Low Hot Water Pressure Throughout

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dbuchan

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Ill introduce myself first. My name is Dan and I just bought my first house at the beginning of June. I'm happy to have my first house but I knew I would quickly need to learn to be a DIY-er. With that comes my first real problem.

About a week ago we experienced a sudden loss in hot water pressure throughout the house. Turning on any of the faucets to just hot water gets a slow stream, while just cold gets a rush of water. I'm thinking sediment buildup because the guy we bought the house from said at one point in time this used to be well water and there now sits an unused water softener in my garage. I tried draining the 50 gal hot water heater but not all the way, got about 8-9 gal out of it. When I did this through the pressure valve i got some milky looking water but through the actual drain valve it was about a clear as I would have hoped for. I'm at a loss of what to do and last thing I want to do is call in a plumber if I can fix it myself.

Side not: After draining the heater, when i tried the hot water, the pressure was greatly improved but only for less than a minute then came the spitting and sputtering before it returned to a slow stream. Also during this first rush of hot ware came some greyish looking stuff that quickly ended.

Thanks for any help.
 
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Disconnect the supplies on the heater. make sure the nipples in the top of the heater are not closed up. Brass and dielectric connection can close up. I always start there when I am called out for this problem
 
Also check you're meter for any water leaks

Curious as to why. Cold flow seems fine and hot volume seems to be the trouble. Now I can see looking for a leak in system IF he was having trouble getting hot water and volume was okay. possible slab leak and wtr htr can't keep up with the heat loss. but that would have to be a really significant leak.
 
After running the hose to the hot water line and checking a few faucets around the house I determined the hot water pipes weren't the issue. I tried draining and redoing it again and all water was clear. So I gave in and purchased a new hot water heater since this one was 02/2005, got a great deal on a 12yr Richmond. Installed it in just under an hour and we had hot water pressure again. And to this day its still working good.
 

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