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I’ve a brand new house with a brand new 80 gallon all electric water heater. She’s plumbed right, a meter shows juice going to both top and bottom elements, yet I cannot get my soaking tub to fill to more than about 35 gallons before the deck faucet output starts to go lukewarm, then cool. I have run it out twice now, always doing the test in the morning having run no hot water beforehand. We jacked the thermostat settings up to about 130 when we initialized. What’s going on here?
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You've eliminated the obvious DIY errors (switching hot and cold connections or one element not getting juice).
It sounds so much like the lower element is not working. Note that the terminals getting 220-volts is not the same as the element working. The element could be poofed - this can happen in seconds if the unit ever got power with being full of water. A clamp-around ampmeter would answer that the most easily. Watching the electric meter spin would be another way to confirm wattage (and not just voltage) is going to the bottom element.
Other ideas: Too much mixing during your draw-off? Maybe the tank is designed to stir up sediments at 3 gpm shower flow but things get too stirred up at the 10 gpm that you can got out of a hose bib. Or if the dip tube that should go to the bottom of the tank is too short but I can't see why that would be the case in a new HWH.
I'd try filling the tub at 2 to 3 gpm (i.e. 2 minutes to fill a 5-gallon bucket) and see if that gives better performance.
If that or other suggestions you get here aren't enough, go to http://www.heatinghelp.com/ and post your question on "The Wall".
Good Luck. -David
*I'm betting dip tube unconnected or hot and cold's reversed
What's a dip tube? You mean that thingy hanging down in the cold water side? Isn't that just for shipping? I always take those out. They just cause problems.
Kidding... actually I bet you are right Bob... and David had some good points too.
Gene
I'm not sure if you would be able to get 35 gallons of water if your dip tube was missing. I think the bottom element is probably gone. Easiest way to check it is to turn power off to HWT. remove bottom panel from tank put voltmeter on leads of the element to double check that power is off. now that you know the power is off disconnect the the leads on the element now use the ohmeter to check the element for conductivity. If your reading is zero or close to it your element is gone.