Comments on: Do I Need A New Or Larger Capacity Hot Water Heater?

By: thresher

thresher — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:04:13 +0000

If its over 10 years old yes you need a new one.

By: canux1

canux1 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:20:42 +0000

You may want to consider a tankless water heater. Continuous hot water that is unlimited.

By: dvdacmn

dvdacmn — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:14:00 +0000

dip tube inside w/h cold inlet theres a dip tube made out of plastic the break up and erode next thing you know your running out of hot water just change w/h before it starts leaking

By: jhurd67

jhurd67 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:52:23 +0000

maybe…
the incoming water in our area is about 35 degrees now so hot water heater is working hard to keep up but normally have plenty of water with our natural gas water heater

By: Daniel W

Daniel W — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:57:27 +0000

If electric open the plates and check thermostat setting. Your previous owner may have turned them way down to save energy. you may also want to replace the elements if this doesn’t help

By: reneem19

reneem19 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:10:51 +0000

Check to see if the cold water coming in is going in the right pipe. We asked the guy why ours was like that when he installed it.(He said it was energy efficient_he just did not want to check it!) The next one that installed one said the lines were switched. Worth checking into. I agree though, if it is more than 10 years old, I would replace it.

By: thephone

thephone — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:44:56 +0000

You can turn up the thermostat on the heater to about 140 degrees. It is usually located under the small removable panel. There is a reset button in there as well, if it is set too high it will trip and need reseting. See if it can go higher without triping. Mine is around 140 and is 16yrs old.

By: heart o' gold

heart o' gold — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:22:00 +0000

Every water heater I’ve ever had runs out of water before 2 people shower if they’re doing it back to back. Have you checked the temp?? If it’s set at a low temp that could be part of it…If you really want lots of hot water and need a new water heater consider an on demand water heater. Not only do they give you all the hot water you need, but they save you a bundle because they heat the water as you need it so you aren’t paying to keep a tank of water hot 24/7.

By: ya472

ya472 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:09:30 +0000

You have many potential things to check:
1) What type of heater is it, gas, oil or electrical?
2) What is the capacity of the tank ? or is it tankless ?
3) How many minutes of shower time are you talking about, 20 minutes or two hours ?
4) Is the shower head a water-saver, or does it flow fast ?
If the tank is about 40 gallons, is electric and the shower head is a water-saver, you probably should get about an hour of shower time, unless one element is burned out.
It also depends on the hot water temperature setting at the tank. Most are factory set, but some people turn down the temperature to ’save’ money, then only turn on the HOT tap, which will empty the hot water tank very fast.
Do your homework, and if you don’t own the place, ask the landlord !

By: sparky

sparky — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:47:56 +0000

If it is an electric hot water heater It is possible that one of the 2 heating element have burnt out. This will cause it to quickly run out of hot water and also take a long time to recover. Check continuity of the elements after turning power off and disconnecting one of the wires from the element.