My hot water doesn't stay hot for very long when I am running it. Does this mean that I have to get a new water tank or is there something I can do. Also, I don't have alot of water pressure comming out of my hot water side on my faucet. It is starting to get worse and I don't know what to do.
There are many possibilities, for this. If your water is made by a coil, on a boiler, it could be clogged. You could have some galvanized piping, which over time gets restricted internally. You may just have to turn up the thermostat on the water heater
What type of tank? Gas or electric? You may have a heating element gone bad or the thermostat of a gas heater not functioning properly. Or you kids may have been playing around it and changed the heat setting. Lack of pressure indicates clogging of the flow, possible mineral deposits building up.
Keep in mind, if you live in a cold areas, the incoming water is getting colder too and exacerbating the problem.
In addition to this excellent advice, let me add one more: examine the piping going into the water heater, to make sure it's connected properly. When we bought our previous house, I soon discovered that the water heater would provide very hot water for six or seven minutes, which would then abruptly become tepid and stay that way as long as the hot water continued to run.
It turned out that the pipes had been connected backward when it was installed: hot to the inlet, and cold to the outlet. So the hot water was withdrawn from the bottom of the tank (right next to the heating element), and cold water entered the tank at the top -- where it promptly sank to the bottom, chilling the entire contents. Reconnecting the pipes properly solved the problem.
"chrisact34" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@homerepairlive.com:
Along with other valid possibilities already mentioned is a broken dip tube in the tank. Cold water inlet gets dumped in the top vs where it's suppose to at the bottom.
Even if the lines are correctly connected the dip tube may be damaged as well.
Or it could have fallen off.
Could be. You might have a boatload of sediment or build up in the tank decreasing its effective capacity and blocking flow.
How old is the water heater?
-- Todd H.
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