[jcchampion]

Hello,

I have a delta faucet in the kitchen sink. Plenty of pressure from the hot and cold side.

However, the water on the hot side never gets hot. It gets lukewarm, and then cooler again, but never hot.

Hot water seems to work pretty well throughout the rest of the house, even upstairs in the shower.

Wash machine hot water has very little pressure and doesn't get very hot, either. I disconnected the hot water hose from the back of the wash machine and checked the pressure. It seems to be great... and got steaming hot... as long as it wasn't connected to the wash machine.

The water heater is in the basement and there is a bell & gossett hot water pump attached to the hot water line, but we haven't been using it.

What could be keeping the hot water from the kitchen sink and the wash machine?

[massplumber2008]

Hi Jc...

How long is the house/buillding? Any chance that pump is a recirculating hot water line that is supposed to be used to get HOT water over to the sink area? In other words, if you use the pump do you get hot water at the sink?

Possible that the mixing valve at the faucet has failed and needs to be replaced. What DELTA model faucet do you have?

Have you actually chased the water lines from the sink over to the washer and seen if you could find a common link here? Possible that you have some pipes connected between that may be a CROSS CONNECTION between hot and cold water..? Look around and see what you find.

Check washing machine hot water hose for a screen that may have sediment built up and plugging the hose. May be that this is just a coincidence... sounds like it to me... ;)

What kind of water heater exactly..

Let me know more...

MARK

[jcchampion]

I've considered the hot water pump question, but I haven't been able to figure out why the showers and sinks on the second floor seem to get hot water fine without the pump.

I'm not really familiar with pumps, so I've never had it on longer than 5 minutes to test it. I cannot even tell if it has water flowing through it or not.

It is connected to a line coming out of the bottom of the water heater. With the pump on and the hot water on in the kitchen sink, the hot water line coming out the TOP of the water heater is much warmer than the line running from the BOTTOM of the water heater and through the pump.

The Delta faucet at the kitchen sink has aluminum lines running all the way up to the diverter and I have not disconnected them yet to test the pressure and temperature of the hot line from the shut off valve.

That would be my next step, I assume.

[jcchampion]

I have not chased the lines to the wash machine and the kitchen sink, however, they are on the same side of the house and probably within about 15 feet of one another.

If the pump is a recirculating unit, how long should it take for the hot water to get to the kitchen sink?? Would I have to leave the pump on linger than just a few minutes??

I haven't done that because I couldn't tell if water was flowing through the pump or not and I didn't want to burn the motor up (there's a warning in the very poorly produced owner's manual that was left with the pump. Acutally, the instructions tell you that the unit must be oiled and that it must be primed, but it doesn't tell you HOW to do it.).

If it's something as simple as just leaving the pump on longer... then great.

[massplumber2008]

Hi JC...

Sounds like you have a STORAGE TANK more so than a water heater... right? This storage tank and its piping connect to a boiler somehow... right?

[jcchampion]

Sorry Mark,

I was at the office while posting the previous comments.

I've arrived at the house now and have the following to report...

It is an American ProLine, 80 gallon water heater.

I found that there are TWO (2) temperature setting swithces. One upper and one lower.

I had previously set the upper one from @ 120 degrees to the highest setting of about 150 degrees, but failed to set the lower one because I didn't know it was there.

I also turned the pump on and will leave it running. In the morning (giving the lower tank enough time to heat up) I will check the temperature in the kitchen sink and see if there's a difference.

The lower temperature setting switch, by the way, was set to below 120 degrees. The woman who lived in the house before we moved in was afraid of scalding herself, so she had it set very low.

Hopefully, this will cure the problem.

I'll report back to you and let you know.

John

[massplumber2008]

Good info. Here... look forward to update!

[jcchampion]

All right,

I enjoyed hot water in the kitchen sink last night before retiring for the evening.

I'm not sure if it was the pump being left on or the fact that I turned up the temperature setting on the water heater. However, apparently, I turned it up too much as sometime during the night, the reset switch on the water heater was tripped and this morning I had no hot water anywhere in the house.

I reset the reset switch, turned the temperature settings down a smidgen, and will check the water temperature when I arrive back home in about an hour.

