Plumber’s Question- What Is Wrong With My Water Heater?
I have had the water heater replaced 3 times and it now is acting up again.
I have a 6 year old home.
50 gallon gas hot water heater… Bradford White.
When the water heater is new, the upper floor master bath shower needs to be set to about half way for the right temperature.
As the months go by, the setting gets further and further to the left, and after only 10 minutes or so, you have to start making it hotter almost as if you are running out of hot water… but no one has used the hot water in several hours.
When you run the hot water, it takes in excess of 5 minutes for the TP valve to shut off and stop draining hot water from the water heater to the drain. There is a copper-colored drip stain on the side of the water heater from the TP valve, but this water heater was only installed 6 months ago or so.
We discovered that the setting for the temperature on the water heater was way up, but even after turning it down to 120 degrees, we still have the same problem.
There is a small amount of calcium buildup around all of the sinks in the house that have brass fittings.
The water heater is in the basement and the master bath is on the 2nd floor of a two story house.
We have city water. The pressure seems to be about right… not too high, not too low.
The hot and cold water lines are correct to the water heater.
The water heater is the correct unit for an indoor natural gas set up.
None of the other showers/faucets seem to have this issue.
There are only two people living in the 6000 square foot house… myself and my wife. My wife takes approximately a 15-20 minute shower and mine are usually about 10-12 minutes.
Related posts:
- Can I Reset The Pressure Relief Valve In My Hot Water Heater?
- My Gas Water Heater Doesn’t Always Create Hot Water In The Morning. What Could Be Wrong?
- My Landlord Wont Install Water Heater, What Can I Do?
- What Temperature Should A Hot Water Heater Be?
- Imagine That Your Water Heater Has Broken, But You Want To Take A Bath. You Fill Your Bathtub With 25 Kg Of Ro?
November 28, 2009 @ 6:34 pm
Install a thermal expansion tank, I had to do this yesterday.
November 28, 2009 @ 9:47 pm
Threre are several possible causes for your problem. Since the tank is not that old, 3rd one in 6 years, and the temp control is working correctly, it could be the tube going down to the botom of the inside of your tank on the supply side may have disintegrated, allowing incoming water to mix with the outgoing water near the top of the tank. If you live in a colder climate now, the water temp coming in tempers the water and cools whats stored in your water tank, causing you to run out sooner. The T and P valve, however could be caused by thermal expansion and has become damaged by the continual opening during your high temp setting. These are several options to consider. Another is trouble with your shower valve. It has a pressure balancing cartridge and it could be obstructed with debris, possibly from the inlet tube disintegrating. You may want to consider a return line installed on your system so hot water doesn’t have to travel so far to reach the shower upstairs. Unless you are well aquainted with the system, I would recommend calling a plumber.Good luck
November 29, 2009 @ 2:41 am
Check to see how hard the water is – over 10 grains per gallon will coat the inside of the water heater so it does not heat the water.
Check the pH of the water – a low (6.5 or less) pH is acidic and will rot out the water heater quickly. A high (above 7.5) will cause any hardness (even 3 or 4 grains) to scale up the inside of the water heater.
Check to make sure the plumbing anf heater are correctly grounded because improper grounding will also rot out a water heater.
November 29, 2009 @ 8:06 am
Hit your reset button on your fuse box in your house, turn off for 5 min and then turn back on.
this sometimes corrects the actions of hot water heaters.
November 29, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
Don’t know that the heater is bad, but you certainly have a bad T&P valve on it. Under normal circumstances, this valve should NOT OPEN. If it keeps lifting, it is costing you in water consumption, and hot water production. I would assume the T&P valve is lifting more often then just when you use the hot water. Also, the traces of calcium may indicate the possibility of getting build-up in the T&P valve and make it leak off even more hot water. So, have someone replace the valve and look into getting water conditioning to solve the calcium problem.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment