I put in a new water heater and the breaker trips on it every now and then, so u no what this could be from?

Question

I put in a new water heater and the breaker trips on it every now and then, so do u no what this could be from? Its a 50 gal whirlpool.

Answer 1

Too small wiring, breaker undersized, breaker going bad or a short inside the water heater. I'd find this problem asap even if I had to call an electrician.

Answer 2

Are there other high amperage devices running at the same time as the water heater when the breaker trips? Water heaters are the biggest power suckers in your home, so if the fridge, the air conditioner and the dryer are all on at the same time, you might cause an overload.

If so, your electric service may not be adaquete for your home. Look at the large breaker which is either on the very top or bottom of your breaker panel. If it is 200 amp service, you should be fine. If it is smaller, (probably 100 amp), you may need to upgrade the electric power service to your house, though I would explore other options first, such as a bad breaker, etc because upgrading your electric service would be much more expensive.

Answer 3

A bad ground.

Answer 4

Did you hook heater back up to original wiring,If yes..could be bad ground.Is you new heater bigger and more powerful than the old one.That also could give you some problems  

Answer 5

could be faulty upper t-stat on water heater. Since it's new, call place where you bought it or manufacturer and see if they can come out and check it for you. If WH defect, it shouldn't cost you anything. I have seen circuit breakers that (when old) go bad and do trip espesially when pulling a large amperage (25 amps)

Answer 6

The breaker and/or the wires that feed the water heater are too small...

Answer 7

am assuming that you did nothing other than use the existing wiring and hook it up to new water heater. make sure the wire connections at the water heater are not loose, including the ground. it would be unlikely the wiring was undersized(should be same amps as previous water heater), or that ground is bad. possible, but unlikely that the breaker suddenly went bad. it may be defective wiring in the heater.

Hope that helps.