help with thermostat please

[huntermett]

the water heater thermostat that i have looks a little different than all of those i see here on byc please help !! the thermostat i have has a breaker on it . the bottom half has three poles on it two down low and the third is a jumper to the top half which has three places to put wires . can i remove the jumper and just use the bottom portion or is this unsafe . i would really hate to burn my new house down . if i have to use the top portion how would i wire it? i dont have that many wires.

 

[mwdh1]

The thermostat should have come with a diagram showing the locations for the positive, negative and ground wires, if you don't have a diagram do a search for whatever brand of thermostat you bought on google for the wire configuration.