On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:26:51 -0600, Puddin' Man wrote:
It has a drain spout? Get a pan, drain some to get a handle on sediment.

If it has an anode rod, I'd carefully finesse it out for inspection.

My situation on a 12yo tank (after consulting here and getting some good
advice!):

Both heater elements checked good on a meter (about 13ohms across
terminals, nothing between terminals and tank)

Lower element jammed in solid; even with something like 6' of
breaker bar on it, it still wouldn't come out.

Tank very badly silted up; lower element completely buried.

Lower thermostat showing severe signs of overheating (to the point
that contacts were sticking). Presumably due to lower element
running almost constantly and never tripping the thermostat, but
just creating a local hot spot on the tank body.

.... the thing was, the drain valve is a completely stupid design that just
can't allow larger bits of sediment out - so with it fully open clear
water would come out even if there was a whole pile of sediment in there.
Looking at new designs, they seem to be no different, so are prone to
gradual build-up in the same way.

Anyway, I pulled the upper element (that one would come out) and could
then get a bent bit of bar inside to dislodge sediment from above. I took
the drain valve (just the handle and valve stem, not the body) off and
could then get a bit of bar inside that way and drag sediment out. With
some poking around (and a lot of patience) I got a few buckets worth of
sediment out of the thing.

It's been working fine ever since (after replacing the lower thermostat) -
but one day that lower element will die and then it'll be new tank time
because there's no way I can replace it.

If the OP has a couple of hours to kill then they might try the same - but
I'd question how close a 30yo tank is to just rusting out anyway...

cheers

Jules