Paul of Dayton wrote:
Hi Folks -

This one has me stumped. When we bought this house 5 years ago, we quickly
discovered it was easy to run out of hot water. I did the usual checks to
see if the WH was connected correctly and also checked each plumbing fixture
to see if a bad valve might be allowing the cold and hot to mix. I finally
chalked it up to on old 40gal gas heater full of gunk and turned the temp
up.

The heater finally died this summer so I replaced it with a 50gal unit with
a larger burner. I set it at the recommended setting and figured all would
be well. Lately, I find we are running out of hot water again. This
morning, one shower emptied it. It is burning correctly, just full of cold
water.

I bumped the temp up a bit but I really liked not burning my hands to a
cinder with hot water. There has to be something causing this but I am
stumped.

By the way, the old heater wasn't significantly heaver than the new one
after I emptied it.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

PoD


Isn't there supposed to be a tube that forces the cold water into the
water heater so that it enters the bottom of the tank? If so, I wonder
if they are installed?