Hubby installed a new 50 gallon electric smart tank water heater last week. Also installed a water softener. Disconnected the water softener after a day, as it was leaking, and needs to get back to it. Water heater worked good for a week. Yesterday, we found no hot water in one side of the house, but hot water in the other. Hot water in kitchen and the bathroom up above it, but not in the bathrooms on the other side of the house. What could be wrong?

Something has broken loose during your hubbies attempt at plumbing. Check to make sure he has not accidentally engaged a bypass valve some where. Open a supply line under a sink with no hot water,confirm to us if you get no water from that line or cool water.

Thanks so much for getting back to me. I'll have to let you know tomorrow, as I'm not home.

Oh, can you tell me where the by-pass valves are and what they look like? My hubby probably knows this, but when I asked him what he thought was wrong, he said he had no idea. Thanks again, and I'll check the valve(s) and under sink water tonight when I get home from work.

The bypass he might have touched is located just above the water softner. The manifold is kind of shaped like a H and the bypass is in the horizontal part of that letter. Let me know later what the water temp is under the sink at the supply line. Cool water or no water are the two likley discoveries. Some crud may now be caught in the faucet mixing valves on the hot inlet side.

The attach linlks are just for info, to show what a water softner by pass valve is, Thanks.

John

Great. I'll bring the schematics home to the hubby. Thanks so much!

Hubby opened up the faucets in the upstairs bathrooms and let the water run for a while which gave us hot water in the downstairs bathrooms for a little while. He also cleared crud out of the aerators. The water in the supply line to the cold water bathroom was existent, but cool when we opened the line. Alas, no hot water this morning. Hubby opened the faucets upstairs for a while and I was able to get hot water downstairs for a shower. I'm betting when I get home tonight, no hot water again.

The water softener is no longer attached, so the valve above it doesn't make a difference at this point.

Any ideas, guys?

Thanks again

Still having problems. When I run the hot water upstairs on the other side of the house, I can get hot water in the downstairs bathroom sink and shower, but only when I run the other. Do you think there's some crud in the lines from the installation? Any other ideas? The supply line in the sink without hot water is existent, but cool.

Is it posible that you have a circulating hot water system, if you do it could be something in the lines not letting it circulate, and if it is hooked up in a way that the supply water goes into the bottom of the tank you could be drawing hot water out of the bottom of the tank making it seem like it is cold water.

One other question, is your hot water coming out of the pipe on the left side of the water heater or the right side. If it is not coming out of the left side you hubby could have connected the heater up backwards.

Please let me know if this helps.