hot shower??

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lemmon

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To all,
I have a 50 gallon gas water heater, and in my only shower I have a delta 1700 Monitor set up. My problem is that I only get about 40 seconds of hot from shower then I have to adjust the heat up some and repeat every 40 seconds or so. This problem started last fall/winter and I replaced the valve with some very minor results. It gets worse with the lower incoming water temp. then after the 10 min shower you have to wait about 20 minutes to get the same heat. I upped the temp on the hot water to 135 and I do get about 130 coming out of the tub faucet. this helped only a little bit... I am fairly good at troubleshooting but this has me stumped. Also when I get out of the shower I get plenty of hot water out of the vanity sink. any direction would be appreciated. Also I have balancing valve set to highest temp
Thanks
Lemmon
 
Most of your problem has to do with the incoming cold water temperature. When you first turn the shower on the cold water is coming from the water in the piping within the house, followed by colder water coming from your outside source.

John
 
John,
Thanks. The thing that has me questioning that is that its a new issue. meaning 3 winters ago with all same system.... I did not experience the constant having to adjust shower temp. Its mostly just annoying at this point...hoping it deosnt get worse.
Thanks for the reply
Lemmon
 
You may waste a little water but try letting it run for a couple of minutes then set the temperature to your liking. It should at that point stabilize. If that doesn't work then I would change the cartridge in the faucet. There is a balancing spool in there that may be sticking. Call Delta's 800# and they will send you one free of charge.

John
 
John,
Thanks. I'll try letting it run.
I did change the cartridge although I didnt know they would send me a free one. I bought it from Lowe's...
So I'll let the cold run for few then set temp and see if that helps.
Thanks
Lemmon
 
run water for a few mins from a different fixture to see if you get the same results.. could be a busted dip tube in the hwt.
 
Liquid,
I dont seem to have the problem at different fixtures. Althought since the shower puts out more water and i am not under the water to feel temp changes....
I'll run some tests with a temp gauge to see if the temp falls off.
The dip tube pulls hot from the bottom of the hwt rather than the top...correct

Thanks
Greg
 
The dip tube is on the cold side. It puts the incoming cold water to the bottom of the tank. The hot water rises to the top of the tank. If the dip tube fails then the incoming water takes the path of least resistance and goes out the hot side. To check to see if the tube failed turn on the hot water and feel the pipe on the hot water side of the tank if it feels cold then chances are the dip tube is bad.

John
 
I used an infrared thermometer on the copper coming out of the hwt.
Temp was 81. I then turned on hot water at closest fixture...after about 10 seconds the temp of the copper went to 94...I then checked the water temp at fixture 134.
I think I need to re check when no one is at home since someone may have been recently using hot water.
Re check...copper is 72 after 10-15 seconds climbed to 90. water temp at closest fixture is at 134 again. Am I missing something. I expected the temp of the copper to be close to the water temp. Any insight?
Thanks
Lemmon
 
I would check the temperature of the hot side piping while having someone else run the problem shower. If it is a bad dip tube, it should get hot, and then cool down some as the colder water starts to flow through it.
 
How old is the hwt. Its possible the dip tube is broken. I would suggest checking the burner at the bottom, if its natural gas and see if something has fallen on to the burners causing a blockage. A helix coil runs up the middle of the tank. This allows the gas from combustion to flow through the tank to the flue. Sometimes this helix coil deteriorates and falls onto the burner. Or the burner itself is just clogged due to poor combustion. If the water tank is really old its probably time to replace it. I had a natural gas water tank and the water would be luke warm if the tank wasnt used for a day. We had to run a load through the washing machine to empty the tank. Then after about an hour the water would be up to temperature.
 
Installed 1-1-2008. I did notice a little corrosion around inlet
I'll check the temp when shower is running to see if it goes down at all
its odd that the shower seems to be the only fixture affected...though I guess it makes sense since the shower uses most water and the temp change can be instantly felt.
FYI running the cold for a minute or 2 seems to lessen the amount of cinching up the hot
Thanks everyone
Lemmon
 
After some deliberation...Delta sent me a new valve cartridge.
Still have same problem.
Ran some tests.
With Shower running set temp to approx 100 degrees.
every minute or so temp goes down by approx 1 degree.

I do not have same problem at utility sink in basement OR the Lav sink in the same bathroom...??
I am completely stumped with this.

I even changed shower head back to original shower head to see if shower head was allowing too much water?? but even that was a stretch since the lav sink gets hot water a plenty after a shower.

Any one have any ideas. My next guess will be to change hw heater BUT I do not have a problem at any other fixture in the entire house.

Thanks
Lemmon
 
After all this, did you change out the dip tube? it really does sound like a dip tube issue, and its a classic complaint.

"my shower gets cold very fast" reolacing the tank would solve it, but really if the tank is in good order a new dip tube is cheap as chips.

This is not as complicated as measuring temperatures all over the place, its not a heat loss calculation... Cause and effect. hot water is more boyant than cold, so the perpose of the dip tube is to feed incoming water to the bottom of the tank while hot is being used, this does a few things.
1. cold water is supplyed closer to the heat source, allowing for thermal currents to
2. Maintain hotest water at the point of use.

the hotest water is at the TOP where its drawn off from.

if the dip tube is broken then a mixing effect takes place, tempering the water at the outlet of the hot water tank.
 
[/U]
lemmon said:
Installed 1-1-2008. I did notice a little corrosion around inlet
I'll check the temp when shower is running to see if it goes down at all
its odd that the shower seems to be the only fixture affected...though I guess it makes sense since the shower uses most water and the temp change can be instantly felt.

[/B]FYI running the cold for a minute or 2 seems to lessen the amount of cinching up the hot
Thanks everyone
Lemmon
Click to expand...


This is because you are now drawing some of the availablle supply from the hot water tank since its piped with the same cold supply, less draw, less mixing, less hot water demnand.
 
LiQuId
I did not...but I will. You are right. I will try to get that done over the weekend and post results. Thanks very much.

Lemmon
 
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fnQEIx-anI&feature=related[/ame]

I skipped through this quickly, so sorry if it gets off or on a lost point somewhere.

its a vey easy job to do, only real pointer i can give is to obviouslly make sure the water is off, and drained a little, and DONT use a pipewrench on the threads, for obvious reason.
 
LiQuId
quick question. in the video...do I need to shut off the gas??

Thanks
 
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