: how do you tell if one of your hot water heater elements : is bad.?Does it have more than one? Most have one or sometimes 2. Only heavy duty commercial ones have more.Anyway, to test an element, get a multimeter. Turn the power off and pull the fuse out. Check at the heater with your multimeter to make ABSOLUTELY sure the power is off. Turn your multimeter to its ohms setting. Undo the two wire connections on the element. Hold the probes of your multimeter on the wires from the element (one on each) If the needle or display does NOT move then the element is burnt out.