Well it is official, I will be pulling my water heater in the spring. I pulled the white wire off of the element and with the breaker on the white wire has 120volts to ground. The black wire has no volts with the switch on the outside on or off. I even took the cover off of the thermostat and found no voltage there. I have unplugged the water heater and turned the breaker off. Even though I believe that it has worked fine for the past three years no sense in taking any chances. The water heater still works fine on propane.