water heater not heating

I am trying to figure out why my water heater is not heating. I read somewhere that sometimes it just needs to be reset. Well, I cant find the reset button where is it suppose to be?

The tank is neither cold nor hot, it is room temperature. It feels the same on top as it does on the bottom. It is only 5 years old I dont think it should be a gonner. Any ideas or suggestions?

I am not handy just a Mom trying to see if I can resolve the issue before having to make a sevice call

Is it gas or electric?

Make and model would be helpful.

Lack of details make it pretty hard to do anything but guess. If this is electric, you may have an element burned out. A 5 year old heater should still be quite serviceable. Get a plumber to check the heater, there's little you can do without test instruments. Don't be poking around inside, there's high voltage.

heater

IT is probably a heater with a burned out lower element and the upper thermostat is set at the factory's lukewarm position. If it is a new heater, then both thermostat may be set that way. The send them out with the thermostats set very low, and sometimes even "off", so the customer has to set the temperature desired and takes the manufacturer off the hook in case of injury from overheated water.

gary swart said:

lack of details make it pretty hard to do anything but guess. If this is electric, you may have an element burned out. A 5 year old heater should still be quite serviceable. Get a plumber to check the heater, there's little you can do without test instruments. Don't be poking around inside, there's high voltage.

Click to expand...

this is not something a single mom should not be trying to work on or anybody
that do'es not have the expertise to correctly diagnose and service the problem,
you could push the resit button which is only the syptom you still need
a trained person to correctly diagnose and fix the real problem
which is
#1 the upper electric element if this is a electric wtr/htr
or maybe clean the lint filter and change the thermo sensor if it is a
gas wtr/htr

#2 a electric wtr/htr runs on 220 volts a/c which is enough to fry you
if you don't know what you are doing ! !
Which if you have to ask ? Somebody you don't know ! !

heater

I just reread your posting and if the water is not even warm, then you can have one of several problems and the only way to diagnose it, without spending a lot of time and money replacing parts that are not broken is with specific test instruments which can be dangerous and/or deadly if not used properly. This is not a DIY job for you, call a plumber.

Still didn't hear whether it is gas or electric...if it's electric, did you check out the circuit breaker? Try turning it fully off then back on as a tripped one is sometimes hard to detect.

If it is gas, are you sure the pilot light is lit? There should be instructions on how to relight that.