This is not a building question but I thought I would ask. Hot water heater problem.
I have a gas hot water heater. It heats water and does not leak. It is about ten years old, but I never throw anything out until it is dead. The problem is that my wife showers first in the morning. Well, ok that is not the problem. The problem is that she often, but not always, complains that the water is cool. This is not a problme for me since when I get to the shower the unit has kicked in and the water is fine. Well, again I guess this is a problem since my wife is complaining.
So the problem is a speratic (spelling??????) one. I hate those kind of problems.
It one time I thought the problem only occured when we were away for a couple of days and therefore there was no movement in the tank. I was thinking that the temperature sensor might be caked in lime deposits and that without movement in the tank the lime might stay hot as the water cooled, thus not triggering the gas to come on. Now it seems that the DW is complaining on days when we have been active in the house. But again not every morning.
Any other guess as to this mystery and ideas as to how to fix it?
How do you change out a sensing unit? I will have to start by digging out my owners manual if I still have it.
Replies
How many gallons does the W/H hold? How long does DW shower? Could it be that she's just running out of hot water?
Try turning the temperature control up and down through its entire hot to cold range a few times, then leave it set a little higher than it is now. One time when DW showers, go stand by the heater, and see if it fires up, or if it quits before she's finished.
-- J.S.
NO, she says it is cold right from the start. And yes after a bit of running the unit firers off just fine, HENCE my shower is just fine 15 or 20 minutes later.
I think I will likely turn the temperature up. However, I feel that when I do teh dishes it is pretty darn hot.
I have had the same problem for a few years during the winter months (before and after the "water temperature elevation device" was replaced). The problem is our pipes - galvanized. They take a long time to warm up. I don't experience the symptom anymore, however, I had to changed my habits - I get the dishes and DW running before I hop in the shower.
One last thing to consider before you replace the W/H. Do you have a fancy balancing valve for the shower? Try running hot water in the bathroom sink before taking a shower. If you get hot at the sink, and cold in the shower, then it's the shower valve. Otherwise, fuggedabout trying to fix a 10 year old W/H, just bite the bullet and get a new one.
-- J.S.
First things first....its not a HOT water heater.....its a water heater. If the water was already hot, you wouldn't need to heat it. (We just went through this in the "Routering" thread....pay attention man!)
It may be the water in the pipes that isn't warm enough, rather than that which is coming from the heater. Has she changed her showering habits of late....getting in the shower earlier? Not letting water run long enough to drain cooled water from pipes? Are you in an area with a cooling climate currently?
It could be the sensor....but as I have no expertise in that area, I'm just throwing out points for consideration.
FREE SPONGE BOB,SANCHO PANTS!
Can't be the pipes. The shower is cool through it's duration. However, you make a point about the pipe itself being cold and therefore cooling the water as it makes it's run to teh shower. It could take sometime to heat the pipes so as to deliever hot water. I do think that a bit dooubtful. ANd if I recall she ahs complained in the middle of the summer as well. I will ahve to ask her about that.
And yes we live in a cool/cold climate Northwest.
>> speratic (spelling??????)
Since you asked, sporadic. :)
My bad, Brain fart. Off courrse tht is hw u spel it.
I have seen something similar and did not come up with an answer for mine either.
It appears that if the water heater slowly cools down, it never kicks on the burner to heat the water back up. With a sudden influx of cold water, it does kick on and heats the water up to the correct temperature.
I saw the problem the most often before I got married and the wife moved in with me. My hot water useage was much less then. I got around the problem by setting the dishwasher to run on a delay cycle in the early morning hours. It would pull enough cold water into the tank for the burner to kick on, and I still had nice hot water when I got took my moring shower.
Once the wife moved in, the laundry, showers, dishwasher and so forth have kept the hot water usage high enough that the problem has not shown up again.
Interesting to hear that others have had the same problem.
You posted : "It appears that if the water heater slowly cools down, it never kicks on the burner to heat the water back up. With a sudden influx of cold water, it does kick on and heats the water up to the correct temperature."
EXACTLY! But that just seems wierd. I would think the temperature sensor/kicker-oner-unit would be more sensitive than that and it would record a 20 or 30 degree drop in water temperature and kick on long before it dropped that low.
This is why I was thinking about lime deposits building up on the sensing unit-thingy insulating it from the temperature drop in the water. But even here before long the temperature of the lime cake would drop as well as the temperature of the water adn the unit would kick on.
Mystery.