On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:43:14 -0800 (PST), wrote:

About 1 out of every 4 or 5 showers is lukewarm at best. When I get

All the time, or at its hottest.

hot showers they are fine (temp + time). I have tried to pay attention
to weather temperatures to determine if it might be a factor. But, a

It's not the weather.

The water sits in the heater until it gets hot, unless the family is
using a lot of hot water. You don't mentino how many others use the
hot water.

warmer day does not always mean a hot shower. I also seem to remember
the hot water being hotter in the past. Is it possible that my water
heater is dying a slow death?

I've had water faucets that turn off by themselves even though they're
not designed to. Maybe something has effected your thermostat, or
like someone said, maybe there is an open circuit in one element.

YEAH, YOU SHOULD HAVE SAID GAS OR ELECTRIC. SOMETHING MADE ME ASSUME
ELECTRIC AND i WASTED TIME WRITING SOME OF WHAT FOLLOWS. bUT i'M
POSTING ANYHOE. tO HELP YOU REMEMBER NEXT TIME TO GIVE THE IMPORTANT
DETAILS.


It was some trouble, but I cut my 10 year old electric water heater
open after I took it out, before I threw it away.

There were almost no deposits in the bottom of the tank. Just 1/2"
deep at the center of the bowl-shaped bottom, and maybe 6" in
diameter, and of course at the edge the depth was almost zero. It was
6 or 7 inches from the bottom to the heating element, so at the rate I
was going, I wouldn't have hit the heating element for over 100 years.

I live in Baltiomre where our water comes from 3 reservoirs that
collect from the watershed of the streams they were built on, from the
rain. I don't know how much would be found in a water heater in
another location.

Whatever you find, you'll know for next time how great a problem
sediment is.

I didn't understand the to do over turning up the thermostat. Seems
like a good idea to me, although if the thermostat is erratic like you
seem to say, can those things stick at the contact points, or stick
open. At any rate, maybe just replace the thermostat.

A lot of water heaters have two elements and two thermostats, a cover
near the top and anotehr near the bottom of the heater. If you have
that, you should do some testing with a multimeter (careful, it's
220Volts) to figure out where the problem is. My previous wh had a
red light that went on when the top element was running, but the new
one from what seems like the same maker doesn't have this. Instead
they filled the area with styrofoam for insulation.


Steve