electric water heater element bad?

**osoobsessed** · #1 11-01-2011, 12:59 PM

so last night, water goes to super hot for no reason, then this morning, there is only a little hot water for a shower, little i mean maybe a couple of mins at most, it was a cold shower for me!

anyway, i'm gonna drain my tank then refill and go from there when i get home from work...

or should i be looking at replacing the heating element in the unit? if it needs replacing, is this a DIY project or no?

**trout250** · #2 11-01-2011, 01:04 PM

DIY, depending on size you may have 2 elements, We just replaced ours on a 10 yr old unit. Get make, mdl and size of heater go to Home depot or lowes and get a replacement unit, I purchased a element socket to fit the large nut $7.00 bucks elements were 23.00.
Make sure you kill the power going to it before starting to work / draining it

good luck

**osoobsessed** · #3 11-01-2011, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trout250

DIY, depending on size you may have 2 elements, We just replaced ours on a 10 yr old unit. Get make, mdl and size of heater go to Home depot or lowes and get a replacement unit, I purchased a element socket to fit the large nut $7.00 bucks elements were 23.00.
Make sure you kill the power going to it before starting to work / draining it

good luck

thanks trout!

our unit is only 5 years old....i believe it is a double unit it....if it is, i guess i need to replace both of them, correct?

**9121SS** · #4 11-01-2011, 01:30 PM

May not need to replace both, but for peace of mind I would.
And be sure to flush it out real good.

**sofa king** · #5 11-01-2011, 01:53 PM

When refilling, turn a hot water faucet on, as the water fills the tank it will let all the air out of the tank keeping you from dry firing the upper element. Wait till you get a solid stream of water coming out of the spout before you flip the elect. switch.

**a couple more** · #6 11-01-2011, 01:57 PM

you may also want to consider the thermostat. with it getting super hot, then nothing sounds like a stat gone bad.

**osoobsessed** · #7 11-01-2011, 01:59 PM

got it.

thanks again fellas!

**carryyourbooks** · #8 11-01-2011, 02:30 PM

have you tried to reset it yet.

hopefully me experience is isolated, but here it is fwiw.

mine kept tripping the breaker a while back. i replaced the elements and it sitll didn't work. mine would not drain. the years of galvanized piping i assume clogged the drain and prolly messed up the elements. i eneded up with a new unit as i had previously replumbed the house with cpvc.

**osoobsessed** · #9 11-01-2011, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carryyourbooks

have you tried to reset it yet.

hopefully me experience is isolated, but here it is fwiw.

mine kept tripping the breaker a while back. i replaced the elements and it sitll didn't work. mine would not drain. the years of galvanized piping i assume clogged the drain and prolly messed up the elements. i eneded up with a new unit as i had previously replumbed the house with cpvc.

no, haven't reset it yet....

the plan is to head home, drain and fill up and see if that does the trick....this happened to us sometime last year as well right around this time, weird...LOL

**bassguitarman** · #10 11-01-2011, 02:46 PM

X2 on the thermostat. Think about it. How can a water tank get super hot? - a thermostat keeps sending power to an element.