So, I popped the breaker for the hot water heater, checked there was no voltage, and tested the resitance in the heater elements.

Naturally, the bottom one was shot.

Now, the proper way to handle this is to drain the hot water tank with a hose, replace the heater element, and refill.

So I hooked up the hose and got dinner and played some computer games and went back to check on things.

The fast way to drain a hot water heater is to unscrew the bottom heater element and stand back.

I was in a hurry.

This worked, except that the heater element I had as a spare won't quite fit. I thought these things were a standard size, but I guess not.

I needed to completely drain the water heater to take the bad heater element in to a hardware store to find the correct replacement.

Removing the lower heater element is the fastest way to drain a hot water heater, but it's not the neatest. Once again, the wet-dry shop vac earned it's keep. It turns out that the small nozzle on that is almost exactly the size to fit into the hole where a hot-water heater element was.

I didn't even need to turn on the vacuum to pull out the water.

However, the water tank is 50 gallons, while the shop-vac is about 5.

Even though I'd drained the water tank for a couple hours the right way, I still needed to swap the hose for the used element several times while I dumped water out the back door.

In the previous week, Mr. Miles decided to leave puddles in the middle of the floor. This is not the usual spraying against the walls (or anything not moving) that he and his brother have been doing.

So, I scheduled him for a trip to the vet to pee in a bottle and have blood tests, etc.

Monday morning, I packed up Mr. Miles, dead water heater elements and Caz and went on an errand spree.

Mr Miles got to spend the day at the vets. He came home with perfect scores on his bloodwork and urine. No diabetes, kidney problems or anything like that.

And, after the one day of four(!) puddles, I've found nothing new.

After dropping Miles at the vet's, Caz and I went to Lowes to shop for plumbing parts. With a little comparison shopping, I got the correct "Universal" replacement element. Just to be anal, I bought three and replaced the element that's still working as well as the dead one and put one that will actually fit into my spare-parts bin.

I now am *really* in hot water. I replaced the 3500 watt units with 4500 watt units, and the water is coming out scalding hot. I may turn down the thermostat a little.