Hello, I have a 9 year old electric 50 gal. heater and recently it has been throwing the breaker and now it just won't work at all can this be a burnt out element or possibly an issue with sediment build up or might it be a bit of both? What is the suggested course of repair or would it be better to just replace it all together? Thanks

By your description, I think you may have a defectrive 30 amp. Breaker. Here, if your thermostats or your elements were defective your upper thermostat would have tripped out and indicated an issue with the thermostat or the elements... ;)

I'd replace the 30 amp. Double pole breaker itself if I were you (about $12.00)... just be sure to replace with a panel specific breaker (i.e. a cutler-hammer with a cutler-hammer, or a siemens for a siemens, etc. ).

Be sure to take a minute and look at the heater access panels just in case I am wrong (looking for moisture/leaks here)... otherwise, try what I present... should resolve the issue!

Mark

There's another explanation that I ran into some years back. I got a call that the heater was tripping the breaker, But it would work for a while and then trip the breaker. I spent a hour trying o make it trip but no joy. Then just as I was getting back in my truck the OP came out of the unit and told me it just tripped the breaker again. I went back in with my Amp-Probe and checked the amps. It was pulling 38 amps.
Now every electric water heater has opposing elements. That means only one element is energized at a time. A element pulls 19 amps. Mystery solved! The thermostat was turning on both at the same time. Replaced the thermostat and that solved the problem. Good luck, Tom

That is cool, Tom. I haven't seen that before, but it certainly makes sense! Great info.!