John

[massplumber2008]

Water heater temperature should be set at 120-125F... especially if kids in the home!

Thanks for the update... keep 'em comin'.

[jcchampion]

All right now...

I've got hot water everywhere in the house except in the kitchen sink and the dishwasher that's adjacent to the sink.

The dishwasher water inlet is just below the kitchen sink hot water shut-off valve.

The best that it has gotten so far today is lukewarm in both the sink and the dishwasher.

The fact that the dishwasher inlet is below the sink cut-off tells me that there may be a problem somewhere between that cut-off and the water heater.

It's really weird because I actually had hot water to the kitchen sink for a short time last night before going to bed.

But today, even after the resetting of the safety switch on the water heater and waiting 3 hours, still no hot water to the kitchen sink.

[jcchampion]

I'm going out for a bit, and I'll check it later and see if it's had time to warm up to set levels.

John

[jcchampion]

OK.

With the pump running and the water heater operating normally, I now have hot water everywhere it's supposed to be, although there is some grit coming out of the spout in the bathtub spout upstairs - probably because the line the pump is on is being cleaned out.

Here's a new development... As mentioned earlier, the water heater safety switch had tripped, I am assuming because the temperature was too high.

I have now reset the switch and adjusted the temperature settings down for about the fourth time since yesterday morning. As of 4 AM this morning (I got up that early to check it so that we're sure to have hot water for showers later), the reset switch still has been tripping, and I have the setting almost down to 120 degrees.

The dial goes up to 150 degrees, which is about where I started with it yesterday.

My question now is... if the dial goes up to 150 degrees, why is the safety switch tripping even when I've set the temperature down now to about 130 degrees?? Why does it keep tripping?

John

[massplumber2008]

If it keeps tripping and you have it set at 120 F then next logical step here is to replace that thermostat. May be fluke, but sometimes when these thermostats get touched after a very long period of NOT being touched... they fail (especially when set to 150 F... ;) ) .

The thermostats for water heaters are pretty much universal, but bring the defective onr along to be sure you get one like yours.

Simply, shut power off at the breaker. Then double check that power is out at the water heater junction box on top with an electrical tester (remember you are testing two-110V legs (220V), so touch one wire with a tester lead and then touch the junction box screw with the other tester leg to be sure power is down)... and then disconnect the wires going to the thermostat and replace.

If wires look a little confusing then draw out the connections on paper BEFORE disconnecting defective thermostat!

I have attached a couple wiring pics... just in case!

Sounds like you may be on your way here... ;)


.

[jcchampion]

Hey, thanks Mark,

I was online at 4 am this morning and looked up the owner's manual from American Water Heaters... I've got an American Pro Line 80 gallon electric with two thermostats - an upper and a lower. It was originally installed in 2006 but the house was empty for at least four months.

The manual did say that the thermostat may be bad if experiencing conditions such as mine.

Do you think the elements are still good, or could they need to be replaced as well?

[jcchampion]

By the way... there is no junction box on top of my heater, just the romex wire going straight into the top of the heater.

[jcchampion]

Oh, and which thermostat should I replace, the upper or the lower... or both?

[massplumber2008]

Replace the upper thermostat... the one with the RESET button.

The elements sound like they are fine... but never know. Start with replacing the upper thermostat and read the manual that you located online to cover all bases~

Do you have an electrical tester that tests for CONTINUITY? Let me know?

[jcchampion]

No... I don't have a tester, but I know where the breaker is in the breaker panel.

In fact, it was shut off for the four months that the house was empty.

[massplumber2008]

Buy a cheap electrical tester... one that tests continuity ($20.00 at home depot).

Then confirm power off (just a good habit to get in if you ever touch electrical again... of course, must check that the tester works FIRST by using it on a working outlet... ok? ).

After power is shut off and the thermostat is replaced I want you to disconnect the two wires going to each element (power is still off here) and test them for continuity... just need to touch each lead to each screw. If you have no continuity then the element needs to be replaced. If have continuity then elements are fine.

Just so you can be 100% sure of all issues here... ;)

I'm off to work... again!

Keep me posted.

[jcchampion]

If the power is still off and the wires are disconnected, should there be continuity?

You may have to explain that one a little more to me because I don't think I'm getting it.