Hi,

I have a 40 gallon tank that seems to run out of hot water
intermittantly. When I go to check it, all I have to do is turn the
temperature dial a hair to the right (and then I turn it back) and the
heater kicks on instantly giving us hot water again in about an hour
or so. I'm baffled. Any suggestions.

Thanks much,

Mark

"Mark" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I have a 40 gallon tank that seems to run out of hot water
intermittantly. When I go to check it, all I have to do is turn the
temperature dial a hair to the right (and then I turn it back) and the
heater kicks on instantly giving us hot water again in about an hour
or so. I'm baffled. Any suggestions.

Thanks much,

Mark

Uh, yeah... When you adjust it, you're telling the unit to make the water
hotter so it goes to work.

If you're constantly running out of how water you can do one of three
things:

Get a larger heater (or at least a new one with a better recovery rate)
Turn up the thermostat (but beware of scalding)
Take shorter showers

On Wed, 03 Sep 2003 17:56:55 GMT, someone wrote:

He could have a broken dip tube so is not getting full capacity.

We need more info on the "intermittant" nature of the problem. All of
the above implicitly presumes that intermittant means "sometimes",
like when someone takes a long shower. What if intermittant means
sometimes as in random days once or twice a week under the same
conditions that were okay the other days. Then maybe he could have a
bad thermostat, it is possible even if not common.

-v.

Mark wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I have a 40 gallon tank that seems to run out of hot water
intermittantly. When I go to check it, all I have to do is turn the
temperature dial a hair to the right (and then I turn it back) and the
heater kicks on instantly giving us hot water again in about an hour
or so. I'm baffled. Any suggestions.

Thanks much,

Mark

You say that you're turning it to the right, and then you turn it back. You
need to turn it to the right and keep it there. Turning it back to the left
is going to put you back where you were, without enough hot water. Why not
just leave it in a place where you get all the hot water you need? If I
kept turning my hot water heater to the left, I wouldn't have enough hot
water either.

Brigitte

"Brigitte J." wrote in message ...
Mark wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I have a 40 gallon tank that seems to run out of hot water
intermittantly. When I go to check it, all I have to do is turn the
temperature dial a hair to the right (and then I turn it back) and the
heater kicks on instantly giving us hot water again in about an hour
or so. I'm baffled. Any suggestions.

Thanks much,

Mark

You say that you're turning it to the right, and then you turn it back. You
need to turn it to the right and keep it there. Turning it back to the left
is going to put you back where you were, without enough hot water. Why not
just leave it in a place where you get all the hot water you need? If I
kept turning my hot water heater to the left, I wouldn't have enough hot
water either.

Brigitte

My apologies...

I meant turn the dial to the left to bring the temperature up and
startup the heater again. By intermittant I mean that we keep finding
the water cold instead of hot when we go to use it, not after a long
shower or whatnot. We are experiencing the problem more and more
often. Practically every day now.

(Mark) wrote in
om:

I meant turn the dial to the left to bring the temperature up and
startup the heater again. By intermittant I mean that we keep
finding the water cold instead of hot when we go to use it, not
after a long shower or whatnot. We are experiencing the problem
more and more often. Practically every day now.

Water heater thermostats can fail over time; that's why they're
replaceable :-)

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |