Water heater wired right?
- Thread starter pgk111
- Start date
MaxHeadRoom
- Joined Jul 18, 2013
- 28,702
What location are you?
You probably don't need the neutral, in any case as mentioned already, it should not be connected to ground.
You should have a ground conductor however.
Max.
You probably don't need the neutral, in any case as mentioned already, it should not be connected to ground.
You should have a ground conductor however.
Max.
It is on the feed side.
MaxHeadRoom
- Joined Jul 18, 2013
- 28,702
Then it sounds wrong, who hooked it up and when?
Can you show a pic or the hook up manual?
Does it have a GND conductor?
Are you in N.A. ?
Max.
Can you show a pic or the hook up manual?
Does it have a GND conductor?
Are you in N.A. ?
Max.
Could/should I cap off the neutral?
MaxHeadRoom
- Joined Jul 18, 2013
- 28,702
You should but ensure it has a ground and if fed direct from the panel, check to see if the white is connected to the neutral bar or the ground bar.
In some cases this was done to ensure an earth ground, but it should not be sourced from the neutral bar and should have green tape if used as an absent ground conductor.
Max.
In some cases this was done to ensure an earth ground, but it should not be sourced from the neutral bar and should have green tape if used as an absent ground conductor.
Max.
More than likely its okay having the white common line tied to the ground being that in any modern electrical service panel your white common lines are also tied to your common earth ground points as well now.
Basically in your application all you are doing is providing a double ground for your water heater which is not a bad idea being that they do burn out elements from time to time and the most common burn out is the live power blowing through one of the elements internal insulation and right to its outer metal sheathing.
I put in a new electric water heater in my old house about a year and a half ago. The heating elements had a one year warranty and at one year and one month if I was lucky one element burned through itself and blasted about 2"s of its entire jacket and innards to bits on a high impedance short to ground. Shortly after that it started leaking water right through the heating element screw terminals which were still connected to live power which was how I found out the element had self destructed.
Personally if I was you I would be tempted to connect your normal earth ground to one of the water heaters grounding points and find a second one for the white wire so you effectively have a redundant grounding connection on the heater itself.
Basically in your application all you are doing is providing a double ground for your water heater which is not a bad idea being that they do burn out elements from time to time and the most common burn out is the live power blowing through one of the elements internal insulation and right to its outer metal sheathing.
I put in a new electric water heater in my old house about a year and a half ago. The heating elements had a one year warranty and at one year and one month if I was lucky one element burned through itself and blasted about 2"s of its entire jacket and innards to bits on a high impedance short to ground. Shortly after that it started leaking water right through the heating element screw terminals which were still connected to live power which was how I found out the element had self destructed.
Personally if I was you I would be tempted to connect your normal earth ground to one of the water heaters grounding points and find a second one for the white wire so you effectively have a redundant grounding connection on the heater itself.
