My water heater stopped working today.

Yeah, in my case there seemed to be a chain rection: my lower element silted up, the lower thermostat then went intermittant and failed, the upper thermostat then stuck on permanently, and finally the overtemp popped. Tank clean-out and two new thermostats (probably about $30) and all is well - until the tank gets a hole or the dip tube falls off or an element dies* ;-)

• well, the lower one. Upper one I can replace, lower one is corroded in and wasn't moving even with 6' of breaker bar on it...

Do any manufacturers sell elements with the thermostat combined? Seems srange to me that the normal ones don't measure the temperature of the water, but of the exterior of the tank; there must be quite a bit of lag-time between the water heating up and the thermostats shutting the elements off.

cheers

Jules