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Disassemble and Clean Water Heater — Access and Remove the Old Heating Element

Beginner3 hours

Part of project

How to Replace an Electric Water Heater Heating Element · Step 3 of 7

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In this video

Take the disconnected water heater to a workshop. Loosen the retaining bar across the heating element plate. Carefully remove the entire heating element assembly. The element may need to be wiggled and rotated to be extracted from the tank opening. Once removed, clean the inside of the tank, removing any mineral scale, rust, or other debris. Also, thoroughly clean the heating element, scraping off any calcium buildup.

Goal: Clean Tank and Element

  • Flushing the tank is a good maintenance practice to extend the life of the water heater, even when not performing a repair.

Used in this video

  • Wrench Type — Loosening the bolt on the heating element retaining bar.
  • Scraper · optional — Scraping mineral scale off the heating element and interior tank surfaces.
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FAQs

What are the most critical safety precautions I must take when replacing a water heater heating element?

The most critical step is ensuring the power to the water heater is completely OFF at your home's main electrical panel or breaker box before touching any wires. Also, turn off the cold water supply valve to the heater. Safely draining the tank of hot water is also essential to prevent burns.

Is a special tool required for removing the heating element, or can I use a standard wrench?

While some might attempt it with a large socket or pipe wrench, a specialized heating element wrench (like the 'Rheem PROTECH Dual Head Element Wrench' mentioned) is highly recommended. This tool is designed to fit the element's hex head perfectly, minimizing the risk of stripping it and making removal and tightening much easier.

How long should I expect this project to take, especially considering the draining process?

The estimated time for this project is 3 hours, but beginners should budget closer to 4 hours. Draining the water heater tank can take anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour, depending on your tank's size and the drainage rate. Don't rush the process, especially during safety-critical steps.

What's a common mistake beginners make during installation, and how can I prevent leaks around the new element?

A common mistake is not properly seating the new heating element's gasket or not tightening the element sufficiently. To prevent leaks, ensure the new gasket is clean and properly aligned on the element before insertion. Tighten the element firmly with your specialized wrench, but avoid over-tightening which can damage the tank or element.

Transcript
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these two and take the water heater completely out of the loop for now I'm in right now trying to mess around fixing this gasket on the lid to the water heater and this thing fits inside there's a gasket here this thing blew out and iso temp sent us a replacement gasket and it goes around the lid to the heating element right here and then you got two wires the plug in here and there's some temperature sensors that go down that tube so after tearing everything apart and cleaning out the inside of the tank I found a couple of weird things one of them was this weird rusty bit of metal and this flexible corrugated type stainless steel tubing was attached to the cold water inlet side and it was pinched here just so it would like stick like it was stuck somehow it's somehow it what it's I think what it's purpose is is to divert water to the side of the tank and then flow around when it when the tank fills anytime the tank fills I think at least this is my idea that this is to divert the water well somebody just pinched this thing there was some sort of maybe 308 and 316 stainless steel something happened it caused it to rust but obviously the water at our marina isn't the greatest we have since installed a water softener and we have multiple filters that pre filter all the water before it enters the boat and enters our tanks and just in the short duration that this tank was hooked up I saw a lot of scale and calcium build up and not necessarily corrosion but a lot there was a lot of calcium scale I scraped off the heating element here you can kind of see this portion of it that I scrub as clean as I could I didn't want to disrupt the internal washers there's gaskets inside here I didn't want to mess with those too much and create a dish an additional leak but yeah there's you can you can kind of see right here at the edge of this water fitting that's the hot water side out there's a little bit of greenage right there at the fitting what it was was rusty sludge inside the tank I've gone through I've opened everything up I cleaned and wiped down the entire inside of the tank I've got the new gaskets set on the heating

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