Hot Water Tank

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Jeff Bulach 21 years ago

I have just moved into an older house and I have a question about the water tank. It appears to be brand new, put in by previous owner. They had children and the water temperature is low. I would like to increase it myself, without expensive house call. There are two inspection plates on the front of it, I am sure on has the temp controls there.

The other problem is low pressure. On the top of the tank by the outlet pipe there appears to be a regulating valve. The movable control is blue, I think this is where you can increase the pressure. I would just like some confirmation on this issue. I have done this before I just what to be sure.

The type of tanks is "Giant" Model number 172B-3F6M-OT. This tank was manufactured in Montreal Canada and I live in Ottawa, Ont, Canada.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Jeff

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AlanBown 21 years ago

Increasing the temp is easy, take off the covers and move the setting up a little.----10-20 F. Make sure that the top one is slightly above the bottom one. Are you comfortable working near exposed electrical parts? If not then turn off the breaker before you start...

Pressure regulator,,,, hummmmm better find out why it is installed. My last house had plastic pipe and I could not run more than 40 PSI though the lines. Sure made the shower weak, even with the flow resitricter removed.

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m Ransley 21 years ago

The valve at the top should be a pressure saftey blow off valve, leave it alone or it can leak and not close. It is there incase something fails and you overheat it releases overpressure before you have a bomb. Water heaters have exploded with old defective saftey valves.

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MTLnews 21 years ago

I also have a Giant electric 60Gallon tank. The 2 "inspection" plates you talk about, are actually access panels to the thermostats and heating elements (upper and lower). You will have to pull the insulation back to access them however. The thermostats clearly inticated thier temperature setting. The 2 giant tanks I have were factory preset to 120F which I found very nice.. Not too hot, and not too cold. Be careful not to get tooo hot. And kill the breaker before opening the panels if you haven't done it before, since you do have 240V in there :)

For pressure, I doubt that the valve is used to regulate pressure. It is probably just a shut off valve. usually fully open or fully closed. If someone did not open it completely, then you will experience reduced water flow. Pressure which is too high is usually controlled by the addition of a PX tank I believe.

Good Luck..

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Walter R. 21 years ago

Water pressure is regulated by a Water Pressure Regulating Valve. It is usually a dome-like looking affair without movable parts. It is located between the water meter and the house, sometimes inside the house, sometimes buried in the ground. It will only reduce pressure from the street side but it cannot increase pressure.

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Joseph Meehan 21 years ago

I will only add this. Are you sure you want to increase the temperature. Since I don't know were it is not I can't say it should or should not be increased, however I will suggest that many people like to set it too high without a valid reason. Setting it higher will increase your cost of heating the water and may increase the chance of injury.

Note: setting it too low is also a problem as when it is too low the hot water heater can become a great big petri dish growing all kinds of nasty stuff.

I suggest you are careful to keep it in the recommended zone.

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