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amy76
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| Joined: | Mon Aug 25th, 2008 |
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Posted: Mon Aug 25th, 2008 06:27 pm |
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Since I bought my house in Oct. '06, I noticed that when you shower, you have to eventually turn the cold water all the way off to have a long, hot shower. Skip ahead to 2 weeks ago. Hot water was only lasting 5-7 minutes at a time. I have a 50 gal. heater, and know for a fact it should last longer. Bf drained tank, changed out both stats and elements. In the process also broke where cold water intake goes into tank; fixed that. Same problem. Ok maybe the dip tube because we didn't see anything like that when we fixed the cold water junction on the top of the tank. Put in new dip tube. Still same problem. Hot water not all the way hot and not lasting as long as it should. Saw that if you don't turn the top stat almost all the way down, it turns off the lower one. Did that. Same problem again. Meanwhile at the meter, when heater is turned on at the outside breaker, it spins like no tomorrow ($381 power bill this month ) Is there an electrical problem which is causing the thermostats not to be able to work together? I've been all over this forum and not seen anything the same as my problem!
Any help would be appreciated!
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eleent
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| Joined: | Sat Sep 11th, 2004 |
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Posted: Mon Aug 25th, 2008 07:49 pm |
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Hello: There is a good chance the heater is not your problem at all Get a pressure gauge and put it on a hose bibb outside. Check the reading. Now, with no water being used, turn off the main shut off valve. If the pressure drops fairly quickly, your house has a plumbing leak. Now do that same test using the shut off at the heater and the drain valve on the heater for the gauge. If pressure drops, you know there is a leak in the hot plumbing. This could account for the "misbehaving" heater.
Another possibility is a cross connection. This would let cold water into the hot side, messing with your shower. Look in "tanklets" for more info on cross connections.
Most frustrating would be to replace the heater and have no improvement in the situation 
Yours, Larry
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amy76
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Posted: Mon Aug 25th, 2008 09:33 pm |
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| You know, my bf saw that one plank in the wood floor near the heater is soaked through and not drying. He does not understand how that could affect it electrically, however I think you may be onto something. Going to check that out when I get home...Thanks a lot for a quick response.
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energyexpert
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| Joined: | Mon May 22nd, 2006 |
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Posted: Mon Aug 25th, 2008 09:54 pm |
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Most residential WHs are designed for nonsimultaneous operation. The top thermostat is the master; the bottom thermostat is the slave. When the top thermostat is satisfied it turns power off to the top element and transfers it to the bottom thermostat.
If you don't have a HW leak or use HW for about 30 minutes both lines at the top of the WH will be the same temperature. A flow rate of only 1/2 gallon/hour equals a velocity in 3/4 pipe of over 4 inches/minute. This flow rate through the WH will keep the cold water inlet cold.
An off fashioned meter with a wheel has a Kh value. This is how many watt hours are recorded per revolution of the wheel. A 4500 watt WH connected to a meter with a Kh of 7.2 will spin the wheel at a rate of
3600 sec/hour x 1/4500 watts x 7.2 wh/revolution = 5.76 seconds/revolution.
David
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