Not enough hot water

charliechicago

Hello to all,
I have a customer who's tenant says they do not have enough hot water. I was unable to get into the apartment but I drained water from the tank to flush any sediment, there was none. As I drained the tank the water cooled off so I presume the dip tube is alright and the flame is fine. The only thing I noticed is that the first 3 to 4 inches of the cold water piping where if connects to the tank warmed up quite fast when the burner came on. (Hot water piping as well but not as warm) Does this indicate an issue?
Thanks, Charlie.

Mark Eatherton

Yup, disolved dip tube syndrome. If once the stat satisfies, and you start drawing water and it starts out hot, then quickly turns cold, its most probably DDTS..

It may have a plethora of problems, but you have to address that one first. I've seen cases where the amount of hot water being diverted to the shower head was about 1/2 of the hot water being drawn into the tub. If the drains slow, then you may be knee deep in your own swill by the end of your shower. EWE.. Crappy diverters, Fixed that "hot water shortage" problem and the other problem (tenant complaints) went away.

Then the tenant furthest away from the DHW system began complaining of roller coaster hot water temperatures. No check valve in the circ return line...

Sometimes, one problems masks another, or is wrongly blamed for it... It's not rocket science. It's harder

ME

JUGHNE

My guess would be yea the dip tube or if a new install could the H & C be reversed? Or some cross connection diverting the hot water elsewhere.
Some water heater info (who reads that, right) state you may switch H&C connections by simply moving the dip tube from one port to the other.

charliechicago

Thanks for your responses, i'm still waiting for him to get back to me!