Electrical problems
No hot water, and the switchboard has tripped
A failing hot water element is one of the most common causes of a safety switch tripping overnight. It is also one of the easiest faults to confirm.
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Go to the switchboard first
Nine times out of ten a sudden loss of hot water in an electric storage system shows up at the switchboard, not at the tank. Open the board and look for a breaker that has flicked down, usually labelled HWS, HW or hot water, and check whether the safety switch beside it has tripped as well.
If something is off, reset it once and leave it. Do not stand there flicking it back up. Then check the isolator switch on the wall near the tank, because those get knocked off by cleaners, painters, gardeners and departing holiday guests more often than anyone admits. If everything is on and nothing has tripped, feel the pipe leaving the top of the tank. Warm means the element is working and you have simply run the tank empty. Cold after a full overnight cycle means a real fault.
One more thing before you call anyone. Look at the floor around the tank. If there is water pooling, or a steady drip from the relief valve, that is a plumbing problem, not an electrical one.
What it usually turns out to be
Across hundreds of hot water jobs, the same short list comes up again and again.
- A failed element. The most common by a wide margin. Elements fail by leaking to earth, which is why the first symptom is often a tripped safety switch rather than cold water.
- A failed thermostat. No trip, nothing looks wrong at the board, the water is just cold or lukewarm. Sometimes it fails the other way and the water comes out scalding.
- The overnight tariff. Most tanks around Port Douglas and Craiglie run on a controlled load that only energises overnight. So a faulty element does not trip at dinner time. It trips at two in the morning when the supply comes on, and you wake up to a dead circuit and a cold shower. If the tank was fine yesterday and dead this morning, that timing is a strong clue.
- Corrosion and wildlife in the outdoor isolator. Up here the isolator next to the tank cops salt air off the water and months of wet season humidity. Terminals corrode, seals perish, moisture gets in. Ants and geckos nesting in outdoor enclosures cause real nuisance tripping in Far North Queensland. It is not a story we tell.
- No supply arriving at all. Sometimes the controlled load is not switching. That is a metering or supply issue, not your tank.
What not to do
Do not keep resetting a safety switch that keeps tripping. It is doing its job. It has detected current leaking to earth, and in a hot water system that usually means an element sitting in water with a breach in it. Every reset re-energises that fault.
Do not take the cover off the element or thermostat to have a look. In Queensland, testing and locating faults is expressly classed as energised electrical work. There is no safe DIY version of that inside a hot water system.
Do not drain the tank to have a poke around. An element that runs dry burns out in seconds, so a cheap fault becomes an expensive one.
What we do when we get there
We isolate, test the element with an insulation resistance test, test the thermostat, and check the isolator and the circuit back to the board. That tells us in a few minutes whether it is the element, the thermostat, the wiring or the supply. We carry elements and thermostats, so most jobs are done in the one visit. If the tank is leaking or the valve has gone, we will tell you straight. That part needs a plumber. We work alongside local plumbers all the time and there is no ego in it.
If the safety switch has been tripping on and off for a while before this, mention it. That often points at something older in the board rather than the tank, and it is worth sorting properly. While the board is open we will press the test buttons too, which the Electrical Safety Office recommends doing every three months.
BH Electrics has been doing hot water repairs around Port Douglas, Craiglie and the beaches for close to 20 years. If the water is cold and the board has tripped, call us on (07) 4099 3497. We run emergency callouts 24 hours, every day.
Sources: WorkSafe Queensland, testing as energised electrical work and Electrical Safety Office, safety switches.
Straight answers
No hot water: your questions
Why did my hot water trip the safety switch at 2am?
Because most storage tanks around here run on an overnight controlled load tariff. The element only gets power in the small hours, so a fault that is already there does not show up until the supply switches on. A breached element leaks current to earth the moment it energises, the safety switch does what it is meant to do, and you find out in a cold shower the next morning. That timing is useful information for us, so mention it when you call.
Can I just replace the hot water element myself? They sell them at the hardware store.
No. Removing the cover to get at the element means working on energised electrical equipment, which in Queensland requires a licence. On top of that, a hot water element sits in a tank of water on a circuit that often has no local isolation you can rely on, and the fault that killed the element may have damaged the wiring or the thermostat as well. Replacing the element without testing why it failed usually means doing it again in a few months.
What does it cost to fix an electric hot water system that has stopped heating?
A hot water repair is priced on what testing finds. A tripped breaker with a corroded isolator and a failed element in a tank that also needs a thermostat are different jobs, so we do not publish prices. We come out, test, and tell you what is wrong and what it will cost before we start the repair. You approve it, then we do it. No surprise on the invoice. For commercial customers our Same Day Service Guarantee applies, so a resort or holiday let that rings by 2pm on a business day with no hot water gets attended that day.
Do I need an electrician or a plumber?
If the problem is no heat, a tripped breaker or a tripped safety switch, that is us. Element, thermostat, isolator, circuit, supply, all electrical. If the problem is water, a leaking tank, a dripping relief valve, low pressure or a burst fitting, that is a plumber. If you genuinely cannot tell, call us. We will test the electrical side, and if the tank itself has failed we will say so rather than charging you to find out the long way.
Other things that go wrong
Common electrical problems in the Douglas Shire
No hot water? We will find the actual cause.
Leave us a number and we will ring you back, or send the whole job through and we will quote it.