Hot water heater tripping

After recommissioning a few weeks ago, we haven't had any hot water.
Filled the tank, turned on the breaker and a day later nothing. Now the breaker trips. When trying to reset the breaker, the 220 trips as a fault at the main panel.

Any thoughts? Bad heating element or bad breaker?

Trying to figure out where to start first.

Thanks.

PS: yes, the tank has water, so I don't think I burned up the element. Not by lack of water anyways.

May be a bad element or thermostat. Remove the incoming wires, tape them off and turn on the breaker. If it doesn't trip, then it is not the breaker or wiring.

You most likely have a shorted heating element. Along those lines, our Hat has a heat exchanger in the tank that works from anti-freeze circulated through it from the port engine cooling system. Our engines run around 200 degrees and, on occasion, this much heat has caused a tripping of the overheat sensor on the tank. This is not an electrical device, but is a simple bi-metal. I reset it and all is good until another long, hard run.

200 degrees on Crusaders?????

Thanks. I'll do the process of elimination Sky mentioned above. Need to get it fixed before the the Admiral comes aboard in two weeks.

I had the same problem on my old water heater. It was a chafed wire that would make contact with the case. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it tripped the breaker.

Heating element. Cheapest repair of the last 2 years! And most necessary!