electric water heater problem?

The heating elements inside the hot water heater are what make the water hot. It isn't rocket science, and should be well within your capability to understand how the heater operates.

The elements are most likely coated with mud, or salts of material that the sacrificial anode inside the heater has helped to create. This is a common problem. It is basically the same stuff that builds up in an electric iron that you use to iron your clothes, if you use the steam function of it. The best answer is to replace the elements, which is a simple job, but the water heater must be drained. The very first thing is turn off the power to the tank. There should be a circuit breaker just for that tank in the breaker box. There is, or should be, a cold water shut off valve for the cold water inlet pipe. Connect a hose to the hose connection valve at the bottom of the water heater. Run that hose outside and open the valve. If water does not freely flow out of the tank, try opening hot water faucets that are above the tank, inside the house. If that doesn't work, carefully, and I mean "carefully" open the over temperature/pressure valve located at the top of the tank. I say carefully because damage to that valve could render it unusable and that makes the tank a bomb waiting for a time to go off. Open it by lifting up on the lever attached to it. Just a little bit to let air into the tank. It may need to be left open for awhile. If there are 2 heating elements, as soon as possible, open the upper one to allow air in to complete the tank draining. If making a watery mess is not an issue for you, then open the upper element, if there is one when you being draining the tank, on the provision that opening a hot water faucet doesn't do any good to get air pressure into the tank.

Once the tank is drained, remove the wires to the elements, remove the heating elements and take them to a store like Lowe's and get replacements the same size and wattage as your bad ones. Reverse the removal procedure to put them into the tank. I realize that this appears to be a long drawn out procedure, but it really is not. It will all go very quickly once the 2 of you get into it.

the reset button is for when the over current device gets warm or hot and trips open, preventing eletrons to flow, and when u push on that red button u are reconnecting the device, with the circuit so it can work again, now back to the cold water as what kerry said later in the answers, turn off the power coming into heater, turn off the water, drain unit. It may take some doing toget the heaters out, there is a upper and a lower u should replace both at this time so they are paired together both new.I f look on the heat element u can see some markings as to what size it is 4000watts or 2500watts or what ever and possibly the voltage also or the ohms what the element is rated for u can take a ohm meter and test the elements to see if they are bad even before u take it apart,

if u put the ohm meter on continuity and put the leads on the screws black on one the red on the other if it is bad it wont make a sound if it is good it will. good luck

could be several things.... if the reset button lets the heater heat for a while and then it stops again, it's likely that one or both of the heating elements [there are often two, one on top and one on the bottom of the water heater] has a short.

drain the heater and see if Lowes or Home Depot or an appliance store or a local repair person can find a replacement heating element or two.

i'd put my money on that problem and that solution.

all the best, and good luck! this is a lousy time of year for cold showers [as are most of the other times of the year.. :)]

All the previous answers are correct, but you should take the age of the water heater into account. If it's an older puppy, say 10 years (plus or minus a few) old, it may not be worth putting any money into - the tank can & will fail at some point.

You can find the serial # on it and that will usually give you a clue to when it was manufactured.

They heating elements are what is inside the water heater and they heat the water. If they are bad you are better off replacing the heater. Try turning up the temp, it may be the switch is going bad. You can always call a plumber, they will usually give a free estimate.

No water or not hot water? Did you fill it by bleeding all the air out at a faucet before turning it on or just let it fill up? If you didn't bleed the air out you likely burned out the top element which heats first. It takes hours to heat up a whole tank. Check to see if it is getting warm at all by feeling the fitting at the tank. Then check for power with a meter. After that check the reset on the top element thermostat. I would flip the circuit breaker again. I would guess it didn't get both breakers engaged. Bad connection where you wired up power? If it is heating I know I can put my ear against a tank and hear it heating. I can hear the hum of the 60 cycles. That is how I check to see if it is heating when I work on one. lol. Good Luck.

The tripped button indicates the water is getting too hot. This could be caused by a stuck thermostat or a grounded element. Only a volt/ohm meter will eliminate guessing.

A heating element may have failed. They can be replaced for a reasonable price. It is not clear what the "reset" button is resetting, or why it needs to be reset.

yes it is your elements...need to replace them...on at the top and one at the botton...yes you can do it your self..and after you do change the elements you need to keep it flushed out about every 2 months depending on how hard your water is. that will make your elements last longer and your water heater working more efficient

heating elements could be bad, or the high limit switch could be bad. very simple to fix. i just had mine done and watched it. i felt stupid on how easy it was.(took him 15 min.)