Replacing my water heater but house wiring is black/white/ground and water heater wires are black/blue/yellow. Which colors connect to each other??
thanks if you help -- I am too through with these COLD showers!!
2006-08-20 06:45:31 · 6 answers · asked by been there done that 2 in Home & Garden ➔ Do It Yourself (DIY)
your electric water heater is 220 volts and the wires you are looking at black white green is 110 volts
2006-08-20 06:51:27 · answer #1 · answered by aussie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At least use a voltmeter before you go hooking up wire you aren;t sure about. If you do not own a meter, then call an electrician. DO NOT remove the dead front off of your load panel to look at these wires. you can determine that with a meter from the other end.
Again, if you do not have a meter, call an electrician or a friend that is familiar. You should get 208-240 volts between two of the wires and 105-120 between the ground and others.
USUALLY an electric water heater is fed with THREE wires. Two hots and a ground. The potential between grouns and wither of the hots is about 120v. the potential between the two hots should be around 220 volts.
So many times the wiring to a water heater is a #10 NM cable with a black, white, and green. On that circuit, the black and white are BOTH hots. The green is obvisouly ground.
The easiest way to tell would be to put the meter between the black and yellow and see what you get and then between the black and blue and see what you get. Keep going until you figure out what is what- two hots and a ground if it is an Electric water heater- 220v
One hot, one neutral, and one ground if a Gas water heater with a 110 circuit.
Good luck
2006-08-20 15:26:07 · answer #2 · answered by Frust Parent 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Electric or gas water heater?
If electric -- replace the elements before replacing the whole heater. They only cost about $10 each.
Whether gas or electric, the water heater should be on its own circuit. Look at the wires that go into the circuit breaker; that should tell you which are hot, neutral, and ground. If you don't know what you're looking at when you do this, then for crying out loud call an electrician before you kill yourself!
2006-08-20 14:56:26 · answer #3 · answered by Gitchy gitchy ya ya da da 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yellow is probably neutral and ground and black plus blue are hot so the water heater is 240 volts I'm not a 100 percent sure! Get an electrician if in doubt!
2006-08-20 13:53:08 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it were me, I'd read the manual that came with the heater.
I'm a little surprised about your house colors though. Any water heater I've ever seen runs on 240 V. The house colors should be black, red and ground.
2006-08-20 13:52:49 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your water heat is most likely 220V, find the ground on the water heater, hook that to the ground. It makes no difference if you mix the other two.
2006-08-20 13:53:56 · answer #6 · answered by daffyduct2006 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