Please tell me this is normal...

[Ron045]

We have never used the propane for hot water. Always electric.

Today for some reason the electric hot water heater stopped working. So I switched to gas heat.

Is the size of this flame normal? It seems large. The camera does not seem to catch it the same as I see it.

I just don't want to burn the place down.

Thanks
Ron

[14apex]

Originally Posted by Ron045

We have never used the propane for hot water. Always electric.

Today for some reason the electric hot water heater stopped working. So I switched to gas heat.

Is the size of this flame normal? It seems large. The camera does not seem to catch it the same as I see it.

I just don't want to burn the place down.

Thanks
Ron
Attachment 256778

Probably. (That doesn't put your worries at rest, does it. You can expect a pretty big "flame" blowing through the heater with exhaust coming out the grill at top. While you'd probably want to see a "bluer" flame (vs red/orange that it appears to be?), it's "probably" OK as is as long as it is contained within the water heater. You may want to have qualified service take a look and maybe adjust the air mixture.

[moose074]

Other than blue being preferred yes looks good to me.

[Ron045]

Thanks all for the feedback. Water is still hot and we are still here this morning. I will have it checked out. I have a fear I burned out the electric side of the HWH. I forgot to open up the water inlet when de-winterizing. So yesterday it was turned on and ran for several hours without water in it.
Arrrrg.
Ron

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by Ron045

I have a fear I burned out the electric side of the HWH.

Fear no more.

You did fry your element.

Bruce

[Pure Luck]

It's probably burning the dust and other crap in there out.

[TitanMike]

When a gas appliance has a yellow/orange flame, it's usually because the air intake is obstructed. Doesn't take much and is often something like a spiderweb or another insect building a "home" in the mixing tube.

A proper flame in a gas appliance is a nice blue.

I'd clean out the air tube with some compressed air at the earliest opportunity or you'll end up with a lot of carbon buildup in the burner assembly and possibly some "smoke stain" on the outside of the heater.

The air tube is removable so checking out some YouTube videos on how to remove and clean would be worthwhile.

Here's one video that might help:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...tail&FORM=VIRE

[Ron045]

I greatly appreciate all of the feedback. This is our annual warm up trip. We don't go far from home and take a long weekend to try things out. This is our fifth season. The punch list is big this year.
Ron

[Ron045]

Thanks for the help and the video. I purchased a new element today and a cool wrench to remove and install the element or the anode rod.

Water is hot using electric. Will clean out the gas line at home after the trip.
Ron

[RookieRV]

Glad you got it fixed!

With all the substandard units being produced now, you might want to check your smoke detector to make sure it works.
Crazy times!!

[Sbosserman]

It appears that the mixture is off because the flame appears almost all yellow. Go on YouTube and watch a video on how to adjust the flame mixture, it’s pretty easy.

[DouglasReid]

Originally Posted by Ron045

Thanks all for the feedback. Water is still hot and we are still here this morning. I will have it checked out. I have a fear I burned out the electric side of the HWH. I forgot to open up the water inlet when de-winterizing. So yesterday it was turned on and ran for several hours without water in it.
Arrrrg.
Ron

That is not exactly correct. It ran for a couple minutes at the longest before the element burned in two (internally).

After that NO current was flowing at all, regardless of how long the switch was turned on.

I will make you a bet that this NEVER happens again!