work help: Being that water and electricity dont work well together, who came up with idea for an electric hot water heater? - Help.com

Edwin Ruud, who was a Norwegian mechanical engineer invented the hot water storage tank.
He moved to Pittsburgh PA and founded the Ruud Manufacturing Company, with water heaters still around today.

He figured that if you insulated the electrical wires for high temperature and made them waterproof…to a degree, you could hold large amounts of hot water for instant use.

There was an Englishman name Maughan back in the 1870s who came up with the idea, but it’s hard to find anything about him

hi Mas, I tried and tried to find more about him, but to no avail.

oh well, at least he’s a footnote in history!!

water + electricity + human = bad.
Water and electricity work VERY well together, water allows electricity to travel right on through it…

Times’ gone mad wrote:
water + electricity + human = bad.
Water and electricity work VERY well together, water allows electricity to travel right on through it…

try that with distilled water.

electricity needs impurities in order to conduct.
distilled water does not allow it to pass through.

still, it’s best to not take chances.

NEVER TOUCH PLUMBING AND ELECTRICAL AT THE SAME TIME.

cailean wrote:
never touch plumbing and electrical at the same time.

Ooooooooooo what’s this do?

many electrical appliances have what’s called leakage. especially the ones without a ground pin on the electrical cord.

what happens is you get a minor fault in the wiring and the metal parts become live.
if you are touching that, and touch grounded water lines at the same time (it’s code that plumbing pipes be bonded to the electrical ground) then you get a shock.
Depending on the leakage, this could be anything from millivolts tingle to outright painful shock.

so, it’s always best to use one hand, with the other behind your back, when working with electrical appliances near a sink.

You know, i never even thought of that…irony i guess