 | Poor hot water heater performance |
|
|
Question: I have a 40 gallon "high efficiency" gas hot water heater that's about 4-5 years old at this point. EVER SINCE IT WAS INSTALLED I have felt that the amount of hot water available was much less than expected. For example, when taking a shower using one of the current crop of shower valves (that have the REALLY small pipes inside the fitting), and a low-flow shower head within 3-4 MINUTES its necessary to start turning the termperature to hotter in order to maintain the same termperature. The problem is so bad that we've been running the water heater on the full hot setting (temperature knob turned ALL THE WAY TO HOT) because my wife likes to take hot showers. Even so, she can turn on the faucet nearest the heater and hold her hand in the hot water stream without scalding. Recently, we spent some time at my mother's house, and even though she is using a standard shower head that flows more than ours, I found NO NEED to continuously turn the temperature up while taking a shower. The water lasted the entire shower, which seems much more normal than my heater at home... I can only think of a couple reasons why our heater would have these problems: 1. I hooked the pipes up wrong and the cold water and hot are switched. NOPE. I checked and the pipes are on the holes marked correctly. 2. The dip tube? that carries the cold water to the bottom has fallen off? Possible, although when I installed the heater I checked with a flashlight and there was a tube connected to the cold water inlet that I could see going down into the heater... 3. Sediment? I open the valve and let a bunch of crud shoot out every couple months... BUT, since this heater has had this characteristic EVER SINCE IT WAS INSTALLED I suspect none of the above is the problem... SO, since I'm tired of this, and I'm REALLY tired of my wife complaining, and I figure we're wasting a lot of gas trying to heat water to the hottest temperature, I figure its time to replace this thing. And although I find some discussions in here of water heaters, I'm not finding much in the way of recommendations. There are only two of us in the house, and the water heater is a regular flue-type, natural gas. Can y'all give me any recommendations for brand/model or whatever, or are they all pretty much the same and I can go over to Menard's or Home Depot and just get a 40 gallon and be done with it... Is it worth going to a 50-gallon for just 2 people? It seems like overkill since the biggest thing we ever do is fill the tub occasionally, which it seems a properly working 40-gallon should do... OR, is there something I'm missing on this current heater that I can do to get it to work significantly better? Ideas? Thoughts?
Answer: At the highest setting, scalding water should be available, even with a bad dip tube (at least for a minute). Sounds like the gas control (thermostat) could have been out of calibration. Maybe from the factory, but they can also get out of whack by impact damage or from tightening torque applied to the gas inlet. You can buy the complete control (maybe under $100). Installation isn't too hard, although the tank must be partly drained. Gas connections must be carefully checked afterward. If you decide on a new heater, 40 Gal should be plenty. Most mfr's offer 2 models in each size, normal and high recovery. Look for the high recovery model as it will keep up with long showers (or even 2 showers at once) with ease.
|
 |
|
| |
Submit Your Question
Home