Not enough hot water

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bj70alex

Joined
Feb 28, 2003
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Location
Clearwater, FL
I am puzzled. I have a 15 years old water heater (Natural gas). About 6 month ago or maybe a bit longer it started giving me some head aches. Even 1 person cannot take a shower for more then 10 - 15 minutes. I set the thermostat almost at HOT and still the same issue. Drained and checked for sediment, no problem. Well today, went to Lowes and picked up a 40 Gallon Whirlpool Water heater. A friend of mine came to help me. And again the same problem, my son took a shower, about 10-15 minutes and there is NO MORE HOT water.
Any ideas, comments, where the problem might be?

Thanks,
Alex
85 BJ70
93 FZJ80
 
Check for a bad element .. or thermostat .

Also run over to your panel and look for a tripped breaker .



TY
 
Tyler,

It's a brand new 40 Gallon Whirlpool Natural gas water heater. Can it be a bad thermostat or bad element?

Alex
85 BJ70
93 FZJ80
 
bj70alex said:
Tyler,

It's a brand new 40 Gallon Whirlpool Natural gas water heater. Can it be a bad thermostat or bad element?

Alex
85 BJ70
93 FZJ80
Click to expand...


Just throwing out a few options .

Breaker ok ? Maybe run the shower and stand next to the box listening ... :confused:


TY - no expert sorry
 
Here's an online forum I found while looking for a solution to your problem. HTH!! I remembe once my Dad telling me that Whirlpool has a troubleshooting guide on their webpage, but I looked and did not see anything for "hot water heaters."
 
Hmm...well it all comes down to how much water you're using. Is your shower dumping out alot of water? If you have the hot water heater set as hot as it'll go (adjustment on the actual unit), and you're still running out, then the hot water heater isn't heating well (i.e. some are 35K btu, some are 40K btu), and/or the water coming into the heater is really cold. If you're getting water from a well it's probably very cold, so the heater has alot of work to do...only way around it is....well nothing.. :D Take shorter showers, or put in a low-flow high mist (hehe, can't call it water, just a shower mist) nozzle :D
 
Check for a hot water leak. Turn off all your faucets and showers and take a look at your water meter. Perhaps its running?
 
Hot water heater will supply xx gallons of hot water then takes forever to heat up the next batch. If your kid takes a "hot" shower, then it will use it faster. Bump the thermostat up a little and less hot water is needed to warm the cold water...

And just how HOT of a shower is the kid taking anyways? I had a 10 minute limit when I was a kid...

Also, were there any other appliances using the hot water at the same time? No way your getting enough hot water for shower, dishes, and laundry at the same time.

I replaced my 40 gallon with a new 40 gallon as a precaution because the old one was 20 years old. No difference in performance:(

The best systems are the "on demand" water heaters which do not have a tank. They actually use less energy because they don't store the water. The problem is that an on demand heater which will run multiple applications cost in excess of $1000+ for the equipment.

Hopefully there is a plumber who can settle this one:)
 
You turning your hot water on ALL the way when you shower?

Sounds like volume to me...

When I shower, I just barely turn the hot on, then just enough cold to get the temp right. I can shower practically all day. My wife on the other hand turns the hot on much more, then much more cold to get temp right. I prefer to shower BEFORE she does.

If you do have a really cold water source, you could put a holding tank in next to the hot water heater - let the water get to room temp before heating. Course, then your heater will have to work harder to heat that room!
 
Alex, all relatively new shower heads restrict flow to 2.5 GPM and an older type or modified head will flow at 4-5 GPM. At 5 GPM, you can go through all your hot water in less than 12 minutes. If you don't have it already, maybe it's time to change to the 2.5 GPM heads.

The more important factor to look for in water heaters is not capacity but "first hour recovery rate." A 30 Gallon water with a high recovery rate can perform better than a 40-50 Gallon model with a low recovery rate.

I just installed a 75 Gallon high recovery rate water heater for a two person household. This is for my new shower with 2 shower heads and 3 body jets. I also prefer the larger heater so that I can run it at near its lowest heat setting.
 
The problem you had with the old heater could occur if the cold water dip tube were to have fallen to the bottom of the tank. If that happens, then the cold incoming water directly mixes with the hot water at the top of the tank and does not get properly heated during periods of extended use.

That would not explain why you are having a problem with the new heater. Double check to be sure that the hot and cold supply lines are not backwards. If they were, that would cause the same problem as a dropped or missing dip tube.
 
Any type of anti-scald valve past the heater that could be failing?
 
When I built my house I had 2 water heaters installed.

I live with 2 teenage girls, a woman and a 3 year old. Laundry, dishwasher and tub pretty much run around the clock.




My plan worked perfectly.
 
It's not a "Hot Water Heater" it's a "WATER HEATER"!!!! :)

First off, I'm not claiming to be an expert here. I do however do engineered plumbing design and use quite a bit of commercial equipment to heat buildings, water, etc.

The first ? I have is where are you located??? From the looks of your handle, your from the north???

The second, describe the location and surroundings of your heater. You may have placed something that is obstructing the air flow to the burner assembly, thereby reducing the GPH of hot water. Also do a flue check as well.

Also check the flow to your heater on the CW side.


Some things to keep in mind. The higher temp you keep your heater, the shorter life it will have. This is esp true with gas fired tank type heaters. Recovery has nothing to do with the gallon size of the heater, only the energy input. Tanks should be drained and cleaned on a yearly basis. This is very true for those of you that are supplied with well water.

Jford.
 
ok, I will avoid the question of what he is doing in there for 15 minutes. You don't want to know.

It's all about the shower head. We have an old fashioned clawfoot tub with one of those old fashioned 4 inch diameter shower heads that is awesome but a big water user. We used to have a 40 usg tank and now have a 50 us gallon water heater. Even now you can't do 2 long showers back to back. With the old tank you needed to wait 15 minutes for the second shower and it would be curtailed early by cold water. At our old house where we used a water saver shower head we had no problems with 2 showers back to back.
 
If all the above doesn't work call the gas company and have them come and look at your gas meter. They replace the entire unit every 15 to 20 years and if you haven't had this done your diaphram might be kaput. If you are running a lot of gas appliances at once you might be putting to much stress on the old meter and diaphram. we had ours replaced 20 years ago and when they put in our new streets the gas co came through the neighborhood and replaced all of them again.
 
Nuther thing to check would be the valve in the tub. If you've got one of those tubs that has one handle for hot/cold, if the valve goes bad it can leak cold water into the hot water flow, making it seem like you don't have hot water.
 
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