Amtrol heater problem

Unknown

a heat-transfer problem Wayne.<BR>Have you tried cleaning the inner coil?<BR>Perhaps minerals have attached themselves externally on the coil too.<BR>Seems like either a new indirect, or major flushing is your option here.

Wayco Wayne_2

Customer has

a problem with an old Amtrol Indirect water heater losing it's hot water too soon. His wife takes a shower and the hot water goes after 3 minutes. Cold water feeds in the bottom so it isnt a broken dip tube. The thermostat has just been replaced. What could it be? WW

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Darrell_8

Drain the tank empty, then cook the coil by turning the t-stat all the way up for about an hour. Then rinse the thing out again and again until it runs clean. It is helpful to replace the mickey mouse little drain valve supplied with the unit with a real drain. This will bake off any scale that is gonna come off without serious chemical cleaning. It is also possible, if you have an older unit that the inlet had a 3/4 copper cap with a screw holding it on to divert the cold water downward. If that cap has come loose, you will get a full tank of hot water that will only last about 3 minutes.

If the coil needs serious cleaning, you'll have to pull it out and wash/scrub it off.

steve_29

Can we assume it's got an aquaststat not the Dumb Control and the amp draw on the circulator is ok?

You may also want to feel the outter housing of the tank, to make sure it's cool to the touch and without hot spots.

If the inner tank fails you'll get hot spots on the housing and will have to replace the entire tank.

john elick

i've had several older units where the diffuser on the cold water supply blew off, with cold water going directly through the tank to the hot water tapping

ScottMP

Bingo we have a winner

NO more callers please.

Wayne the water enters the coil from the bottom and a copper difuser ( 1" copper cap ) is screwed to a bracket to froce the cold down over the coil. The screws come soff and you get cold water shot right to the top of the tank.

Scott

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Wayco Wayne_2

Is this

an easy repair or a hard repair. I'm already inclined to just replace the tank but the Homeowner of course would rather keep the bill lower if possible.

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Dick Charland

It could be one of several things, I will assume that you have checked the incoming water pressure to make sure it is not too high, a possibility that they have a single handled shower valve and they might lose it there. Depending on the age, Amtrol had a diffuser years ago that was two pieces, cap would come off and prevent proper cold water distribution, take serial # and call Amtrol to see if the coil used would be of that type. I'd ask the homeowner if this problem has been coming on over time, if it has I'd lean toward a dirty coil.

To clean, get a bottle of nickel safe icemaker cleaner (coil is cupronickel), drain approximately 20 gallons of water out of the tank (takes the water line down to just above the top of coil)remove the top hot water fitting and pour the cleaner into the tank. Jump out the aquastat and let the unit "cook" the coil for approximately 45 minutes. Take a +/- 3' piece of 3/8" copper tubing, crimp one end and then with a hacksaw make cuts at intervals around tubing for approximately 2', attach the other end to compression fitting to ball valve equipped with hose end fitting to attach to hose. After tank has "cooked" drain out tank and flush using "wand" inserted through the top of the tank. After flushing, run all the hot water faucets in the house, if all else checked out this will make a big difference.

Darrell_8

Just tip the unit over, (I know, easy for me to say), and pull the coil out the bottom. Be sure to have a gasket or be able to cut new one. The coil slips right out and you can wash it off and fix the diffuser at the same time.