Intro / Weak Water Heater?
Hi All,
First, a brief introduction: I live in Baltimore and we bought our first house about three years ago. We got a great deal on it, but it does need quite a bit of work (a 1930’s Cape Cod). I’m not a professional builder, but I am pretty good with tools (was a pro car mechanic for ~5 years), although I’ve still got a bunch to learn about houses and all these different materials! 🙂 Most of what I knew as a car mechanic doesn’t seem to translate well to home repair. Oh well…
Anyway, I’ve been reading this forum for a while and thought I should see what you all think about one of my many questions.
We have a 50gal gas water heater and about a year ago, we all noticed a change in the hot water “endurance” in the shower. It just seemed that we needed to begin increasing the hot mix at the knob much sooner than when we first bought the house. It also seems to run totally cold too fast. We’ve just been dealing with it, but I’d like to finally fix it.
We have adjusted the thermostat up and although that makes the initial water hotter, it still runs cold too fast. Also, I have noticed that the burner starts up within a minute or so of turning on the hot water.
I have my suspicion about what is wrong and wondered what you all think. I’ve read about the “dip tube” sometimes cracking or completely falling off inside the tank and that when this happens, the entering cold water is mixed with the hot water somewhere above the very bottom of the tank as is supposed to happen. This sounds like it would cause exactly what I’m seeing (cooling too fast, burner turning on almost right away, …)
Does that make sense? It seems like it’ll be a pain to check, since I’ll have to desolder a few joints to free that pipe and then figure out a way to get the pipe clear of the heater — not easy, since there is less clearance above the heater than the heater is tall.
Am I on the right track? What do you all think?
Thanks!
Justin
Replies
then figure out a way to get the pipe clear of the heater -- not easy, since there is less clearance above the heater than the heater is tall
That I can help you with. Lift the the tube as high as you can, clamp it with vice grips at the top of the tank, cut off above the clamp, and repeat pulling it up and cutting untill it is all the way out. If the tube is broken off, you may just need to repace the whole tank.
You might also open the drain valve at the bottom and check for heavey sediment. Flushing out some of the water each month is reccomended on some tanks.
Dave
Edited 4/19/2007 6:04 am ET by DaveRicheson
Are you sure the cold water line is attached to the cold water inlet on the water heater? There are marks at the top of the heater. When we moved into our new house, we had the same symptoms you described.
Yeah, it's probably a bad dip tube. About 8-10 years ago there was a spate of bad plastic dip tubes. If yours is in that age range (mfgr date should be on the nameplate) then it's a likely candidate, plus this problem can occur occasionally with water heaters of any age.
One sign of this is little specs of white plastic in the faucet strainers, though that's not a sure sign either way.
Consider installing unions or flex tubing in the water lines when reconnecting, to make the next job easier.
If the water heater has any age on it; i.e. 10 years, you are probably better off replacing, sorry.
"If all else fails, read the directions"
I vote for the dip tube problem. I had the same problem. Drain the tank and disconnect it. Then you can tilt it to replace the tube. Some manufactures will reimburse you to have it done.
As a previous post said look for little white pieces of plastic stuck in you faucet strainers. That would be the disintegrated remains of the tube.
Not a builder, just like to read but, i had the same problem then the joint into the tank failed causing water to leak. Luckily (i suppose) it happened in the middle of the night and i was able to stop it before too much water got into the basement. Buy a new one you can get a better one and peace of mind.
I think your putting in a new heater. I just rebuilt every thing on mine ( ele) but time factor considered, just get a new one and be sleeping easy..
Parolee # 40835