Hot Water Tank Question

driver

I cannot find any info on why I must drain some of my hot water tank (gas) in order to get it to fire up. If I want a hot shower, i need to call home and get someone to run the dishwasher before i get home. Someone told me it was a required energy feature like an automatic vacation switch (if your not using it, its not going to heat again) and to let the hot water always trickle somewhere.

Can anyone please lead me to the reason. Is it something I can adjust or fix?

Thanks
Tom

UALocal1Plumber

You should probably call a plumber to come to your house and help you out.

mikeswoods

Could be several things---

The thermostat may be defective--

You may have so much lime and crud in the bottom of the tank that the thermostat probe is buried --does your tank gurgle and pop?

BCConstruction

Sounds like your thermostat either needs replacing or adjusting. They can loose sensitivity after a while.

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driver

tank does not seem to make any gurgling sounds. It is about 10 years old. I tried flushing out the tank. It seemed to be very clean, which surprised me for a hard water area. This has always been an issue, but now it happens more frequently. Before it only happened if we were away for a couple days.

I appreciate all the advice.
Tom

rselectric1

The vacation setting is on your temperature dial. (Near the bottom of the heater) Until more of the plumbers chime in here, have you looked at the dial to make sure it wasn't inadvertanly turned to warm or vacation?

KillerToiletspider usually checks in alot and I would obviously defer to him or other plumbers here, but it might be worth a look.

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220...221...whatever it takes!

driver

I am certain it is not the temperature dial accidently knocked to the vacation setting.

Plumbermurrieta

You should call for a plumber like Plumbermurrieta in California the one that you can trust for it.

jimclemmer

Hello
good suggestion I am agree with you


Regards
Jimclemmer

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Plumbing Maintenances

driver

I have replaced the tank with a 50g that works perfectly. Now I can take hot water for granted again.
Still curious about what the problem was. All I can think of is an overheating sensor shutting off the system, until there is a shift in the float.

Tom

KillerToiletSpider

You have a bad gas control valve, they go bad for various reasons, even a small amount of dirt or rust in your gas supply can cause them to malfunction, a replacement control valve generally costs about the same as a new tank type heater.

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A flush is better than a full house.

KillerToiletSpider

Disregard my previous post, you have fixed the problem.

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A flush is better than a full house.

peterjames

You are getting temperatures at showers, then this would not be a water heater issue. There may be a problem in the plumbing.Contact a local plumber to come out this problem.