I assume this was a reply to my water heater shock issue. Can you
elaborate on checking "each leg"? I am pretty handy but a pure novice
when it comes to electrical issues. The unit is 9 years old, perhaps a
new water heater is in order!

Nonnymus wrote:
First of all, I'd kill power and check continuity between
the bare wire and a known ground source, such as the
grounding buss in the breaker panel. There should be
virtually no resistance. It could be a double problem,
with an open ground being one but my instinct is that you
have an element shorting to the water. It'd produce enough
voltage to buzz you, but it might not be enough to trip the
breaker.

The other thing I'd check is the water heater. I'd check
each leg to the water heater's ground. There should be
infinite resistance, as in "open." Personally, I bet that
at least one leg shows some resistance, telling me that an
element is shorting to the water.

If it was my house, I'd take the time to simply rebuild the
electric heater.

First of all, drain it well and get any crud out of it.
Remove both elements and replace them with the low
temperature ones. They are the wavey ones and will last a
lot longer- especially in harder water. While you're at it,
I'd replace both the upper and lower thermostats. When
you've done that, you essentially have a new electric heater.

Nonnymus