[kimmally]

We had a leak in our bathroom, it was on the hot water side. It depleted all of our hot water. My husband fixed the leak today and it has been done a couple of hours. We still have no hot water. Does the hot water heater need to be reset since it has not been working for a few days? What can we do? The heater is only about 5 years old, came with the house... it should be fine, we haven't had any problem with it at all. Thank you!

[Stratmando]

Hopefully element is not burned out. It could be as simple as pushing in a reset button.
With a meter you can trace, if power makes it to element, and not heating, likely element is open. I prefer Amprobe around element wire and if Voltage is present and no current being drawn, the element is open.

[speedball1]

Does the hot water heater need to be reset since it has not been working for a few days?

Why has the water heater not been working did you shut it down? It's doubtful that a bathroom leak would drain the water heater. So I wouldn't sweat the element, unless of course someone drained the heater without shutting off the power. Then you got a problem! First go over to the electrical breaker box and check that the breaker's on. If that doesn't get it then open up the top inspection plate band push the red reset button on the thermostat. If you still don't hear the element beginning to heat then it's time to think element. Good luck and let me know. Regards, tom