Water Heaters - How do you check for element burnout?

Answer 1

two ways first make sure the power is off to the water heater, then open the cover(s, for duel element types) you should see the thermostat and the element leads, take the element leads(wires) off
and take a volt/ohm meter set to ohms, place the leads to the screws and see if you have continuity through the element.
if you do go to the next one if you have it and repeat the process.
the second way requires a clamp-on amp meter, with the cover off, and for the time being power off, pull the wires going to the element out so that the amp meters jaws will clamp around the
wires, turn the power on and see if you get a reading, be careful,
theres 220 volts possibly going through there. hope some of this helps, normally the first method works the best. another way could be to drain the tank completely(turning off the power of course, sorry i have to say that, but some people, you never know), remove the wires to the element and actually remove the
element, if they are blown you should be able to tell pretty quick.
take one of them to a big box hardware store and get an replacement if it is a duel element go ahead and replace them both.

Answer 2

It will require either a volt/ohm meter (VOM) or a clamp on ammeter to be sure. With the VOM you turn off the power and check for resistance in the unit (that's tricky because there can be resistance if the element is burned out because of the water) and the clamp on is used with the power on. BUT, if there is not hot water and the circuit breaker feeding the unit is on it's a pretty good bet the element(s) is gone. BTW. there are often two elements to be checked.

Answer 3

Unscrew it and look at it. You can generally tell simply by looking. If it's not broken and relatively clean, do a continuity check on it.

Answer 4

with power off ohm it