Our hot water heat has 3 marked settings: A, B, C (this being the hottest).
It is currently on A and hot water from the tap reads 150*, which most professionals recommend 120 since it only takes about 2 secs for 150* to cause burns.
The problem is when I turned it slightly below the “A” mark, we quickly run out of hot water and even then it’s not hot long enough to my liking.
Anyone have input?
We’ve got the same problem right now at home → had a plumbing/heating guy at my place over the weekend (doing some other repairs) & when I asked him about this, he mentioned that there’s some kind of cold-water tube that might need replacing. Just did a quick search & found this troubleshooting guide:
I’m assuming he was talking about the cold water dip tube.
need a larger volume tank
unless it is on-demand (then you’re screwed)
your tank reservoir probably isn’t large enough for your needs
if the tank is older and/or you have ‘hard’ water (dissolved solids), a substantial portion of the bottom of the tank may be taken up by scale deposits
it’s brand new (6 months old), I assume a small tank though, but it’s only me and the wife.
She usually takes a 30 min shower, and if it’s set too low she runs out of hot water.
I take maybe a 10 min shower at most and even then it loses its “hotness”
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
30 min shower[/quote]
There’s your problem my dude. If I ever took a 30 minute shower at my dad’s house he would probably throw me out on the street.
How many gallons? Sounds undersized, she will completely drain a forty gallon in thirty minutes. It could be other factors though, like how far is it from the shower, does it run through an unheated area (attic or crawl) or is the supply line undersized?
You could buy another hot water tank, and piggyback them together.
electric hot water heater is usually only appliance in house that has two live and no neutral wire
it uses a grounded two-wire 12-gauge but both insulated wires are hot wired to the live side of the panel on seperate breakers
it’s a 220volt appliance usually (few are 110) but unlike every other 220v thing it doesn’t use a grounded 3-cable with a separate neutral
check to make sure it is wired as 220v if that is what it’s rating plate says it is
if it says that it is 220volt but inside the panel the white wire is connected to the neutral busbar where all the other white wires go, then it is only drawing 110v
it should be the only white wire that goes to a breaker (marked near the end with red or black electrical tape)
gas hot water.
yeah, I get on her all the time to take a shorter shower, don’t know WTF she does in there, but she does shave everything, on an almost nightly basis.
and it’s not a detachable shower head 
Hot water heater. Anyone else see anything wrong with that phrase?
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Hot water heater. Anyone else see anything wrong with that phrase?[/quote]
How can you heat hot water?
Anyways, about your wife’s 30 minute shower, I would also suggest getting a low-flow shower head if at all possible. That, too, might help.
CS
could turn down temp for rest of house and install point-of-use 110volt on-demand tankless heater just on the shower hot water line
I have a similar set up, gas with a 40 gallon tank and it’s set fairly low so we don’t get scalded. I have 3 bathrooms and all showers going at once at times. I’d say that everyone takes a 10 minute shower or less.
If you have a 30 gallon tank, you’re running out of water. Is your 150* tap water close to the source? That is always the hottest point and I had the same thing going with my old oil-fired system.
BG
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Hot water heater. Anyone else see anything wrong with that phrase?[/quote]
True, I just call it the water heater.
Maybe he could call it the Even Hotter Water Heater?
I’ve always turned up my water heaters pretty high. With that, I can shower, run the dishwasher, and do laundry at the same time with no issues.
A 40 gallon tank should be plenty for a single family.
Turn it to the ‘B’ setting. Don’t worry about scalding yourselves; you’ll be cutting the hot water with the cold anyway.
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
She usually takes a 30 min shower, and if it’s set too low she runs out of hot water.
[/quote]
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
She usually takes a 30 min shower, and if it’s set too low she runs out of hot water.
[/quote]
[/quote]
Yeah, waitaminute…is that a real 30 minutes or are you just throwing around “30 minutes” to mean a long time?
Who the fuck takes a 30 minute shower?
not exaggerating. In fact, I under estimated, she sometimes will be in there 40 mins.
growing up her stepdad set a timer for her b/c she took so long
^^ That is just objectively too long.
If you ever get into an argument with her about it don’t try to win of course as women are impervious to logic, but just walk away with at least the satisfaction of knowing that you’re right.