Educate Me: Electric Water Heaters

I have one. Its semi-broken. Its a Rheem 50 Gallon, 4500watt, 220v thing.

The lower heating element failed. Seeing that it was made in 2001, I'm just going to replace it with a $10 equivalent element. I'm guessing lower watt density isn't important at this point... its unlikely the tank will outlast the next heater I put in anyway, right?

Do I want stainless? Copper?

Should I replace it without draining the tank, or is it worth draining/flushing it at this point?

Crap. I was aiming for Off Topic, not Off Road.

You will have to drain the tank to replace the element anyway, may as well inspect for gunk in the tank. I would get the equivalent element at a true plumbing supply house as opposed to a big box depot.

While you're at it, replace the anode from the top. That could increase the life of the current tank by several years.

You can't replace it without draining the tank.

Well, you can, but it's messy. It comes down to whether you drain it voluntarily and direct the water where you want it, or drain the tank involuntarily, then replace the water damaged floor.

if you're fast and don't mind hot water on your hands, you can do it pretty quickly especially if it's in the basement next to a floor drain like mine. would never do it for a customer but for mine, what the hell. it worked.

I've replaced the lower element with out draining the tank a couple time, but in your case I wouldn't. Drain the tank, clean out the gunk, replace the anode and replace the element with the same as the original. You might be surprised how long the heater can last if taken care of.

errrr, I've been at our current house for 8 years and never even thought about the water heater. How often should I be maintaining it?

You can replace the element without draining the tank. Shut off the valve supplying cold water to the tank. Crack open a hot faucet to relieve the pressure on the system. JUST THE HOT. Make sure the element is an exact replacement. There are ones with different threads. Shut off the power to the tank and disconnect the two wires going to the old element. Put thread sealant or teflon tape or both on the new element. Unscrew the element and quickly install the new one. If your good, you will only loose a quart of water or less. Have a couple of towels handy. There are handy cheap wrenches available just for installing these things if you can't get a tool in there to loosen the old one. When you go to replace the tank once it fails, consider getting one of the new hybrid units. They go in the same as the old style, but cost about half as much to run. They cost around $1000, but many locals offer rebates. Here in Mass you get a $750 rebate just for installing one, so they work out to about the same cost to install as a regular one and you get cheaper hot water. Plus they come with a 12 year warranty.