[les korcala]

Well,
2-3 days of bending and killing my knees took to finally got the element loose!!!out of the Aqua Hot tank so happy becouse getting this loose was big job!
After water and air presuraizing the tank we noticed that air or water would come out trough the 4500 watts element ( our 2001 Newell has two of them , 1700 & 2400 Watts ) if you have model say 431 XE ( the XE stands for 2 elements )
when I tried to disconcet the contac from front of the element , I have noticed that the contact plate was totally coroded and ditached ( broken off ) from rest of teh element part.

Next step was to get that element out, after taking many part out , finally got to the point with lots of clearnce to try to get it out, bought 1, 1/2" socket ( from auto parts store ) as well as the elemts original socket Tom M. have sugested.

Problem was that where the element seats against teh tank, there is large round metal washer & that washer prevented me from getting socket on and , all I had was only about 2mm of the nut area to work with, socket would simply slipp and come off.

So, I had to get my Dramell tool to work with small stone bit and work the entire six sided nut around and get that round washer out of the way.
After several hrs , I barrowed 1" steel pipe 3 feet of it for more laverage and finally after several tries nut cam loose! Victory!! haha, took me several days to finally celebrate..

Next step was to put new element ( bought from H Depot just to test the system ) Again, thanks to Tom. M for great sugestions.
My wife and I , than air presuraized Aqua Hot tank for any aditional leaks, I used small hand pump, it takes only under 20psi to full fill it!

We lsiten for any air leaks! great so far so good ! after I opened the radiator cap and all the air came out! great that mean we do not have any leaks in the tank and its 99% sure its was element !

When you see my photos you will see how bad that element was , the part by the thrad area was totally corrodes and 2-3 holes in one of the tubes!!
Today I flushed tank tree times make sure we got all teh corotion out of it!

Next we are waiting for the new element, I am thinking resplaced second one , its perfect time to do it since I can get to it and wont be chcnging 18 gallons of 50/50 twice! so replace both of them and be done!

We are hoping thsi was onley fe hundreds $$$ reapi and replacement of elements , not replacing entire tank ( 8,000 ribuild or brand new 14,000 ) not include 20 hrs of labor!
Since we bought thsi coach last year we had no history of the coach condition and as Steve bare sugested to check yearly PH levels to avoid thsi kind of situation.
Would love to find out Steve, where can I get the test strip to test coolant?

Here are some images from parts I worked on.

Best,
Les Korcala