Hot water heater element replacement help…?
I have a 60 Gallon Giant electric hot water heater. The bottom element has burnt out. I tried to replace it this past weekend, but ran into a snag when I tried to remove the old element. Basically, the element looks to be held into place by 4 large bolts (which are easily removable), but I ran into trouble when I tried to remove it because it won’t budge! It looks like a steel plate, with a plastic rectangular piece on the front of it where the hot wire connectors attach.
I thought that I could simply pull this piece out and the element would be attached to it, but it won’t move and I don’t want to apply too much pressure to it for fear of breaking it. The tank is only 3 years old, but of course, I can’t find the receipt for it so the warranty is no good 
Does anyone have any experience with replacing these elements? Do I need a special tool to reef the old one out of there? The manual is of no help of course because it just says ‘remove element’…
Thanks in advance!
One Response
quietgiant
11 Nov 2009
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this probably isn’t what you want to hear but I too had a problem removing the element in my heater mine is an A.O.Smith and they are very tough. I finally had to call a service guy out who told me that due to manufacturing saftey codes those elements are virtually impossible for the average homeowner to remove and for my heater a special tool available only to the tradespeople was needed to remove the element