first off let me give you a little background information. This is a ge electric water heater with 2 heating elements. the other day i came home and my sister said the water got scalding hot then went cold. i figured it was a heating element so i tested for power across the upper heating element and had 120v’s.

i replace both heating elements and the thermostat/circuit breaker on the hot water heater (i suspected it of sticking on) and when i refilled the tank i was no longer getting power across the upper element.

the circuit breaker for the water heater is old, it has 2 switches with 2 fuses underneath each switch. i found 1 bad fuse and replaced it and still nothing.

since then, i ohmed out both new coils and they tested good (around 11 ohms). when i test voltage between ground and the hot wire i get 120 volts…but also 120 volts when i test between ground and the neutral wire. what would cause this’

sorry if its something simple, im new to testing ac voltage in a house and the concept is very hard for me to grasp…
so the open breaker is techinically also a open neutral’ originally i was thinking i had an open neutral wire. all of the fuses are good, i ohmed them. now that i think of it, when i switch the lower heating element switch on i can see the electricty arc but not on the high side (which also makes sense because that would cause lower heating element not to work). im not doubting your knowledge, just want to make sure i understand exactly whats going on. Thank you! Also one more question, i thought that because its 220v that meant 110v go to each upper and lower coil.
I did properly fill up the tank and bleed the air out of the pipes before turning the hot water heater on. I measured resistance of the elements before i installed them and now and they havent changed. i know the elements are good.

the breaker is an old styled one with 4 fuses. it has 2 switches (one for the upper and one for the lower) and 2 30 amp fuses for each switch. 4 total. if one side of the breaker is bad/open on the neutral side of the upper element wouldnt i see 120 volts when measuring from neutral to ground because its seeing the 120 volts supplied from the hot wire’

thank you for helping me understand this