AO Smith100108283 - K,HEATING ELEMENT,4500W,240V,11",COPPER

Works great & was a perfect fit for our AO Smith water heater.A lot cheaper than having a plumber install one, too!

It fit perfectly and functions fine.

Nothing fancy, it’s a heating element for a water heater. Exact replacement, fit and worked perfectly.

I didn’t even drain the tank. My old element was reading 20 ohms and this one read 13 ohms. I killed the breaker to the hot water tank and the well pump and then I blocked in my pressure tank and opened/closed an upstairs faucet to ensure there was no hydraulic pressure aside from head pressure in the tank (I already knew it was cold too btw). I used a 1.5” socket to remove the old one. Once it was loose enough I un-spun it by hand and quickly inserted the new one. As stated in another review, there were no faucets “on” so there was no vent which kept the water loss to less a pint or less. Worked surprisingly well for such a big hole and 20’ of potential head pressure.

I replace the elements every two years to keep calcium and iron deposits out of my hot water. I replaced the original rods with rods from lowes, which look to be no-name Chinese products. They worked, but had poor recovery. Recovery is important in a large household, especially if the person following you is your spouse. The Smith rods had great recovery time so I’ll use these again the next time I change them.

Good fit

Our hot water heater didn’t go completely out. The water just didn’t stay hot for long. This is all it needed. Works perfectly now!Saved tons of money preventing have to purchase a new one

I purchased two of these and received with one day shipping from Amazon. They arrived in a sealed bag (see my attached pictures) which stated they were genuine AO Smith parts produced in Franklin Tennessee. That was important to me. I see much cheaper elements out there, and they're not that hard to replace so some may be fine going with cheaper. I wanted the OEM part and was not disappointed.Pro tip: shut off power and test to be sure prior to starting. Shut off the water. You don't have to drain the tank if you don't mind cleaning up just a little bit of water. When you pull the old element out water will start chugging out. It'll chug because it needs to pull air back in for water to come out so it's not a steady stream, but you need to be quick lol. If your water heater is in a carpeted area or something I would recommend draining it. That's good anyway, it flushes me crud from the bottom of your tank out. If you don't already have the giant socket, buy one they're only like six bucks. Don't try to improvise the tool, just get the correct one.