What Happens If A Water Heater Is Not Grounded? (Find Out Now!)

Ryan Womeldorf
by Ryan Womeldorf

Your water heater is far more complicated than you may have ever imagined. Not only that but choosing between electric and gas is more than about what the energy source will be. For the former, there is the matter of grounding as well.

Grounding is meant to protect your electrical grid against high voltage, like a lightning strike. If a water heater is grounded, there is the potential for damage to the electrical system through an energy spike. Though lighting strikes are not necessarily common, surges and other spikes are. That could do extensive damage to the rest of your home’s electricity, requiring major repairs or replacement to remedy the situation.

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Different Types of Grounding

When it comes to grounding your water heater, it is not that simply done. There are two kinds of grounding, for instance. There is a system or circuit grounding and then there is equipment grounding. The latter applies to your water heater, but let’s take a quick look at the difference.

System or Circuit Grounding

This is where a wire is connected to the earth through a ground rod. The grounding happens across the entire grid, which also includes a ground connection at your breaker box and a ground at each pole that stretches across the grid.

The grounding is meant to provide against a surge in voltage that could damage the rest of the system. Most states also have codes specifically detailing the requirements for grounding; a qualified electrician will not only know those codes but follow them diligently.

Equipment Grounding

This is where any and all metal equipment and/or enclosures that have electrical equipment are grounded. They are grounded through a continuous connection or bond, which includes a ground wire at each switch, ceiling box, or outlet.

Equipment grounding creates a path for a short circuit to return to the ground system rather than back into the circuit. When installed properly, the grounding conductor in the equipment allows protective devices like fuses and breakers to work when there is a fault or short.

Testing for Ground

You can test whether or not your water heater is grounded by testing the heating element. The process takes a few minutes at the most and is a relatively simple procedure while also testing for continuity in the heating element.

Testing for ground on a heating element is very similar to testing that element for continuity. The difference is in the failure. When testing for ground, the heating element is kept totally separate from the metal in your tank by a plastic insulator. When the insulator cracks or becomes loose, then the water in the tank can cause a short.

Should the current go into the tank and then back through your ground wire, then the element will fail to heat up. That means no hot water. Testing for ground means to see if the element is grounding out when it comes to the metal on the tank.

How to Test for Ground

If you are not certain whether or not your water heater is grounded – you either didn’t do the install or don’t trust the install done – there is a simple way to test I tout. Just follow these steps and you should be able to find out whether your water heater is grounded.

Step 1: Shut Down the Power

The first thing you should do with anything that carries an electrical current is shut off the power. Electricity is nothing to mess around with no matter how simple or easy the repair may seem to be.

You should go to your main electrical panel and flip the breaker for your hot water heater. Most electrical panels will be labeled with their specific breakers so it should be easy to identify the breaker with the water heater.

Step 2: Access the Heater Elements

For electric water heaters, there are actually two heating elements: upper and lower. On the outside of your tank, you should notice cover plates that are held in place with just a couple of screws. You need to remove those screws and take the plates off to get to the thermostats and element ends.

Generally speaking, the elements will be below the thermostats on an electric water heater. Your upper element should also have a distinct red reset button on or near it. In some cases, you will need to move insulation out of the way to get access to the elements.

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Step 3: Test for Ground

The good news is that testing for the ground on your heater elements is quite similar to testing the elements themselves. Just make sure that the power is off, checking with a voltage tester to be safe.

Take out one of the wires to your element, clamping it to one of the terminals of your testing. You don’t want to see a light in this instance. If you do see one, it means that the element is grounding out and would need to be replaced entirely. Make sure to check both elements.

Step 4: What Next?

So, one of two things will happen: the element passes or it fails. If it passes, you may be fine but you are likely checking because you are having some other issue. You may have to test to ensure that the element is maintaining continuity before calling it quits.

If the ground test fails, then that means that your element is shorting out. Should the element short out, it will need to be replaced entirely. It cannot be repaired and there are no replacement parts to be had, so you are left with few options.

It is also imperative that you test both elements. If the first one fails, don’t just assume that it is the only one at fault. Make sure to perform your ground test on the other element as it is more than possible for both elements to ground out. Replace either or both elements if necessary and try your water heater again to check for other potential issues.

Ryan Womeldorf
Ryan Womeldorf

Ryan Womeldorf has more than a decade of experience writing. He loves to blog about construction, plumbing, and other home topics. Ryan also loves hockey and a lifelong Buffalo sports fan.

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