There are few things as disappointing as enjoying a nice hot shower only to have the water turn cold halfway through. There are a lot of reasons why your water heater doesn’t produce enough hot water. The heater may be too small to meet your demands, the settings could be wrong, or you might have a more serious issue like sediment buildup, broken dip tubes, or a faulty heating element. In this article, we’ll try to help you troubleshoot why you’re running out of hot water so you can get back to enjoying comfortable showers again.
Is Your Water Coming out In Spurts of Hot and Cold?
If your water hot water seems to randomly be running hot and cold, then there’s a good chance you have some sediment built up in your water heater tank. If you have hard water and old pipes sediment, it’s just a matter of time before sediment becomes an issue. Sediment build-up reduces the space in your hot water tank. It also is prone to absorbing too much heat.
The first thing to try is flushing and draining the tank. If you’re not comfortable with this task, hire a local plumber to do it for you. If you keep running out of hot water even after a flush, then it’s possible you have too much sediment build up. The only remedy for a tank with too much sediment build-up is a replacement.
You Run out of Hot Water Too Fast
Typical water heaters have two heating elements: one at the top and one at the bottom. The top heating element repeatedly re-heats the water near the top of your tank. The bottom heating element heats all the water added to the tank and stores it at a constant temperature.
If your bottom heating element goes bad, then it’s not heating that stored water at the bottom. As a result, when you use your hot water, you’ll only be using the small quantity of water your top element heats. When that water runs out, you’ll start getting the unheated water and continue to get the unwanted surprise of the 2-minute hot shower. To fix this issue, you’ll need to replace your tank’s bottom water heater element.
Water Temperature Never Gets above Lukewarm
Inside your water heater is something called a dip tube that pushes the cold water to the bottom of the tank. Once the water is there, the lower heating elements gets to work, heating up the cold water. If your water heater’s dip tube breaks, then all the replacement cold water the tank receives just mixes with the hot water already inside. The result is a lukewarm mixture of hot and cold water. If your dip tube is broken, you might discover small pieces of plastic in your shower head or sink strainers. You can replace your dip tube yourself or call a local plumber to do it for you.
Need Help Getting More Hot Water in Your Home?
Top of the Line Plumbing provides plumbing services to Duval County, St. Johns County, Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, and the surrounding areas. There isn’t a plumbing job too big or too small for our team to handle. From repairs and repiping to hydro jetting and water filtration, Top of the Line has the experts to get the job done.
904-647-1221
