Not enough hot water

Alan_11

I'm surprised no one thought to reccomend raising aquastat settings. normally around 180 on low limit and 200 on high.Of course you will use more oil, but it is the easiest fix, just make sure the control settings and temp gauge are accurate.

David D_2

I have a seven year old oil-fired Burnham V7 boiler with a tankless water heater. Right now the boiler's high limit is set to 160 degrees, the low limit to 140 degrees and diff to 15 degrees. The pipe from the coil has a Watts tempering valve, that appears to be set at 130 degrees (it's hard to read the setting).

The shower water stays hot now for less than a minute. If you turn off the water for a short time and then turn it back on after a couple of minutes the water gets warmer but not hot.

What could be the problem? Are the control and tempering valve settings correct? How can I tell if the problem might be due to scale in the coil? We have very acidic well water.

Thanks for your help!

Norm Harvey

The watts valves often need to have their elements replaced,.. but one question first.

Do you have the same problem in the vanity sink as the shower?

The shower itself (if you have one handle for both hot and cold) has its own mixing valve inside. So if you can draw hot water to your satisfaction from the vanity sink, but not the shower,.. the valve in the shower is suspect. If you get the same unsatisfactory draw conditions from the vanity sink then the mixing valve at the boiler is suspect.

Hope that helps.

burnerman_2

another tought

do you have hard water after a few years the coils have been known to get plugged a plummer gan give it an acid bath if the water pressure is low on the hot side and higher on the cold side may be it roy boy

ed_46

best fix

have a pro install a indirect fired water heater and disconnect tankless

Matt_67

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larry_48

burnham coil

I've seen that the coils on Burnhams seem to plug up with minerals in the 5-10 year point. I think they are made by another company. You could have someone acid wash the coil, but you should probably have it replaced.

steve_172

hot water problem....

ok first check all faucets, if problem exists at all other faucets... then there's obviously a problem at the heating system coil or storage tank... useually the impeller on the 006 bronze circ. disinigrates (check to see when circ is on if water temp. changes on demestic pipes going in and out of coil, if you feel the pipe temp. change then you know the circ is moving water. surface mount aquastats don't often go bad, very rare chance, but check that too. also don't run out and go buy an indirect water heater, thats a bad way and expensive way to approach the problem you're having... and anyway you would need to put the indirect water heater on a priority. advice don't start
re-arranging things to fix the problem. first off the only way to fix the problem is by finding the problem...

steve_172

no

adjusting the aquastat from 160/140 to 200/180 is not the fix... if you didn't have a problem before with the aquastat set at 160/140 then abviously it's not an adjustment. plus putting your aquastat at 200/180 is a bad idea cause they're never accurate anyway... they tend to override the settings commanly about 10 degress... usually when i find a system override more then 10 degress i find that the probe on the aquastat wasn't installed properly in the well... anyway good luck with your hot water problem

burnerman_2

think about this

he has a watts tepering valve set at 130 degree's so setting up the temp will make the water hotter but not keep it hot longer problem must be a plugged coil as another said the best way today is indirect tank is is a little more but u will not run out another thought is to put a hot water heater in line with it it can fill slowly and u will have plenty of hot water royboy