How can you make your water hotter and stay hot longer?? I've heard that you can adjust something on your hot water heater, is this true? Some days, my water is just lukewarm, and some days is "very warm"..never really HOT. Then, on the days when it's "very warm", it don't stay that way long...this causes a nuisance when taking showers because either I'm taking a lukewarm shower, or I have to rush and take a 5-8 min shower because the water starts getting cold. What can I do????

This may or may not be the right category for this question....sorry!
Many thanks in advance!

You can turn up the heat on your hot water heater. Should be towrds the bottom. You can go as high as you want, but 130 degrees seems to do the trick in our house with 5 kids and two adults. Good luck!

Lets do some exploring first. Is your water heater a gas heater or electric? Gas heaters usually have a temperature knob right at the gas connection clearly marked. Electric heaters normally require you to unscrew a plate that exposes the wiring to get at the thermostat. Which do you have.

Thanks ya'll for responding to my question! Ballengerb1, I have an electric heater. Is there anything I need to be aware of before doing this? I will go down in the basement tomorrow and check it out.
Thanks ya'll!

If you have never worked on an electric water heater you need to be a bit cautious when you remove the cover. Shut off the power and test the incoming lines immediately when you open the cover so you know they are not live. The temperature dial should be very prominent once the cover is removed, turn clockwise to increase the temp. If this gives less than satisfactory results you should use a tester to make sure the heating elements are working, some units have two elements top and bottom. You may have lost an element and they are replaceable but come back here before you give that a try.

Ballengerb1,
I went downstairs this evening, and yes, I think I have to remove the cover. The only thing I saw on the front was a spigot, type thing on the bottom right of the heater. So, I didn't do anything because I was hoping you had responded, and you did! I will try what you said, and will let you know what I run into. May be this weekend before I can get back down there. Thanks a lot for your information!

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Originally Posted by ttara81

How can you make your water hotter and stay hot longer?? I've heard that you can adjust something on your hot water heater, is this true? Some days, my water is just lukewarm, and some days is "very warm"..never really HOT. Then, on the days when it's "very warm", it don't stay that way long...this causes a nuisance when taking showers because either I'm taking a lukewarm shower, or I have to rush and take a 5-8 min shower because the water starts getting cold. What can I do????

This may or may not be the right category for this question....sorry!
Many thanks in advance!

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Sounds like you have a lower element that's gone bad. Shut the power off at the breaker box. Check it out with a ohm meter or resistance checker and if found to have no resistance and open up the bottom inspection plate. Now shgut the water off to the heater and attach a hose to the boiler drain. Open a hot water faucet to prevent air lock and drain the heater. Unhook the wires from the element and remove the element,( they make a element wrench to do this) Teflon tape the threads and install the new element. Leave the hot water faucet open to relieve air pressure amd turn the water back on. When water comes out of the faucet the tank's full and close the faucet. Turn the power back on and enjoy a shower that doesn't run out of hot water. Cheers, Tom