Hi all,
I am a new homeowner in Arizona, and I have a serious problem with a 10-year-old house my wife and I just bought here. So far we have had three plumbers and countless helpful neighbors trying to figure this thing out--with no success so far. Just sought out this forum today, in a desperate attempt to find help. If anyone has any ideas, I would be very grateful to hear them. Here's my story. As you'll soon see, I am not a plumber, simply a typical consumer who has had very little experience with hot water problems.
We bought this house about three weeks ago. Immediately after we moved in, we discovered that the "hot" water in the master shower is not really hot but merely lukewarm. I immediately checked the thermostat on the water heater and saw that it was set to approximately 130 F. I estimated the water in the shower, when set to all hot was maybe 100 degrees, but upped the thermostat setting, to see what that would do. Nothing.
I then checked in the other hot water locations and found that all were delivering water that seems to be the same temperature. Not hot but tepid at best. Some would start out a little "hot" (maybe 110 degrees), then cool back to maybe 100 or so.
The previous owner had lived here for a little over two years and reported no problem with hot water. The home inspection that was performed when we bought reported no problem with hot water. Yet we experienced a problem immediately after moving in.
I checked the water heater more closely. I reset it and confirmed that it was producing hot water. I touched the output pipe and found it to be very hot. It is clear that the heater is working properly.
I then performed a lot of admittedly random experimentation inside the house. While I had originally found that all the hot water faucets delivered tepid water, I eventually discovered that I could get scalding hot water from the shower in the master bathroom--but only by running the hot water in the guest shower. Very weird.
If I turn on the guest bathroom shower to full hot, I do NOT get hot water at that location, just like everywhere else. However, if I leave that shower running and set to hot, the shower in the master bathroom then delivers scalding hot water. If I then turn off the guest shower, the water coming out of the master shower changes back to tepid. In other words, the only way I can get hot water anywhere in the house is to turn both showers on to full hot. Then I get hot water from the master shower but not from the guest shower.
As I said earlier, three plumbers and a number of neighbors (two of whom are former home builders) are stumped by this. Unless someone comes up with a credible explanation for this odd behavior, we are about to start ripping into walls and chasing pipes to find where the problem lies. I am, of course, concerned that this is about to become very costly to diagnose and repair.
In addition to the utter illogic of what we're observing, the even more strange aspect of this situation is how the previous owners experienced (they say) no problems. How could this have developed just when we purchased the property? If the problem was already here, how could they have lived with it?
Red Herring?
I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the hot water heater is solar, and electric. I doubt this has anything to do with the problem but what do I know. The 120 gallon heater heats from two sources--electric and (passive) solar. There are solar collectors on the roof and water is passed through them to the water heater. The heater also has an electric coil just like any other conventional heater--which comes into play when the roof-top collectors can't deliver enough heat. The reason I don't think this is relevant is because the water coming out of the water heater is scalding hot--whether it's heated by the sun or electricity. But what do I know, I'll mention this in the spirit of full disclosure.
If anyone has any insight and/or experience about my situation, I'm all ears. If I can tell you anything else that will help you, please ask. To this untrained plumber, this is all very confusing and illogical. Thanks for listening.
Mike
I am a new homeowner in Arizona, and I have a serious problem with a 10-year-old house my wife and I just bought here. So far we have had three plumbers and countless helpful neighbors trying to figure this thing out--with no success so far. Just sought out this forum today, in a desperate attempt to find help. If anyone has any ideas, I would be very grateful to hear them. Here's my story. As you'll soon see, I am not a plumber, simply a typical consumer who has had very little experience with hot water problems.
We bought this house about three weeks ago. Immediately after we moved in, we discovered that the "hot" water in the master shower is not really hot but merely lukewarm. I immediately checked the thermostat on the water heater and saw that it was set to approximately 130 F. I estimated the water in the shower, when set to all hot was maybe 100 degrees, but upped the thermostat setting, to see what that would do. Nothing.
I then checked in the other hot water locations and found that all were delivering water that seems to be the same temperature. Not hot but tepid at best. Some would start out a little "hot" (maybe 110 degrees), then cool back to maybe 100 or so.
The previous owner had lived here for a little over two years and reported no problem with hot water. The home inspection that was performed when we bought reported no problem with hot water. Yet we experienced a problem immediately after moving in.
I checked the water heater more closely. I reset it and confirmed that it was producing hot water. I touched the output pipe and found it to be very hot. It is clear that the heater is working properly.
I then performed a lot of admittedly random experimentation inside the house. While I had originally found that all the hot water faucets delivered tepid water, I eventually discovered that I could get scalding hot water from the shower in the master bathroom--but only by running the hot water in the guest shower. Very weird.
If I turn on the guest bathroom shower to full hot, I do NOT get hot water at that location, just like everywhere else. However, if I leave that shower running and set to hot, the shower in the master bathroom then delivers scalding hot water. If I then turn off the guest shower, the water coming out of the master shower changes back to tepid. In other words, the only way I can get hot water anywhere in the house is to turn both showers on to full hot. Then I get hot water from the master shower but not from the guest shower.
As I said earlier, three plumbers and a number of neighbors (two of whom are former home builders) are stumped by this. Unless someone comes up with a credible explanation for this odd behavior, we are about to start ripping into walls and chasing pipes to find where the problem lies. I am, of course, concerned that this is about to become very costly to diagnose and repair.
In addition to the utter illogic of what we're observing, the even more strange aspect of this situation is how the previous owners experienced (they say) no problems. How could this have developed just when we purchased the property? If the problem was already here, how could they have lived with it?
Red Herring?
I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the hot water heater is solar, and electric. I doubt this has anything to do with the problem but what do I know. The 120 gallon heater heats from two sources--electric and (passive) solar. There are solar collectors on the roof and water is passed through them to the water heater. The heater also has an electric coil just like any other conventional heater--which comes into play when the roof-top collectors can't deliver enough heat. The reason I don't think this is relevant is because the water coming out of the water heater is scalding hot--whether it's heated by the sun or electricity. But what do I know, I'll mention this in the spirit of full disclosure.
If anyone has any insight and/or experience about my situation, I'm all ears. If I can tell you anything else that will help you, please ask. To this untrained plumber, this is all very confusing and illogical. Thanks for listening.
Mike
