Shop Heater

My small Shop/garage,has tubes in the concrete floor to heat it with. Been there about 8 years. The liquid is heated by an 18 gallon electric water heater. It has worked well for these 8 years and is still heating today. But, yesterday afternoon, I began hearing a buzzing noise coming from that corner of the garage. I checked and found it was coming from the water heater. It was actually vibrating. I turned it off when I quit last night, and when I turned it back on this morning, it was vibrating again. It appears to be the lower heating element that is doing it. Any ideas about what is causing the buzzing?
 
did the tank level ever get low inside the tank with the power on that will burn out the elements I think you can test them with the power off with a ohm meter
 
Sometimes the elements get covered with lime deposits and when the element oss on it will make a noise. Remove the element and clean it and inspect it for holes
 
I agree, probably the lower element.

Be sure to turn off the breaker until you find the problem. If the element is broken externally, it can continue to heat the water as the thermostat switch only opens one side of the 220.

Does that system use any water treatment chemicals? Any blow down procedure? You may want to drain and flush the system, for sure flush out the tank. It could be scaling severely if the water has high solids build up.
 
First thing I would check, now this is on big equipment, see if you have a contactor going bad. The points get burnt over the years. If you just have an element with a little switch gizmo on it then change out the whole assembly with a new one. Cheep enough.
 
If you have an ohm meter set it on a high scale and with wires disconnected at element (after turning off power), measure from element terminals to case of heater. If you get a reading the element has split and needs replaced.
 
That poor little 18 gallon water heater must have to run 100% of the time.
Must be a circulation pump somewhere in the system, might want to check it for the noise as well.
 

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