Water Heater Controller |
Wait a minute, haven't I been hear before? Yes I have. I have epoxy on hand, so I mix up a little dab, slather it on the shaft, slide the shaft back into the armature, and drive the tip of a toothpick into the little hole I made last time I was here. I thought about about cutting a piece of paper clip, but my fuse was a little short. The epoxy alone worked for six years. Maybe the toothpick will extend that a bit. I fired up the fan this morning and so far it is spinning happily, i.e. quietly.
This morning the new controller for the water heater arrived and I set about installing it. I have a little trouble locating the necessary tools, but other than that everything went fine. (I still haven't found the big wrench I was using yesterday on the fireplace. Where could it have gone? Gremlins, I tell you!) Anyway, got the old one out, got the new one in and got it all hooked up, and now all we have to do it press the GO buttom. I press the go button and nothing happens. I take a break and come back a little later and try again. Still no go. Stomp off. When I got this heater two or three years ago, I had a little trouble lighting it. I called Whirlpool and the very nice lady told me the secret which was that you had to hold down one of the buttons for a longish time in order to get the gizmo to fire up, but that was years ago. Which button was it? Maybe Whirlpool can tell me. Call Whirlpool. They want my serial number, which is okay I guess, but then they want to verify my name and address. What? Why? I hang up, I've had enough of this phone call protocol. A little while later older son stops by to see how I'm doing. We go out to the garage and I am about to give him a rundown on the action so far when I notice the little blinky light on the controller is blinking! Hallelujah! It is working! I turn the knob to ON and we hear the wonderful roar of the main burner lighting off. So older son fixed it just by showing up. Weird thing is that I could not see the pilot light through the little window. I could turn the main burner off and check again, but after five days without hot water I am loath to touch that dial.
This 50 gallon water heater heater is rated at 40,000 BTU's (British Thermal Units). One BTU can heat one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. "A pint's a pound the world around", so 50 gallons weighs 400 pounds. We want to raise temperature 100 degrees, from 50 to 150. 100 degrees times 400 pounds is 40,000 BTU's. Okay, this all kind of fits together, but how long is it going to take to heat that 50 gallons? Hmmm. BTU doesn't tell you that, but eHow does:
Significance
- A water heater is ranked by BTU input, but really means BTUs/hr; thus a 33,000 BTU heater can heat 33,000 pounds of water by one degree in an hour; or, 330 pounds by 100 degrees.
Update July 2019 replaced image that disappeared when Blogger 'fixed' some bad html.
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