getting into here. The short of it is, yes, insurance covered the water damage, but once I tore out the plaster walls/ceiling and flooring, there was a lot of other stuff that needed to be done, like structural fixes, some wiring updates, etc. And then when I was doing some structural fixes, I discovered that my crawl space had a high-water problem - it flooded during heavy rain storm/s -- when I was down there replacing piers and footings. It was already mucky and damp when I started that fix, then, melting snow and 2+ inches of rain within a 24 hour period and it was like 6 inches of standing water. I'm under the house, in freezing cold winter, crawling around in muck, trying to replace big-ass concrete footings, etc., and next thing I know it's totally flooded.
THAT was a year ago. All fixed, all that's done. I'm only now, finally, replacing the wallboard and flooring!
Sigh. I think this is the first time since the accident, actually, that I might be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Probably why I've come back to this forum a few times now, since that's one thing I was doing before it happened. Everything's been on hold since. I'm trying to remember what my life used to be...
|
|
|
11-21-2022, 03:16 AM
|
#134
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,586
|
poooh, my problem is the waterless tank heater!
|
|
|
11-21-2022, 12:11 PM
|
#135
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: PNW, USA
Posts: 698
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by enroe
poooh, my problem is the waterless tank heater!
|
What happened to your tank water heater?
|
|
|
12-13-2022, 02:17 AM
|
#136
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,586
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by enroe
my problem is the waterless tank heater!
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by eq1
What happened to your tank water heater?
|
ooh aah, ... maybe it was the heatless water tanker?
|
|
|
12-13-2022, 01:18 PM
|
#137
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: PNW, USA
Posts: 698
|
^ Sounds like, at least, it didn't explode... Tank water heaters are usually pretty easy to fix, you can usually just replace a heating element or two or the thermostat, maybe give it a flush. That's been my experience.
|
|
|
12-14-2022, 09:37 AM
|
#138
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: All Hallows End
Posts: 2,132
|
I've got a back boiler I'm distorting the sound of to cause a buzz in my monitors.
|
|
|
01-30-2023, 11:44 PM
|
#139
|
Human being with feelings
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,586
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by maxdembo
I've got a back boiler I'm distorting the sound of to cause a buzz in my monitors.
|
I do exactly the same. Because I really only get that kind of warm, organic
distortion from the water heater.
But you have to be careful: the hotter the water, the more unpleasant the
distortion. The right warm distortion - SSL-like - can only be achieved
when heating medium-warm water - ie at the beginning of the process.
|
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -7. The time now is 02:40 PM.
|