Ask Me Help Desk - Low pressure, long wait for hot water

I just moved into a condo, and we have come across the following problem:

The cold water in the shower comes out with steady, strong pressure. However, it takes a long wait to get hot water to come out, and, when it does, it only comes out at a trickle -- well, a little more than just a trickle, but not much more. However, this is not the case at every faucet in my home, it's just the shower faucet on the second floor and the sink faucet in the downstairs bathroom. The kitchen and upstairs bathroom sink faucets are fine.

Is this some sort of pipe problem between the hot water heater and the problematic faucets in my condo? Or is it a hot water heater problem? I know that the details are sketchy but any general insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Good morning, It sounds like you have mineral build up in your heater and it came up rthe hot water pipes and blocked the seat is a two handle faucet or the hot water inlet ports of your cartridge in a one handle one. For a one handle valve turn off the water to the offending valve and open it up and remove the cartridge. Now check the inlet ports for trash and clean them out. On two handle valves remove the hot water stem and washer assembly. Now with the valve body open Hold a can over the open valve body and turn on the hot water for a moment, (you are flushing out the hot water line). That should clear the valves, however you still have a hot water heater that needs to be flushed out. To get past this problem attach a hose to the boiler drain at the bottom of the tank. With the pressure left on, open the boiler drain and let it run until the water runs clear. You will see a spurt of red,(rust) and some white grains,(lime or calcium carbonate). The whole thing shouldn't take more then a few minutes. Don't forget to flush it out every month. Your heater will thank you for it. Hope this helps and thanks for using us. Tom

Thanks so much for your assistance. I will check all of this out and hope for the best! I really appreciate your willingness to help. Take care.

So in doing this I have had quite an adventure (always the way, right?). It's a single handle valve, so first I went to turn off the water. I had to take the side cover off the hot tub and ultimately move the toilet so that I could j-u-s-t b-a-r-e-l-y get my fingers on the hot water valve. I was able to turn the cold water valve off with no problem, but the weird thing with the hot is that no matter which way I turn it, it's on. I started by turning it as far as I could clockwise, but the hot water still comes. I then turned it as far as I could counter-clockwise, and still the water keeps coming. I'm at a loss on how to turn the hot water off! It's true that I can't get a really good grip on the handle (I can't even get my thumb on it) but I'd swear that I'm getting it turned all the way. I ended up taking the inlet port out (it's a screw with a mesh screen around the thread area, where there are holes) anyway and just letting the hot water spray while I washed off the mesh and made sure that the holes were clear. I shielded myself with a towel while I put the inlet back in.

The handle is such that it has two parts, one that turns the water on and one that sets the temperature (I guess just controlling how much of each type of water to add to the output). The indicator ranges from 60 to 140. At 100 there is a little safety button that you have to push if you want to turn it up any hotter. What's interesting is that 100 is about the right temperature, but that is also when the hot water pressure is at its lowest. I'm wondering if there is some sort of waterway in the handle or something that is what is gummed up? And maybe that's why it happens mostly at this temp. because that's the temp. that it has probably been set at most often (therefore, more buildup?). I want to take the entire assemblage out of the wall to look at it, and I see the screws that would let me do that, but I can't really do it with the hot water on, which leads me back to this new problem.

Does anyone have any insight as to what might be happening with the hot water valve so that I can't seem to get it turned off? The logician in me says that I'm just not getting it turned all the way, but I just don't see how that's possible.

Thanks in advance.

If you have turned the hot water shutoff clockwise to where it has come up agaist its stopping point thye4n the washer might have come apart and lodged up in your valve some where. However, you can shut the entire house down at the house stop or at the meter shut off. One question. Did you take the cartridge out under pressure? Howjado that? I would say that you have tiny bits of the washer from the hot water shut off valve up in your shower valve except for the fact that you said the downstairs lavatory's doing the same thing. Let me know how you make out aqnd just so I can see your problem a little more clearly why not give me the make and model number of both faucets. Regards Tom

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedball1

Good morning, It sounds like you have mineral build up in your heater and it came up rthe hot water pipes and blocked the seat is a two handle faucet or the hot water inlet ports of your cartridge in a one handle one. For a one handle valve turn off the water to the offending valve and open it up and remove the cartridge. Now check the inlet ports for trash and clean them out. On two handle valves remove the hot water stem and washer assembly. Now with the valve body open Hold a can over the open valve body and turn on the hot water for a moment, (you are flushing out the hot water line). That should clear the valves, however you still have a hot water heater that needs to be flushed out. To get past this problem attach a hose to the boiler drain at the bottom of the tank. With the pressure left on, open the boiler drain and let it run untill the water runs clear. You will see a spurt of red,(rust) and some white grains,(lime or calcium carbonate). The whole thing shouldn't take more then a few minutes. Don't forget to flush it out every month. Your heater will thank you for it. Hope this helps and thanks for using us. Tom

I have the exact problem. But I can't find were to drain the boiler. Could you help? I have a weil-mclain p-468-wt

Note-- no hot water pressure in your home from any tap--- Check this out-- go to the supply line to the hot water heater--(cold water supply line)-- Where the cold water line goes into the top of the hot water heater, there is a small valve at the entry way to the water heater-- (mine was a white circle with a stem)

Unscrew that pipe, we had to cut the pipe first and then unscrew it-- When we removed the pipe, right at the top of the entry to the hot water heater was the white valve--IT WAS STUCK-- this value is a back flow preventer value and they get stuck a lot-- We got the valve un-stuck and it was FIXED! Mike.

Hey Mike, Welcome to the Plumbing Page at AskMeHelpDesk.
We thank you for your input. Most informative. However you piggybacked on a 8 year old dead thread. In the future please look in the upper left hand corner for the date. Thanks, Tom