Tony
"Was professional plumber for five years"
Humble pie over the scary comment then, best bet if its an electrical issue is to follow the flow as you would in a blockage situation if you have a meter look at the volts and see if they go through everywhere. ie in to the main terminal, through the on/off switch , through the overtemp, through the paddle switches or microswitches etc and to the solenoid then , if there is voltage to the solenoid and it still won't play ball replace it.
Be REALLY REALLY carefull when testing live wiring especially in a confined and wet location the bad company comment still holds.
try do it with the main switch (pullcord) off first using the ohms scale and only try the live and volts method if you don't get a result you feel happy with from that. if you don't have a meter you can try with a torch lamp and a battery , a good circuit will let the lamp light, get my drift?
kennyf
March 2009