water heater has no ground

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Stevenfyeager

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Location
United States, Indiana
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electrical contractor
testing a water heater not working in an old rental house, there was no ground. Was BX cable with only two wires and the BX was not continuous to a ground apparently. How dangerous is this ? I may be able to replace the BX whip with a three wire whip, but won't know if there is a ground wire in the j box. Old 1960's house, did they not ground water heaters back then ? (heater was 8 years old and needed one element replaced and two thermostats)
 
Is the old bx or new bx? If there is a very thin steel or maybe aluminum wire inside the bx then the cable is allowed to be used as a ground. If there is no steel then the cable cannot be used as a ground. Why are you saying that the bx is not continuous?

The water heater should be a homerun to the panel and so should the bx cable.-- aka ac cable
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Is the old bx or new bx? If there is a very thin steel or maybe aluminum wire inside the bx then the cable is allowed to be used as a ground. If there is no steel then the cable cannot be used as a ground. Why are you saying that the bx is not continuous?

The water heater should be a homerun to the panel and so should the bx cable.-- aka ac cable
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it had no ground because my tester (actually the plumber's, I let him in) showed 240 volts across both screws but nothing when he touched each screw to the tank. Thats when I took off the elect cover and saw no ground wire.
 
One would think that if the plumbing is properly bonded so should the water heater connected to it. That's not to say that the electrical connection to it shouldn't have a proper EGC. So, I would also be looking to see that the metallic water lines are properly bonded at the service. Not likely that in an old 60's house you are going to find non-metallic plumbing.

-Hal
 
hbiss said:
Not likely that in an old 60's house you are going to find non-metallic plumbing.

-Hal
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I certainly agree that the original plumbing in those old houses was metal.

In the last 30-40 years I have seen homeowners, handymen and even some that call themselves plumbers replace metal water pipes with non-metalic when they had a leak and I have never seen them bond around this bit of non-metalic pipe so the rest of the metal pipe will be grounded.
 
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