Hot water heater tripping breaker. Please advise.

[ChillinDude336]

Hi,

Last year home-pro installed a Mex 5100 Watt In shower unit hot water heater. It worked fine for a bit however lately it's been tripping it's fuse? (Breaker) (Circuit)
Notice the picture. We are moving out of this apartment and the next tenant would like to purchase the unit but I told them it's tripping the breaker so I'd like to have it fixed before they move in. 
Will this be expensive or hard to fix? I don't know much about electrical things but I'm assuming it's just too powerful for the circuit?  The other hot water heater we have is not on the same circuit and it works fine, however it's a 3500 watt unit.  I have no plans to attempt any electrical work myself I'm only wondering if this is going to be expensive or difficult for someone to do. If it's too much work we'll just ask someone to uninstall the heater and sell it and I'll advise new tenant to purchase a lower power unit. 

Thanks for your time and consideration I appreciate your help. I'm also going to advise new tenant purchase a RCBO cause I'm not sure if this house is grounded. I'm just now learning about how to make your house safe here in the LOS. Thanks for all the great information I appreciate it. 

-Isaac 

[Crossy]

OK, a 5.1kW (23A) heater is opening a C32 breaker

 

Either the heater element is faulty and most likely unavailable so needs a complete new heater or the breaker is faulty. You could try swapping the heater to the breaker in the No4 position and see if it still trips.

[ChillinDude336]

Sorry I forgot some important details. The breaker trips after I turn the water off. For example I turn breaker on take a shower with hot water and then after I turn water supply off it trips. Very rarely does it trip while it's producing hot water. Perhaps unit is overheating? 

 

 

 

Thanks for your help. I'm going to contact electrician and ask him to try what you have suggested. I really appreciate your response.

 

-Isaac

[RichCor]

If it is a failing breaker, as Crossy proposes, probably bouncing the magnetic trip mechanism when the water heater instantaneously stops drawing that 5.1kW (23A) current.

 

Having your electrician swap the outgoing feed wires on the two C32 breakers and then checking for the same water supply off trip issue should verify that the original breaker position is indeed failing. 

 

Though if the other C32 breaker now pops off as well then the result is inconclusive as it could be both C32 breakers are of poor quality and are faulty or an issue with the on-demand water heater electronics during the water supply off cycle is creating the fault (though unlikely).

 

Breakers are quick and easy to replace. You may want to ask the electrician to bring a couple as that is the most likely issue. 

[tutsiwarrior]

On 11/24/2016 at 0:44 PM, Crossy said:

OK, a 5.1kW (23A) heater is opening a C32 breaker

 

Either the heater element is faulty and most likely unavailable so needs a complete new heater or the breaker is faulty. You could try swapping the heater to the breaker in the No4 position and see if it still trips.

 

when these water heater units fail or are unresponsive is a complete replacement usually required? can they be repaired? we got a 4 y.o. 3kw panasonic that crapped out awhile back...we had  5/15 back when it was installed and it is connected to the main supply...just like our upstairs AC...

 

the heater has its own ELB breaker and the test device works so there must be power to the unit...

 

[ChillinDude336]

2 hours ago, RichCor said:

If it is a failing breaker, as Crossy proposes, probably bouncing the magnetic trip mechanism when the water heater instantaneously stops drawing that 5.1kW (23A) current.

 

Having your electrician swap the outgoing feed wires on the two C32 breakers and then checking for the same water supply off trip issue should verify that the original breaker position is indeed failing. 

 

Though if the other C32 breaker now pops off as well then the result is inconclusive as it could be both C32 breakers are of poor quality and are faulty or an issue with the on-demand water heater electronics during the water supply off cycle is creating the fault (though unlikely).

 

Breakers are quick and easy to replace. You may want to ask the electrician to bring a couple as that is the most likely issue. 

Thanks, I'm going to get electrician to look at it this week. ?

[Crossy]

33 minutes ago, tutsiwarrior said:

 

when these water heater units fail or are unresponsive is a complete replacement usually required? can they be repaired? we got a 4 y.o. 3kw panasonic that crapped out awhile back...we had  5/15 back when it was installed and it is connected to the main supply...just like our upstairs AC...

 

the heater has its own ELB breaker and the test device works so there must be power to the unit...

 

 

If it's not opening the breaker it could just be the flow / pressure switch, an easy fix for someone with the test gear and knowledge of how to fix.

 

 

[tutsiwarrior]

thanx crossy...sorry to be off topic...