 | Water Heater not providing hot water long enough |
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Question: I have a 40 gallon water heater at home. In the last 20 years we've had 4 (yes FOUR), water heaters. I believe we're on the 5th. They typically have destroyed themselves just before or slightly after the warranty expires. I believe this is because my wife insists on setting them to the maximum hot setting. She does this because our shower starts out with good hot water, but within a couple minutes you're having to turn the control hotter to maintain the temperature. Since the shower is one of those low-flow controls I'm guessing we can't have used more than 5 - 6 gallons of the hot water in the tank before having to turn up the temperature. I presume the cold water going into the tank is mixing with the hot water and causing the outflow temperature to go down. But WHY? I thought the heater was supposed to be set up so you didn't get this occurring. I could even see this if 1 water heater did this, but we've had different brands and styles over the years (the current one is some kind of high efficiency unit) and I believe all the the first one we had way back have all done this as far as I know..... NOW, I would have supposed this was just a crummy "feature" of water heaters but we're currently at my mother's house in northern Indiana. Its as cold here as it is in MN, and the cold water is about the same termperature. She has an ordinary 40 gallon heater in the basement and when I take a shower on the 2nd floor the water is HOT, and stays hot without having to turn up the temperature constantly. Now admittedly I'm not talking a 30 minute shower, but at home even a 5 minute shower requires adjusting the temperature a half dozen times to keep the water hot. My wife has complained about this for years - our water heater doesn't even provide enough hot water to fill the tub. This ordinary Rheem 40 gallon unit with a 34,000 btu burner provides LOTS of hot water... I've checked the heater at home and THE PIPES ARE NOT REVERSED. The cold water goes in on the inlet side and the hot water comes out the outlet side. I've insulated the hot water line all through the basement even though its in the warm basement. So, why does my mother's water heater provide hot water for a much longer period than mine? And at a significantly lower temperature setting I might add (on ours at home my wife just cranks the water heater up to full hot)... What can I do to get my water heater to NOT provide so little hot water and at such a low temperature? BTW: water at the heater is 135 degrees so it STARTS OUT hot, it just doesn't stay hot for the whole 40 gallons!
Answer: Measure the temp at the Hot outlet on the heater *while* wife is taking long shower. See if the temp at the outlet is *really* dropping off so much. Also note whether the burner fires up as soon as the temp drops. I'm sure you're aware that a failed dip tube can cause the problem you have, but seems unlikely all the heaters had the same problem...
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