On Thu, 06 Feb 2020 10:18:40 -0500, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 6 Feb 2020 03:44:02 +0000, rdankwort
om wrote:

replying to Peabody, rdankwort wrote:
This is a very common phenomenon in water heaters. In the morning my temp. is
just warm; after I do a load of laundry it is piping hot. And in-between for
moderate use.

This doesn't make sense. It should be up to its maximum temp when no
one has used any hot water.

And if you take a deep bath or very long shower, it should run out of
hot water until it has time to heat it again.

Are you just talking about the water in the pipes between the water
heater and the faucet? Of course that cools off over night.

Unlike you I don't like to mess with my thermostat setting. It's a crummy
honeywell regulator on a Bradford-White tank. The Robertshaw I used to have
on my earlier tank at least had visible and large temp. setting marks; the
honeywell is a tiny knob with useless setting markers.

Anyway, if I want hot water in the morning I try to get up a bit early & run a

How early? It takes 3 minutes at most to run the hot water until the
water in the pipes has gone through it and hot water comes out You can
brush your teeth during that time, don't have to get up early at all.

water faucet somewhere. I know that'sa sinful waste of water but what would
you.

BTW living in a hot desert climate I have a very different summer problem
also: between the hot garage temperatures and the pilot my water runs almost
dangerously hot.. The pilot alone keeps the temp. up! I once tried just
shutting off the pilot but then the water temp.was way too low.
First thing I would suspect (if it is a top entry heater) is a broken
off or corroded "dip" tube thatis supposed to put the cold water into
the bottom of the tank. The hot water is supposed to come off the top.
If the cold water goes in the top instead of the bottom, you will get
pre-mixed, warm water instead of hot until the turbulence of the water
flow gets the hot water to the top. Good heaters use a "turbulator"
tube that makes the water swirl in the bottom of the tank as it
enters, avoiding stratification issues.