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cdoggy · Mar 3, 2009, 04:29 PM

I am a college student renting a house and have a weird problem with our shower. We have more then enough hot water but as I am taking a shower it will be warm/hot at about 2/3 of the way to hot. I like hot showers so I turn it up just a little bit more and its great... for about 2 min then the temp starts dropping to about warm. I can turn it up a bit more and it will get hot again, but temp will fall after about 30 seconds this time. I can keep on this cycle will I hit the end of the nob and it will be hot for 15 seconds then back to warm.

We have a brand new water heater installed by someone that looked like he knew what he was doing. The shower does put out more water then normal, so much so that we have to put the head between settings just to mitigate the pressure to more holes so its not as strong.

What is going on?!

Thanks for any help!

massplumber2008 · Mar 3, 2009, 06:51 PM

Hi Cdoggy...

Did this happen BEFORE the new water heater was installed? If so, and even if not so ;)... I'm wondering how many gallons per minute (G.P.M.) your shower head is using?

Today, shower heads use 2.5 G.P.M... older shower heads can use much, much more. The first 2.5 G.P.M shower heads were not impressive. Today's 2.5 G.P.M. shower heads are great!

Talk to the landlord about switching out the shower head. This will not only make your shower hotter and more comfortable... but it will save the owner quite a bit of money every year if they do it to every apartment they own... :)

Let me know what you think...

MARK

ballengerb1 · Mar 3, 2009, 07:20 PM

Mark, this sounds like maybe a bad dip tube done during installation, what do you think? I have seen more than one dip tube melted off by someone who seemed to know what they were doing, but didn't.

massplumber2008 · Mar 3, 2009, 07:23 PM

Hi Bob:

Dip tube came to mind also. If Cdoggy said new issue then I'm going with dip tube as well... ;) If old issue... thinking shower head.

Got to be one or the other... huh?

Have good night!

cdoggy · Mar 4, 2009, 11:33 AM

Wow, thanks for the suggestions and sorry for the delay in responding. I was waiting for the subscription email before coming back to this and I just got it.

The shower head used to be pretty bad and eventually got clogged by crap that was rustled up with the new water heater. So as it was 'clogged' up we had enough hot water, but once cleaned out, mind you now it seems like there is a ton of water coming out of the shower head, it does this fluctuation temp thing.

Its weird, ill do more testing tomorrow by taking a shower (and the change happens) ill go out to the kitchen and see if there is hot water there. If there is then it's a problem with the shower, if not then it's the dip tube.

Is it easy to tell if a dip tube was done wrong?

ballengerb1 · Mar 4, 2009, 11:55 AM

You can't see the dip tube without disconnecting the cold fee and removing the dip tube under it. Was there soldering done non this cold feed tube?

cdoggy · Mar 4, 2009, 12:35 PM

Looks like a few new fittings were used on the cold line all excessively soldered together, but on the connection to the tank it is a screw on without any solder on it.

ballengerb1 · Mar 4, 2009, 01:40 PM

My guess is the last connection is screw in but the one an inch above it is a soldered connection. If the installer screwed the connector in and then did the solder joint that would be enough heat to melt the dip tube. Excessive solder also tells me a bit about the installers skill bank, not very high.

massplumber2008 · Mar 4, 2009, 04:39 PM

Cheapest fix is to change out the shower head...

If that fails to fix this then you should have the plumber come back and remove the fittings from the cold water side of the water heater to check the dip tube.

Keep us in the loop... o.k?

Thanks...

MARK