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Ralph Mowery

In article ,
says...

Yah, your water heater is out and they think they got you by the balls. Maybe try a HVAC shop, they tend to be slow this time of year.

I am lucky. I am not sure about what is going on with my water heater.
A few days ago the water had gotten very hot, over 140 deg by a meat
thermometer in the hot water stream.

As far as I know there are 2 things that can cause that, Bad /stuck
thermostat or one of the elements has burst and as only one leg of the
240 volts is broken electricity flows from that broken element through
the water and heats it up. I did not do a very good check,but did check
the current with a clamp on amp meter ( I have all kinds of electrical
instruments at home) and there was not any flowing with the thermostat
in the set point off position. I just checked the top element to see if
it was stuck and it was not. Did not check the bottom element as it was
not drawing current at that time either.

For now the water seems to be normal again. It could be the bottom
thermostat is stuck and a high temperature shutoff activated for that
element. However as it is over 15 years old I am not going to worry
about a failuer cause and am going to replace it. Just me and the wife
here and both being retired can get by for a while.