Hi,
I have a 40 gallon electric water heater with 2 4500 Watt elements.
A co-worker gave me a 240V hour meter. It is actually two meters in one box. Out of curiosity, I hooked them to the heating elements of my water heater to monitor is usage and guage how much it costs to operate.
However, over the weekend I learned that only the bottom element comes on. Even after two showers and a load of laundry (on Hot) one right after the other, the top element never came on.
Both top and bottom are set at 125 F, and I turned to top one up higher and it does come on and works. But when both are set to 125, only the bottom comes on. I know they both can not come on at once, but I thought they would cycle.
Is this normal? Am I just not using enough water to make the top one come on? Should they both be set at the same temp? Should I adjust the top one to a higher temp, and/or the lower element to a lower temp?
Thanks in advance