I have attached and filled tank. I wired heater to plug--grounds attached to proper screws. When I touch the electrical outlet box cover (metal) and copper pipe on the heater, I get shocked. The outlet has space for three wires ( 2 hot and 1 nuetral ) the wires coming to the outlet have 1 hot, 1 nuetral, and 1 ground, the hot and nuetral are attached to the receptacle, and the ground is attached to the metal box itself. What can I do to prvent this shock?

Disconnect this heater immediately until this is solved and corrected.

There seems to be a mismatch of voltage and something is not wired correctly.

Since you do not provide the details such as the voltage the heater needs, and the voltage the outlet has, and what type of plug and outet you have, either provide this detail or contact a qualified electrician.

The shock you received can be detected elsewhre in the plumbing system and can injure other occupants.

Sounds like you have a 120 volt outlet serving a 240 volt unit, and/or the outlet is not grounded properly, and the 240 volt return is now seeking a return through the exposed metal.

Shut this unit off before you hurt yourself or someone else, and get get this repaired.

Electric water heaters are 220v, with a black and red wire (2 legs of hot coming from the breaker) and a white ground wire. Check the breaker to see if it's right, if not, shut it off and pull it out and change the wires accordingly. It doesn't matter which terminal is red or black. The white wire gets screwed into the ground strip with all the other bare copper wires. Check the connections at the water heater while the breaker is out. It should show 2 hot terminals that the black and red get connected to. The white is ground. After all connections are secure, replace breaker and turn it on.

David, PLEASE do as TK says and call a pro to fix/check this DANGEROUS situation you have created.
This is a classic example of needing to know what you are doing BEFORE you attempt something.



Samster, the white is NOT the ground. A ground is bare or green (or green w/yellow), NOTHING else.

The water heater should have black and red wires with the ground screw. The circuit can be a 2-wire cable with black and white as the two hots and the bare ground. In this case the white must be re-colored to a hot color such as black or red with a permanent marker, paint or other permanent method.
This is a typical 240v water heater installation.

You can also use a 3-wire cable with black, red and white. In this case you would just use the black and red. You would then just cap off the white as it is not needed.

Damn, I just noticed the date of the original post. Dec 2006.

My comments still stand only the one to David is a bit useless.

LOL yep, he may be "gone" by now.

Damn, I just noticed the date of the original post. Dec 2006.

My comments still stand only the one to David is a bit useless.

Haha! I did that a few weeks ago! Kind of embarrassing isn't it...

If it makes you feel any better, I was going to chime in with my two cents on the matter... then I saw your comment there...

Seems we have a new expert:


The white wire gets screwed into the ground strip with all the other bare copper wires. The white is ground.

That already needs re-training.

Stan said is best recently, something to the effect that "Electrical work is not just black to black and white to white".

And "The White is NOT the ground".

Sam, are you listening? Please do not give electrical advice if you don't know electrical wiring, correctly.