# GSW water heater fire



## Dpeckplb (Sep 20, 2013)

This afternoon I had an emergency call about no hot water. I get to the house as quick as I could. Right away the customer says as I get there that for some reason as long as the water got cold she had a strange smell. As soon as I seen the heater I said well I see the problem already. There was smoke coming out from the top panel aswell as black marks all above it. When I proceeded to remove the cover I said well you've had a fire in here. The insulation was gone, wires cooked and thermostat was charcoal. It was a 60 gallon GSW electric. So how many of you have ever seen this?


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

More than likely started out as a loose screw on one of the wire connections making a "High Resistance Connection" which generated heat, baking the thermostat or element until the carbon from the baking made a shorting connection...

A good reason to always put a screw driver on the thermostats and tighten the connections...


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## Plumb Bob (Mar 9, 2011)

I am not familiar with that brand. But I have seen this before half a dozen times or so...


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

I took your picture, correctly orientated it, cropped it, and added brightness to make it visible...

As you can see the area around the upper element screw on the thermostat is burned away and I believe it shorted to ground. It doesn't look like the 2 hots connected on this one but I'd have to look at the thermostat personally to say for sure.

I'll go with a tall stack of chips on loose connection...


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## Dpeckplb (Sep 20, 2013)

Redwood said:


> I took your picture, correctly orientated it, cropped it, and added brightness to make it visible...
> 
> As you can see the area around the upper element screw on the thermostat is burned away and I believe it shorted to ground. It doesn't look like the 2 hots connected on this one but I'd have to look at the thermostat personally to say for sure.
> 
> I'll go with a tall stack of chips on loose connection...


I bet that's what happened. I'll take a closer look tomorrow when I get to work. I wasn't in the mood tonight, has to do with being sick.
The handy man that was there couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

I have seen that a few times before.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Dpeckplb said:


> I bet that's what happened. I'll take a closer look tomorrow when I get to work. I wasn't in the mood tonight, has to do with being sick.
> The handy man that was there couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.












Maybe the handyman had a hand in what was wrong....


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## Dpeckplb (Sep 20, 2013)

Tommy plumber said:


> Maybe the handyman had a hand in what was wrong....


I wondered that myself. He kinda diss appeared between when I said she's lucky her house didn't burn down and that the power was still on to the heater when he stated it was off.:furious:


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

You'd be surprised how much heat a loose connection can generate with the current passing through an area of high resistance...

Once the heat starts burning insulating material and making a carbon track that will conduct to either ground or another hot leg things are going to get ugly fast. At some point plasma from the arc will do a lot of damage. Most of this will happen without tripping a breaker until the big event.

When I was working in industrial maintenance we did infrared surveys of the power system in the plant to identify problem areas and fix them before a critical failure could affect production. It was worth every penny spent on doing it...


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## supakingDFW (Aug 19, 2014)

Sweeet...those IR cameras are AWESOME!!


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## mrjasontgreek (May 21, 2014)

GSW. I wouldn't sell one of those ticking time bombs to my worst enemy.


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## Dpeckplb (Sep 20, 2013)

We are going to put the pic on our web site with their name proudly displayed. Probably send the old one to the whole saler, with a note written on it to the rep from GSW. 
This guy came to our shop three months ago, promised to comp us three tankless water heaters. His boss over ruled him and sent us tee shirts to replace our 6000$ in lost time.


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## mrjasontgreek (May 21, 2014)

There's a reason why you can by them at home hardware for $200. They're junk.


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## Dpeckplb (Sep 20, 2013)

mrjasontgreek said:


> There's a reason why you can by them at home hardware for $200. They're junk.


Everything Home Hardware sells is junk.


