Hot water is seen by many as an essential item. You are certainly grateful for it when you come to take a bath or shower. However, it is worth noting that approximately 2.3 billion people in the world don’t have basic hygiene facilities at home.
Regardless of this fact, if you have hot water and it’s not always hot, you’re going to want to get the experts in your hot water system to visit and resolve any issues. It can help to develop an understanding of the most likely causes of intermittent hot water, it makes it easier to find the problem and resolve it.
Tank Size
Most houses have hot water tanks which contain hot water. The water is heated in the tank and is kept at the right temperature with the help of a thick insulation jacket and the heater flicks on and off as required.
However, this doesn’t guarantee you have the hot water your house needs. The average household uses a 50-gallon tank. That sounds like an impressive amount. But, you need to take a look at your shower head. It can use anything from 2 to 10 gallons a minute!
In short, two shower heads at the upper end of the range will allow two people to take a shower of 2.5 minutes each. That’s simply not going to happen!
Once the hot water tanks have emptied below a certain point it starts to refill, effectively allowing cold water in which will drop the temperature of the remaining water.
You can resolve this by shrinking the amount of water flowing through the shower heads or by increasing the size of your tank.
Valve Is Faulty
Your hot water heater uses a valve that ensures water leaves the tank at the right temperature. This gives you a nice hot shower and the ability to control your preferred temperature.
Of course, when the valve starts to fail, it will periodically allow water through at the wrong temperature. That means your shower could get hotter or colder without notice.
The only solution to this is to replace the valve.
Bad Thermostat
Your water tank also incorporates a thermostat. This is what you use to set the temperature of the water in the tank. Unfortunately, as the thermostat ages, it is likely to become less effective. This can be due to old age, it can also be a result of hard water deposits.
Whatever the reason, you’ll need your thermostat replaced.
Old Heater
Older heaters are more likely to fail or develop intermittent faults. If you are getting intermittent hot water you should consider how old your water heater is. If the heater is older than 10 years, you need to start thinking about replacing it.
In principle, this is a straightforward job. However, it will depend on whether the new heater has pipe connections in the same place or not.
The best approach is to get the professionals to assess the issue and fix it for you.
