How to make your Water Heater adjustable for $8.97
First-- *** disclaimer ***
I am an electrical engineer. If you do not have COMPLETE confidence in your wiring ability, DO NOT DO THIS as you can cause serious damage to you, your TC, your insurance rates, and your liquor stash.
Also---if you have gas AND 110v heater elements, this won't work. You won't have room.
So, I got tired of my hot water not being adjustable for a variety of reasons. I had an old RealLite TC years ago with an old school mechanical water heater, and it had a real, adjustable thermostat.
This is a Suburban water heater, similar to what a lot of us have.
When you take off the thermostat cover, you see two thermostats connected together with a jumper wire. One is for your working temp of 130 degrees which is of course self-resetting, the other a manual-reset 180 degree safety in case the 130 degree fails.
Go to Home Depot and get thier LOWER SIDE home water heater thermostat. It fits like a glove beside the 2 existing thermostats.
**Note -- the fact that it is for 220v vs. 12v is irrelevant, it is a SPST switch, nothing more. It is more than sufficient to send the "time to light burner" signal to the computer/circuit board. This circuit carries no actual load, it is just an on/off sensor for the computer.
Pull the incoming wire off the 130 degree thermostat, wire it to the new one. Likewise, make a jumper wire to go to the other side of the 130 degree tstat. Slightly grind the tab on the other side of the 130tstat then solder (the grinding gives the solder something to stick to)
Solder on the jumper wire. Attaching it here retains the 180 degree safety in-line with the new tstat. DO NOT disconnect both red wires and run to the new thermostat. By doing so you bypass the safety.
I am an electrical engineer. If you do not have COMPLETE confidence in your wiring ability, DO NOT DO THIS as you can cause serious damage to you, your TC, your insurance rates, and your liquor stash.
Also---if you have gas AND 110v heater elements, this won't work. You won't have room.
So, I got tired of my hot water not being adjustable for a variety of reasons. I had an old RealLite TC years ago with an old school mechanical water heater, and it had a real, adjustable thermostat.
This is a Suburban water heater, similar to what a lot of us have.
When you take off the thermostat cover, you see two thermostats connected together with a jumper wire. One is for your working temp of 130 degrees which is of course self-resetting, the other a manual-reset 180 degree safety in case the 130 degree fails.
Go to Home Depot and get thier LOWER SIDE home water heater thermostat. It fits like a glove beside the 2 existing thermostats.
**Note -- the fact that it is for 220v vs. 12v is irrelevant, it is a SPST switch, nothing more. It is more than sufficient to send the "time to light burner" signal to the computer/circuit board. This circuit carries no actual load, it is just an on/off sensor for the computer.
Pull the incoming wire off the 130 degree thermostat, wire it to the new one. Likewise, make a jumper wire to go to the other side of the 130 degree tstat. Slightly grind the tab on the other side of the 130tstat then solder (the grinding gives the solder something to stick to)
Solder on the jumper wire. Attaching it here retains the 180 degree safety in-line with the new tstat. DO NOT disconnect both red wires and run to the new thermostat. By doing so you bypass the safety.
