I moved into house about 6 months ago. Water Heater has been working great until recently. It cut off and I was able to press in the red reset button. Water gets extremely hot, much hotter than normal for a period of time and then shuts off again. Reading some of the posts on this site, most were saying it is most likely the upper element going bad and not regulating the water at set temperature. I placed an ohm meter on lower element and got a reading of 10.9 ohms. I went to check the upper and there is no upper element. There is only a metal plug.

Bradford White electric water heater model #MI50S6SS13

So should I just replace the lower element or might the thermostat also be bad? How do I check the thermostat? Also, I could not find the model on Bradford White site. So would any 5500 watt 240 volt element work since that is what is currently installed?

Element is good. Thermostat is bad.

ditto

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

I check elements using their amperage draw NOT their ohms. Your symptoms are usual for an element which is burned out NEAR the side with the thermostat. The "constant hot" leg is using the water as a neutral and is running constantly on 120 v. bypassing the thermostat until the water overheats and the red button pops out. An ammeter will show one leg drawing full power and the other zero.