Greetings,
Strange happenings at the faucet.
Whirlpool tub has a 2 handled faucet with a telephone shower;
with the spout having a divertor lever.
When the hot tap is turned on fully the water runs warm only
and then runs cold and back to warm again. It never runs fully hot.
The shower and sink a couple of feet away run piping hot water.
The supplier says to switch the cartridges between the Hot and Cold
levers. This does not sound right. Its a fancy Italian brand.
Some insight would be appreciated.
Thanks
RonK
Replies
If you have a tank style water heater the flow rate of the tub could be so high as to "roll the tank" in your water heater as the rush of cold water creates turbulence in the tank sufficient to roll the cold water off the bottom of the tank and up to the top wehere it is picked up by the pipes. Try this experiment, turn the hot water in the tub on to a low flow equivalent to the faucet and see if the water comes out hotter. If this works you may be able to get away with starting the flow to hot very slow and gradually increase it to full flow. The sudden start is often the villian here and a more gradual start can make all the difference.
Long term solution could be to plumb the tub with 1/2" pipe rather than 3/4" to reduce the flow rate or add a ball valve to allow yoou to throttle back the highest flow rate or look at the dip tube design in your water heater to see if you can diffuse the flow at the bottom of the tube (buy a longer tube that ends closer to the bottom of the tank and cross drill the bottom 3" to make a "diffuser tip")
Good luck with this one.
m
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"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
"Whirlpool tub has a 2 handled faucet with a telephone shower;"
I think that will happen if you have telephone with touch tone, but the faucet only supports rotary dials.
Many of the new two handle faucets also have pressure balance setup to keep from getting scalding hot water if the cold water pressure drops.
I believe that the pressure balance valves can cause that kind of problem.
Feel the supply lines before they get to the tub. If the hot is hot then the problem is not "rolling the tank".
if you can't access then you can try turning on the sink at the same time and see if you are getting hot water out of it.
It is also possible some other sink handle valve or 2 handle tub/shwoer with pressure balance is is back feeding.
When running this tub feel all of the supply lines to the other tubs and sinks. They should all be "room temp". If any feel warm then water is circulating through them.
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.