New Electric Hot Water Heater Trips Breaker

We know that PP lurks here, and now we know that Whirlpool does, as well! We would like to here the straight 411 on any issues with that control box

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Originally Posted by Whirlpoolwaterheaterhelp

Sorry to see you're having problems! Can you contact me directly so I can help?
www.whirlpoolwaterheaters.com/help
Thanks ~ Chris
American Water Heater, authorized licensee for Whirlpool Water Heaters

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You can help and impress us all - go to his house and fix the silly thing.

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Originally Posted by plumber2011

Hi Chris (whirlpool guy)...

I don't think that anything has been established here concerning the exact cause of Safeire's problem. In fact, I'm betting that we have a bad breaker or some other issue, but the heater has definitely NOT been shown to be the issue in this case at this time.

Safeire, there has definitely been some issues with the energy smart whirlpool water heater diagnostic control system, but the problems I have seen do not include issues like you describe here. I would recommend that you call in a qualified electrician to evaluate your issue. If the breaker is bad or there is a junction box with issues, then he can repair/replace as needed. If the wire is undersized then I think lowes has some 'splaining to do as this should have been caught by the plumber at the time of installation. The water heater installation should also have been inspected by a local plumbing inspector (at least in most towns/cities) so this kind of thing can't happen, OK?

Back to you...

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UPDATE
The second electrician was here today. He diagnosed two primary issues-he found that the plumber had some exposed wire around a cap when he opened the thermostat controls on top of the WH. Second, he replaced the existing 20/20 breaker with a 30/30 breaker. Everything is working perfectly now.

The first professional who was here told me I needed to replace the wire and never tested anything on the WH or the panel. The second looked at the wire and said it was 10/3 and that it was sufficient. I'm glad to have had the feedback from everyone here. It really helped me understand all of the techbical terms to ask the right questions.

Thanks to all who responded. I'm glad I had the second gentleman do the work rather than the first.

Safeire

Two things would have sped up our diagnosis.

1.Knowing that it was a 20 amp breaker when the heater had 5500 watt elements,and,

2. Verifying that it was 10/2 wire, (10/3 was/is unnecessary),and not 12/2 or 12/3