I replaced my water heater .last night. Water heater is in the basement. Also in the basement is one bathroom with faucet and shower. And laundry with just washer and dryer - no sink. Upstairs, I have one bathroom with shower and sink and kitchen sink. All sinks have double handles, both showers have single (hot/cold mix). Last night we had hot water at kitchen sink. This morning, there was no hot water in basement bathroom. Had a hot shower upstairs, then everything went cold. Was advised off all cold water valves, which allowed for another hot shower. Since then, no hot water at all even with the cold valves shut. Pilot is lit and water tank does come on. Control knob Is set at a higher than normal (HOT) setting. Any ideas? BTW, this is a propane water heater, brand new.

R

Hi Shellsherman

Double check that you didn't pipe the water heater backwards...happens more often than you might think!!

Next, did you put any heat near the cold water nipple to the water heater? If you did, it is possible that the DIP TUBE of the water heater got melted and fell into the water heater. A broken/dislodged dip tube will result in cold water being delivered into the hot water outlet of the water heater as if the water wasn't being heated...could describe your issue! To check this, even if you didn't heat the cold water nipple, unfortunately you need to remove the cold water pipe from the heater and inspect the dip tube inside the cold water nipple of the water heater.

Another possibility here would be one of the single lever valves in the house has gone bust and is allowing cold water to feed into the hot water supply. Here, that could be the shower valves or it could even be the washing machine valve (if single lever). here, unless you have shut off valves to the shower valves you can't isolate these and just need to replace the balancing cartridge (you can shut the washing machine valve(s) off).

If you have an outside faucet that has hot and cold water to it, that could be an issue, too. Here, I once found an outside faucet that had a wye fitting installed at an old laundry tray faucet and then was run to the outside. I shut this valve off and the customer had copious amounts of hot water after that!

Finally, if you have a recirculating hot water line connected to the cold water supply into the water heater and it has a check valve on it you could be getting cold water feeding back into the hot water supply if the check valve has gone bad or gotten debris caught up in it, so look for that as well.

That's all I have for now...

Back to you...

Mark

Hi Mark,Thank you for replying. First, we have tried to check the dip tube, but there doesn't seem to be any way to get to it. There is only one line into the tank, we removed the nipple, and there is a suction type thing that the dip tube is underneath so we can't get it out to inspect it. There is a sticker on the top of the tank that says something about it being magnetic? I can get you the specific wording if you think that would be helpful. We did not put any heat to the nipple when installingMy brother n law told us the cold water could be feeding into the hot, which is why we have closed all of the cold water faucets. I do have an outside faucet that is hot. It is a separate faucet (outside) than the cold, which is right beside it. Can you explain to me what I should check there?Oh, and since we did have hot water for short periods, I am assuming (and I double checked with person who installed it) that it was not reversedWe turned the washing machine water off as well. Let me also advise that this all happened with my water heater after I had let my propane tank go dry. I was without heat for a few days and when I got it back on, the water heater stopped working; hence, I got a new one. I just wanted to let you know that in case there could be any reasoning behind the lack of propane for awhile.Michelle

Hi Michelle

Yeah, post the wording on the magnetic part when you have a chance.

The concern with the outside faucet and hot water was only if hot and cold water combined into one outside faucet which it sounds like yours does not, so no concern there.

My guess is a cross connection somewhere (could be one of the shower valves) and you'll need to find it...UGH!

I can't really help much more here...hard to troubleshoot beyond what I presented!

I would love to know the end result when you determine the problem as long as you have a lit pilot to the heater, the propane tank emptying is not an issue here.

Have you tried to drain the tank and see how much hot water you get out of the drain?

Mark