Kenmore Powermiser electric hot water heater questions

[wkilleffer]

Hello,

In the past few weeks, our 52 gallon Kenmore Powermiser has been running out of hot water after someone takes a bath or even a quick shower. I suspected that an element might be burned out. The unit was installed in May of 1989 by a previous owner of the house, and I didn't have any maintenance history, but do have the owner's manual.

Out of curiosity, I drained the tank. A large amount of gray sediment came out before it started flowing clear. I made sure both thermostats were set to the same temperature, refilled the tank, and turned the power on. I hoped that this might take care of the problem, but no such luck as we still ran out of hot water. To me, all things pointed to a bad lower element.

So, I went to get the elements today. Just out of curiousity, I tested the continuity of the lower element after draining the tank, and it came back conductive. Now, it's possible that the tank wasn't fully drained at that time, but now I'm doubting that the element is the only problem.

Could there be trouble with the lower thermostat? The HWH may be old and may never have been drained in its life, but it's not been tampered with either.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you,
-Bill

[Phelps]

When checking an element for continuity you also need to check it to make sure it is not dead shorting. Instead of putting each probe of the multimeter set to ohms, on each element terminal, what you do is put one probe on the terminal and one on the tank. If you show continuity, you have a short and it is junk. (Oh...and if you still have the elment(s) out of the water heater, you can still find out if it has a short by putting one probe on the terminal and the other on the element. You can do this very same test to see if calrod units are bad on stove/bake elments!)

Could it be your thermostat? Test run the w/h and see. Run out some water. Turn up the dial on the upper stat, temporartily, 'til you get it to kick on. Then take a 220 reading at the terminals. If it is there, then that one is okay. Now turn the upper stat down, temporarily, and turn the lower one up, temporarily, and see if you now get 220 at the lower element terminals. if need be, run out more hot water to lower the temp at the lower stat, so that has the abilty to try to come on.

[wkilleffer]

Can't get the elements out

We went to Lowe's and got an element wrench, but can't get the elements out. They won't budge. I had to put all the wiring back together, fill it up, and turn it on so that we'll have some hot water in the morning. Then, I get the joy of wasting yet another 52 gallons of hot water when I drain it to try and replace the elements again.