I have an electric hot water heater that was installed about a year ago. The hot water recently stopped working. I had roto rooter come out and they told me the elements were bad and I needed to call the manufacturer to have them shipped to me since they were under warranty. I called the manufacturer and was told roto rooter needed to take the old elements to the wholesale distributor and exchange them. Due to the holiday and going back and forth with the manufacturer and roto rooter the hot water was out for almost a week, then miraculously started working again. Now after having hot water for a week, it stopped again. Can someone give me advice? If it really is the elements, would it stop and start working?

Yes, it could if the bottom element is defective, and the top one did not turn on until the tank was cold. It has to be checked by a "competent" plumber. The "factory elements" are usually "junk" and I would not waste my time installing them.

Ok, thank you for the helpful advice!



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Once an element goes bad it usually doesn't work again. I've never seen an intermittent dead element. It's more than likely a thermostat issue or loose connection. Could go all the way back to the breakers. You'd have to diagnose with a multi meter to see if it's a loss of power to the water heater or thermostat issue. Thermostats are easy to replace on those and cheap.



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