In the last couple days, our 8-9 year old Lochinvar HWH has produced water that is not as hot as normal. It is VERY warm, but not hot. It is 40gal and 34000 btu. The HWH is installed in the basement
I will try to drain it, and see if that helps. Does this mean that our tank needs to be replaced? our Water comes from Lake Huron, and is not hard, its municipal water.
I have thought about a tankless, but not sure how much more it would cost to install a small Ranai.
Thanks
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Replies
is thi9s a gas, electric, or oil HWH???
My first guess is that it is electric and that one of the two electrodes/heating elements has burned out
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It is Gas.
powerventer?
what is your thermostat set at?
It is set inbetween "hot" and "Warm", It was installed by the plumber who worked for the builder who built the house.
The outside of the tank still looks like new. It seem very solid also.
Not a big fan of lochnavar but opinions vary
I suggest turn temp to hot run enough water out of tank to get it to kick on.
wait an hour or so or until the gas kicks off.
hot setting should be about 130 degrees if it's more turn it down incrementally I usually run heaters 120 to 130
Do those have adjustable high/low settings with the thermocouple?
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Not that I have seen & most lochinvars that I have dealt with didn't have a thermocoupler, they were electronic ignition
Ours does not have electronic ignition. When the Gas company turn off the gas last week because of road construction, they had to come back and lite in by hand.
They told me that you could get them with electronic ignition for extra $$
As old as the water heater is, I've gotta wonder about the dip tube...
In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
Could be the dip tube, but usually if it is, you get COLD water (although I suppose it cold depend on where it broke) A while back (I can't remember EXACTLY, but maybe 1999) a company called "Perfection Corp" (of all things) made the majority of dip tubes for hot water heaters.Turns out they liked to break. There was a class action lawsuit, and you had until like Oct/Nov. of 99 (or 98, I cannot remember) to file. Anyway, my Bradford White (only like 4 years old at the time) fell victim to that. I'd run out of hot water like in 10 minutes, and it would be COLD (not even close to warm) after that.So I filed the claim, they approved it, came in, couldn't replace the dip tube (I'm not sure why, I didn't watch), so they gave me a NEW Bradford White for replacement. Much improved.Although I'm also wondering about the flame adustment (or whatever they call it). Air mixture maybe? (My new Bradford White doesn't need adjusting, but some of their models do).
Hmmmm... last 8 or 9 days the water is not very hot anymore. Last week the gas company shut off the gas and then came into the house to relight the WH by hand.
Any connection?
Maybe they turned down the thermostat?
Do you have a mixing/tempering valve that got out of adjustment somehow?
Odds are your dip tube has disintegrated. A relatively simple fix.
When you flush the tank you may find bits of a whitish plastic from what was once the dip tube. Easily replaced.
(Note, be sure to turn burner control to "pilot" or "standby" or whatever before draining the tank, if you intend to drain vs pressure flush it.)
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Thanks, I dont think ours fell under the dip tube recall. I believe I checked that out when it was announced.
I am beggining to think the gas company turned it down when they re-lit it.
Well, dip tubes can fail without being part of a recall.But, obviously, checking the temp setting on the control is the place to start.
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