I have a 40 gallon "high efficiency" gas hot water heater that's about 4-5 years
old at this point. EVER SINCE IT WAS INSTALLED I have felt that the amount of
hot water available was much less than expected. For example, when taking a
shower using one of the current crop of shower valves (that have the REALLY
small pipes inside the fitting), and a low-flow shower head within 3-4 MINUTES
its necessary to start turning the termperature to hotter in order to maintain
the same termperature.

The problem is so bad that we've been running the water heater on the full hot
setting (temperature knob turned ALL THE WAY TO HOT) because my wife likes to
take hot showers. Even so, she can turn on the faucet nearest the heater and
hold her hand in the hot water stream without scalding.

Recently, we spent some time at my mother's house, and even though she is using
a standard shower head that flows more than ours, I found NO NEED to
continuously turn the temperature up while taking a shower. The water lasted
the entire shower, which seems much more normal than my heater at home...

I can only think of a couple reasons why our heater would have these problems:

1. I hooked the pipes up wrong and the cold water and hot are switched. NOPE.
I checked and the pipes are on the holes marked correctly.

2. The dip tube? that carries the cold water to the bottom has fallen off?
Possible, although when I installed the heater I checked with a flashlight and
there was a tube connected to the cold water inlet that I could see going down
into the heater...

3. Sediment? I open the valve and let a bunch of crud shoot out every couple
months...


BUT, since this heater has had this characteristic EVER SINCE IT WAS INSTALLED I
suspect none of the above is the problem...

SO, since I'm tired of this, and I'm REALLY tired of my wife complaining, and I
figure we're wasting a lot of gas trying to heat water to the hottest
temperature, I figure its time to replace this thing. And although I find some
discussions in here of water heaters, I'm not finding much in the way of
recommendations.

There are only two of us in the house, and the water heater is a regular
flue-type, natural gas. Can y'all give me any recommendations for brand/model
or whatever, or are they all pretty much the same and I can go over to Menard's
or Home Depot and just get a 40 gallon and be done with it... Is it worth going
to a 50-gallon for just 2 people? It seems like overkill since the biggest
thing we ever do is fill the tub occasionally, which it seems a properly working
40-gallon should do...

OR, is there something I'm missing on this current heater that I can do to get
it to work significantly better?

Ideas? Thoughts?

wrote:

I have a 40 gallon "high efficiency" gas hot water heater that's about 4-5 years
old at this point. EVER SINCE IT WAS INSTALLED I have felt that the amount of
hot water available was much less than expected. For example, when taking a
shower using one of the current crop of shower valves (that have the REALLY
small pipes inside the fitting), and a low-flow shower head within 3-4 MINUTES
its necessary to start turning the termperature to hotter in order to maintain
the same termperature.

The problem is so bad that we've been running the water heater on the full hot
setting (temperature knob turned ALL THE WAY TO HOT) because my wife likes to
take hot showers. Even so, she can turn on the faucet nearest the heater and
hold her hand in the hot water stream without scalding.

Recently, we spent some time at my mother's house, and even though she is using
a standard shower head that flows more than ours, I found NO NEED to
continuously turn the temperature up while taking a shower. The water lasted
the entire shower, which seems much more normal than my heater at home...

I can only think of a couple reasons why our heater would have these problems:

1. I hooked the pipes up wrong and the cold water and hot are switched. NOPE.
I checked and the pipes are on the holes marked correctly.

2. The dip tube? that carries the cold water to the bottom has fallen off?
Possible, although when I installed the heater I checked with a flashlight and
there was a tube connected to the cold water inlet that I could see going down
into the heater...

3. Sediment? I open the valve and let a bunch of crud shoot out every couple
months...

BUT, since this heater has had this characteristic EVER SINCE IT WAS INSTALLED I
suspect none of the above is the problem...

SO, since I'm tired of this, and I'm REALLY tired of my wife complaining, and I
figure we're wasting a lot of gas trying to heat water to the hottest
temperature, I figure its time to replace this thing. And although I find some
discussions in here of water heaters, I'm not finding much in the way of
recommendations.

There are only two of us in the house, and the water heater is a regular
flue-type, natural gas. Can y'all give me any recommendations for brand/model
or whatever, or are they all pretty much the same and I can go over to Menard's
or Home Depot and just get a 40 gallon and be done with it... Is it worth going
to a 50-gallon for just 2 people? It seems like overkill since the biggest
thing we ever do is fill the tub occasionally, which it seems a properly working
40-gallon should do...

OR, is there something I'm missing on this current heater that I can do to get
it to work significantly better?

Ideas? Thoughts?

At the highest setting, scalding water should be available,
even with a bad dip tube (at least for a minute).
Sounds like the gas control (thermostat) could have been out of
calibration. Maybe from the factory, but they can also get out
of whack by impact damage or from tightening torque applied to
the gas inlet.

You can buy the complete control (maybe under $100). Installation
isn't too hard, although the tank must be partly drained.
Gas connections must be carefully checked afterward.

If you decide on a new heater, 40 Gal should be plenty.
Most mfr's offer 2 models in each size, normal and high
recovery. Look for the high recovery model as it will keep
up with long showers (or even 2 showers at once) with ease.

Jim

OK, Jim, I checked the temperature at the kitchen faucet, which is about 15 feet
from the water heater. The hot water lines from the heater to the kitchen are
insulated. With the water on full hot, the temperature after 60 seconds was
124.5 degrees.

I ran a few gallons to make the heater come on. then I checked again an hour
later when the heater should have been heating things to max. This time the
temperature was 129 degrees........

No WONDER my wife can stand there with her hand in the water and not feel
anything close to scalding.......

OK, so I'm going to conclude that for whatever reason the heater just isn't
doing a very good job of heating - whether it be the control, or heater, or
burner, or thermostat, or whatever... Given that the thing is around 5 years
old, I'm thinking its not worth a whole lot to try to fix controls or whatever.
Especially considering that we've got a history of going through water heaters
at almost exactly 5 year intervals. The plumber that put in the second-to-last
one said that it shortens their life to run them on full hot all the time...

So, I'm figuring it may be worth getting a high recovery unit if its not a whole
lot more than a standard one...

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 21:54:23 -0500, wrote:

So, I'm figuring it may be worth getting a high recovery unit if its not a whole
lot more than a standard one...

About US$50 more in my area. I think the only difference is a larger
burner.

John Davies
Spokane WA USA