Water heater problem again

Well if you recall I had problems not to long ago. Well cleaned it out real good and replaced the lower element. Worked fine for a few week and not back to very little hot water. Seems like the lower element which is less then 6 weeks old has gone out again. so is it china junk or another problem?? Seems like it should last a good bit longer then a month to 6 weeks but then maybe something else wrong

when i used the stock replacement, that was the luck that i had.

Pull the wires off of the lower element.
Use a reliable Ohm meter and measure the resistance across the two terminals. It should measure between 8 and 12 ohms If it is like zero ohms it is bad, if it is like 30 ohms it is bad. Measuer between the tank and either terminal any conductivity is bad (shorted to ground internally)
There are four controls on the heater. The top control module has three components in it, a thermostat for the top element, a control switcher from top element to bottom, and a high limit temperature switch.
The bottom unit has only a thermostat in it.

OPERATION
Starting with a cold tank (off for a day or so), and turning on the breaker:
The top element will be on and it will heat up the top water in the tank until it is hot enough to use. The top thermostat then clicks off, and the switcher flips to the bottom element. The bottom element then heats until its thermostat reaches temp, and then it opens. The lower element is then off (the entire heater full of water is now hot, and no electricity is going through the elements. (there will be 115 to ground at the screws on the elements, but it will not be operating, there will be no connection to neutral, or to the other leg of the 220)
As water is used, the lower element and its thermostat get cold from incoming cold water.
The lower thermostat clicks on, and 220 goes to the lower element.
If a large volume of water is used, the top controller thermostat will click switching the power to the top element, and turning on the top element power. At no time will both be operating at the same time, the load would be excessive.
As the top becomes hot again, the top controller switches off, and turns on the bottom element as above from cold.

The overheat controller will pop a red button when excessive heat (near boiling) occurs in the tank. it is not an elecrtical load sensor, it detects excess temperature, and shuts off the entire water heater until reset. If this button repeatedly pops, the thermostat/s are failing to control the temp. (either one can fail causing the button to pop)
I hope this helps, Jim

these electric buggers always puzzled me

thank you for the info

Rich. Google "how to fix a water heater" More info there.

Gordo

Just did an OHM and volt reading on the lower element. Got 120 volts across both sides of it with power on. Unhooked one side of the element so one wire was off one on and on both a 200ohm and 2K ohm scale I got an open reading so guess my new element is a bad one

Did you put in a high watt density element? Low density elements produce a lot less sediment and last a lot longer. We used to always use them in hard water situations.

That seems to be the case! they will normally give you a new one if it is broken internally and has not been run out of the water. Jim

Ya I did not keep the recipe on that one so got a new one and will keep it this time. May wait a week or so and then take this one back and get my $$ back if I remember it that is. Great big price of $9 or so