Before you proceed further with the process of testing the heater thermostat take a screwdriver and the multimeter.
Test upper thermostat electric water heater.
Testing the water heater thermostat involves the checking of the heating element also.
Your water heater usually has two elements and two thermostats.
First it allows the upper element to heat the water in the top of the tank.
And when it comes to thermostats the device uses two of them generally.
If the opposite thing happens that means your thermostat has defected.
Connect the multimeter pin ends on point 1 2 as shown in the picture below.
The lower thermostat has only two terminals.
Touch one probe of the multimeter to each terminal on the lower thermostat.
If the water is cold the multimeter will point near zero.
When this water is hot enough it shuts the upper element off.
The meter should read 0.
This is important especially as open and grounded heating elements result in inaccurate tests.
You will also need to check the water heater thermostat with digital multimeter tools.
To look for faults you will need to use a screwdriver.
Using the multimeter connections touch the top to legs at the same time.
One should be sitting on the top of unit 1.
Start by checking the thermostat terminals for the supply of power.
Test the water heater thermostat.
To look at the faults in the upper thermostat you need to turn off the lower one.
If the water is hot enough at appointed temperature the meter won t show reading.
Use the screwdriver to set the lower thermostat to the highest setting.
If you want to test a thermostat on an electric water heater you will also need to check the heating element.
The structure of an electric water heater is pretty simple.
While the other is found right on the bottom.
The reading on the multimeter should be zero.
In this case also check the current at the high limit switch.
If you get the reading of 240v on terminal 1 and terminal 3 then the power is on but if you get no readings then the power is off.
Check the power supply of the thermostat.
The upper thermostat has two functions.
However they do go bad and testing water heater thermostats is still required.