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## mrjasontgreek (May 21, 2014)

I spent almost 4 hours trying to prime one of their shallow well jet pumps once, just a straight 10' lift from a lake. And I don't know if I've ever seen one of their ball valves hold water. Hard to believe anything can be so poorly made


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## solarguy (Aug 16, 2011)

That's not the tank manufacturer's fault. That looks like the standard Therm O Disc thermostat found on just about every elect heater, element too. I've seen plenty of burn ups on Rheem and American branded tanks as well.


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## MACPLUMB777 (Jun 18, 2008)

solarguy said:


> That's not the tank manufacturer's fault. That looks like the standard Therm O Disc thermostat found on just about every elect heater, element too. I've seen plenty of burn ups on Rheem and American branded tanks as well.


GSW is American out of Johnson City, TN.
now owned by A O Smith out of Ashland City, TN


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## Dpeckplb (Sep 20, 2013)

mrjasontgreek said:


> I spent almost 4 hours trying to prime one of their shallow well jet pumps once, just a straight 10' lift from a lake. And I don't know if I've ever seen one of their ball valves hold water. Hard to believe anything can be so poorly made


Replace them every spring here in cottage country. I've seen lots for returns sitting in the back room.


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## mrjasontgreek (May 21, 2014)

JERRYMAC said:


> GSW is American out of Johnson City, TN.
> now owned by A O Smith out of Ashland City, TN


All the GSW tanks I've seen say they were made in Fergus, Ontario. Maybe they're made by a different company in the US?


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## mrjasontgreek (May 21, 2014)

solarguy said:


> That's not the tank manufacturer's fault. That looks like the standard Therm O Disc thermostat found on just about every elect heater, element too. I've seen plenty of burn ups on Rheem and American branded tanks as well.


While a shorted thermostat may not be their fault, blown seams and flooded basements on tanks that are less than a year old certainly are. Poor quality construction + poor quality materials = poor quality tank. I've never seen tanks fail as consistently catastrophic as GSW. They don't just leak, they BLOW! No warning, just POP! And you have as much water as the inlet pipe will allow dumping all over the place. I've seen them blow the jacket wide open in the back, the nipples on them seem to rot off more quickly than normal too. If say it's just speculation and maybe these people just have terrible water, but the Giants we replace them with have always held up better. We considered switching to a wholesaler that sells them a few times when the price of a Giant goes up, but we always end up back on Giant. They make a fine tank with a decent warranty. It's like PSS kitchen faucets, you may have an issue with quality when you have to take two taps with you to install one


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

mrjasontgreek said:


> All the GSW tanks I've seen say they were made in Fergus, Ontario. *Maybe they're made by a different company in the US?*


Nope! AO Smith is the Parent Corporation...


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## mrjasontgreek (May 21, 2014)

Well then, so they're not even a Canadian tank! One more point for Giant then!


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## MACPLUMB777 (Jun 18, 2008)

mrjasontgreek said:


> All the GSW tanks I've seen say they were made in Fergus, Ontario. Maybe they're made by a different company in the US?


Maybe they are, But still owned by A O Shxt who makes money by cheating the little people !


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## mtfallsmikey (Jan 11, 2010)

JERRYMAC said:


> GSW is American out of Johnson City, TN.
> now owned by A O Smith out of Ashland City, TN


That was home to the world-famous State water heaters, with their junk Apcom t-stats.


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## MACPLUMB777 (Jun 18, 2008)

Yes when A. O. brought out STATE they moved their headquarters there


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## Dpeckplb (Sep 20, 2013)

A/o smith owns goulds pumps apparently. Just another reason to only supply Myers pumps.


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## Greenguy (Jan 22, 2011)

Did you see the recalling Giant water http://safetyauthority.ca/alert/giant-inc-recalls-giant-and-best-canadian-hot-water-heaters


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## mrjasontgreek (May 21, 2014)

No recall on electric models, phew! I haven't really decided what I'll be selling yet, probably whoever has the best warranty without being too expensive. I can get giant Rheem and Bradford here. Everybody I've worked for has always installed giant. I like the tank but the fit and finish on them sucks.


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