no hot water

mark_55

I have a 30 gallon hot water heater. We are running out of hot water. I called the oil company they sent over a serviceman he checked the dip tube and the burner to see if the flame was alright. Both were good. We keep the temperature on the heater at 120 degrees. He said that we have 90 PSI of water pressure coming into the house and the water is going into the heater so fast that it does not have a chance to heat it. We had lawn sprinklers installed a couple of years ago and the pressure was around 90 PSI. We had no trouble with hot water then.

Bill Nye_2

How Old?

Is your heater? It is possible that sediment has built up in the bottom and could be reducing the heat transfer. A pressure reducing valve couldn't hurt.

You could turn up the water temp. at the tank and then install a tempering valve at the outlet.

Did this happen all of a sudden or was it a gradual thing? Maybe the burner is underfired or the nozzle is partially plugged? How good is your oilman? Second opinion? { I don't mean this in a bad way, just sometimes a second opinion can help}

mark_56

Check the nozzle size.
Check the dip tube.
If you use a boiler for hot water heat, get rid of the oil fired water heater and install an indirect water heater onto the boiler.

Larry Weingarten

What is the use...

...that's running you out of hot water? If it's a shower, how many gallons per minute does it put out? Realize that you only get about 75% of the volume of the heater as undiluted hot water. That works out to about 22.5 gallons. Two thirds of your use could be hot since you're keeping the temperature down. With a three gpm showerhead, you would get about 11 minutes.

Do make sure that the cold supply is actually hooked up to the cold side, not the hot!

Yours, Larry

LIBOB

Try turning off the hot and cold water to your washing machine. Sometimes the diverter in the washer hangs up and dumps cold water into your hot. Its a longshot but easy to try.

hr

Why 90 psi!?

water will flow from your shower at a fairly high GPM rate at that pressure. Especially if you have older non flow restricted valves. Measure your shower flow with a watch second hand and a five gallon bucket.

90 psi is hard on toilet ballcocks and faucets throughout the house, wash machine and dishwasher valves also.

120 may be low for good bacteria protection. But above 130 can be a scald hazard. A bit of a catch 22!

Personally I would get the pressure down to 45- 60, jack the wh temperature and add a good brand scald guard mix valve to extend the water.

As tanks age the output decreases with sediment build up. So does the heat transfer from the burner. High pressure like yours will cause them to leak sooner when they pin hole.

Without a DHW expansion tank you could be real close to relief valve blow off. Check to make sure the T&P is still good, or replace it.

hot rod

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EBEBRATT-Ed

Hot rod is right 90psi--thats really high water pressurethat could cause you to overdraw the heater.

clammy

might check

One of the things to check is on the aquasta is there a secondary temperture sensor to pervent over heating and how is it wired usually it's wired to cut the burner motor instead of 110 to the cad relay also how is the flow thru the heater .In another promblem that might occur when your sprinkler system was installed was a pressure reducing valve added to your portable water line if so a domestic expansion tank should be added to your cold water line other wise your tank could fail early from thermal expasion unless your prv has a thermal by pass .Best bet as stated by others is 1 get a good mixing valve and run your tank hotter and mix it down to your needs temp wise or go for a indirect tank which should give you domestic hot water and cut down on fuel consumption and give you one less burner to service also please chk the flow rate of your shower or tub usually to high a flow rate and nothing will keep up peace clammy

Ronco_2

age of tank

I agree with bill, how old is the tank. Oil fired water heaters usually last 8 to 12 years. I can't see spending alot of money if the unit is older. Someone asked if the problem has been gradual or sudden. Most of our customers are happy with the aquistat at about 130 degrees