I hate cold showers!

My electric water heater is about 7 years old, and I live in an area
with hard water. Recently I returned from a 6 week business trip to
find that there had been a power outage/surge at my house. Along with
having to reset all my clocks, my water heater wasn't working either
(although none of the breakers had been tripped). We reset it by
pushing the shiny red button and all was well for about a day. We heard
the heater start up and showers were hot again.

The next day, the shower water was cold again. However, I cannot reset
the heater again because the reset button isn't depressible - it seems
like it's pushed all the way in and no matter how hard I try, it doesn't
move. None of my breakers are tripped.

Should I flip the breaker off then back on again and see if that works,
or is it possible this is simply a heating element problem and I should
call a plumber?

Sounds like a defective thermostat if resetting the breaker has if any results.


If it is determined that the thermostat is defective.....replace both. They are inexpensive and eliminates the possibility of the other one failing soon after.

cold water

You could have a broken wire, a bad thermostat, a bad breaker, and in addition one or both elements could have burned out. Call a plumber if you do not have the equipment and experience to test the water heater. Do not spend money replacing things until you know exactly what has to be replaced, if you try to do it yourself.