Timeline for Why did my water heater wire burn up?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 7 at 5:53 | comment | added | JBurt | Good points! I did turn off the breaker right after I took that picture. | |
| S Feb 6 at 22:16 | vote | accept | JBurt | ||
| Feb 6 at 22:15 | vote | accept | JBurt | ||
| S Feb 6 at 22:16 | |||||
| Feb 6 at 20:55 | comment | added | Jason Patterson | I wouldn't be surprised if the wire hadn't been bent several times at that position and developed a crack/thin spot, or perhaps been damaged by pliers in forming a loop or straight portion for connecting to the appliance. In short, if there is a little bit of damage right there that happened to make the wire thinner, that's where its resistance would be greatest and heating correspondingly high. | |
| Feb 6 at 19:04 | comment | added | CSM | Note that the thermostat is showing heat damage in its middle. I suspect that the heating element failed to short-circuit. The black wire's connection was the weakest link | |
| Feb 6 at 17:09 | comment | added | Glenn Willen | Uh, just checking, but did you shut off the breaker after you took the picture? Don't leave it glowing like that!! | |
| Feb 6 at 14:47 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Feb 6 at 12:35 | history | edited | FreeMan | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 15 characters in body
|
| Feb 6 at 9:15 | answer | added | Solar Mike | timeline score: 17 | |
| Feb 6 at 8:46 | answer | added | Nelson | timeline score: 20 | |
| Feb 6 at 8:06 | comment | added | PMF | Can you measure the diameter of that black wire? It looks like it is thick enough for a 30A current, though. | |
| Feb 6 at 6:50 | history | edited | JBurt | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 169 characters in body
|
| Feb 6 at 6:42 | history | asked | JBurt | CC BY-SA 4.0 |