THE HOT WATER DISPENSER THAT COULD

I came home this evening and opened the door to my apartment and heard beeping. It wasn’t the smoke detector but it was a beeping that I had never heard before. After a few seconds, I discovered it was coming from my Zojirushi hot water dispenser.

Normally, on a work day, the hot water dispenser is on a timer, dormant for about six hours at which time it reboils the water and keeps it hot, so I can drink it when I get home. Tonight, however, the water was not hot at all. The dispenser was beeping, a red light was flashing, and the display read “E4”. I understood that to be an error code of sorts.

I dug out the manual for the dispenser and it said that if I saw that error, I should contact Zojirushi for further instructions. There were no further troubleshooting tips or hints. That does not sound like it’s something I can fix at home. I tried Googling the error and no one else seemed to have figured out how to fix it.

I’ve had this hot water dispenser for just over six years now. I even wrote a post about it the week I got it. It’s served me well for six years now. Over the six years, the heating element is off for six hours while I’m at work and another six while I’m sleeping. Overall, it’s been heating and boiling water for me for three years. That’s a lot of time for the heating element to be working.

I wonder what’s wrong with it now. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. The beeping stopped and the display says it’s trying to reboil the water but it never gets hotter than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I think it may be beyond the point of repair, at least for what I can do.

I’ll try to tinker with it some more this week but it may be time for another dispenser.

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