Wiring a 220 electrical water heater

[ATRM]

I have a GE 40 gallon electric water heater. It had been wired with 110 for about 3 months and hot water runs out very fast. I'm trying to wire it the right way by 220. My problem is the water heater only has 2 wires. Red and black. I checked with GE website with no help. I have 2 hot wires from a 50 amp double breaker and a white neutral wire from the panel. Does anybody know how to hook this up to the two wires from the waterheater?

[yudaman00]

Most likely your water heater doesn't use the white (common) return wire. It probably only uses both of the phases of the 110 volts hot to equal 220 volts. Those are the black and red lines from your breaker and not the white common.