[jscaramucci]

My son just bought a house and the cold water has great pressure through out the house but there is little pressure when you use the hot water. Could you please help me with this?

[massplumber2008]

Need to start at the basics here...

How does your son get hot water? Is it by a gas or electric water heater.. or by some other way such as a tankless coil off boiler, or an indirect storage system off boiler..?

First thing to check is to make sure the shutoffs involved in heating water are open fully.. this especially means the cold water shutoff feeding cold water into system.

After that.. I really need to know what he uses to heat the hot water and about how old the system is (just approximate).

Get back to me with info... Mark
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[jscaramucci]

Need to start at the basics here...

How does your son get hot water? Is it by a gas or electric water heater..or by some other way such as a tankless coil off boiler, or an indirect storage system off boiler...??

First thing to check is to make sure the shutoffs involved in heating water are open fully..this especially means the cold water shutoff feeding cold water into system.

After that..I really need to know what he uses to heat the hot water and about how old the system is (just approximate).

Get back to me with info...Mark
.

Mark,
The water heater is gas and not sure about the age but looks to be fairly new. My son lives in a different town and I will call him to make sure the valve is opened all the way.
Thank you for your quick response.

[massplumber2008]

Check on age of unit if possible... sometimes older units get clogged at the nipples on top of the water heater.

If newer model then may be that the heat trap nipples are malfunctioning...

Next test would be to hook a hose onto the drain at the bottom of the water heater and then open drain full OPEN and see if have full pressure there. If full pressure present out bottom of heater then I am thinking this could be a hot water heat trap nipple issue. If poor pressure out bottom of heater may be that the cold water DIP TUBE has malfunctioned (may have been melted when installed)... or could be that the drain itself is clogged. BUT still worth trying.

Here is a cut away view of a gas water heater... may help to understand what I am talking about. I also attached a pic. Of the heat trap nipples. These screw into cold water inlet and hot water outlet tappings on top of the heater... they have little balls inside which can malfunction on occasion (balls float into nipple when water is shut off... reduces heat loss from heater)

Have son try that and let us know what he discovers... if he is handy and thinks he can do it we can talk you guys through how to replace these nipples or replace the dip tube!

Let us know what you can... Mark

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