I have a Rheem Marathon electric water heater. Last night, temp of water was low, so I increased temp. An hour ago, I heard water pouring out. Very Hot water flowing from the relief pipe.

SOURCE: Rheem small 6 gallon water heater vibration/noise

If the water heater is working fine than I would not worry about the function of the water heater. What the problem may be is that some of your WATER LINES HAVE MOVED, AS THEY WERE NOT SECURED PROPERLY. The sound you may have heard was the Copper or PVC(Plastic) lines just getting back comfortable. I Suggest checking that your water lines are secured about every 3 or 4 feet with the proper ancjhor....Metal for metal pipe, copper for copper pipe, etc. Sometime as in my house, pipes are run through a hole drilled through a stud or a piece of wood, usually when hot water is run through this pipe. You can here an expansion of the water line interacting with the pipe expanding, if the hole in the wood was not drilled big enough......Experience of remodeling a very old house.......Joe

Sean Lavelle

• 21 Answers
• Posted on Jan 25, 2010

SOURCE: Too much water draining from Vulcan Electric H/W relief valve.

Dear Julie. Do you have an expansion tank installed? If so it is probably waterlogged. If you come home shower etc. use lots hot water then go to bed or leave the cold water in your tank heats and expands as it heats. In the old days a toilet ballcock valve would relieve this pressure but modern toilets with diaphragm valves wont so the pt valve relieves pressure. Installing an expansion tank on the cold water line near the heater will absorb the extra water & stop the pt valve from activating.

SOURCE: no hot water

If you checked the reset, then the next thing to check would be the breaker in your breaker box. If that doesnt work start checking the elements. The reset, the thermostat and the elements are pretty much all that can go wrong with an electric water heater, short of a leaky tank or faulty t&p valve. Hope this helps.

SOURCE: Rheem 83xr52-2 50 gal residential water heater.

You can open the top up again. I would not turn the temp higher than 130 degrees, maximum. However, there should be above the thermostat a red button. This is where the power wires connect to the thermostats and heating elements. Sometimes this button needs to be reset, press it and discern if you hear a click sound. This means that the high temperature safety switch has tripped open and you had to manually "reset" it. There are two thermostats by the way. The water heater usually works this way. There are two thermostats and two heaters. The upper tank heater turns on first and it heats the top half of the tank. Then when the thermostat above is satisfied it then allows the bottom heater to come on and heat the bottom half of the tank. You might want to set the bottom heater thermostat as well. This is made this way because it is actually faster and more efficient to heat the top half first and the bottom half secondly. Try this first with the reset button. We could check voltages, but that requires a level of knowledge and safety that I am not sure that you are comfortable with. Pictures of the upper and lower thermostats and connections will help if the "reset" does not do the trick. By the way, not meaning or implying anything, but did you move the thermostat in the right direction? Sometimes the dials can be confusing.

SOURCE: I have a Rheem Marathon 105 gal. electric hot

Check 240 circuit breaker.
Open top cover on water heater and push in ECO red reset button.
If reset button will not reset, then replace thermostat.
If reset is not tripped out, then either upper thermostat is bad, upper element is bad, or water heater might be getting 120V instead of 240V.
If you have some hot water, then best suspect is lower element.
http://waterheatertimer.org/How-to-troubleshoot-electric-water-heater.html

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