no HOT water and low pressure

[dpratt68]

I am afraid to call and get estimate! We have warm not hot water and the pressure in the shower varies greatly. We do have a coil that needs to be replaced but I'm hoping we don't need a whole new furnace. Any professional opinions? other thought was well pump? I know you can't diagnose sight unseen but any thoughts? price range?

 

[msmayor]

Do you have a hot water heater tank? That would be where your hot water is coming from, which as far as I know is not associated at all with your furnace.

 

[gabriellyn]

Could be sediment build-up. I would have it looked at right away, since this could cause major issues.

 

[dawson5]

You say low pressure also. Does your cold have full pressure?

Do you have a water softener?


We've had two issues with our water and even though they affected the hot water, it had nothing to do with it. A pipe outside for the sprinkler system broke and ran water until the pump would no longer run. The other was when the water softener went. We bypassed it until we got a new one, no problem.

I know sometimes you need to prime something on the well. If you google it, something should come up.

 

[minnie1928]

I'm getting a new hot water heater on Monday. A 50 gallon tank with a 10 year warranty is about $1350, a lower end tank is about $850....if that's what you need to get.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

Sounds like your hot water heater may be ready to go. We had this same problem about 2 or 3 days before the bottom literally dropped out of our hot water heater tank. 40 Gallons of hot water in the basement was not a pretty sight.

Although, as some have pointed out, if there is no obvious leak near the hot water heater (sometimes they only drip when they get ready to go), you may have a leak somewhere else in the plumbing, that is letting the hot water escape before reaching the shower.

 

[DMickey28]

Could it be the circulating pump? Ours went out and while the furnace was kicking on and off there was no hot water and very low pressure getting up stairs.

 

[gacompguy]

From personal experience, I would highly recommend getting someone to come look at it. We had been hearing a dripping sound in our hot water heater for months. We came out on Thanksgiving day and found water everywhere in our garage. The hot water heater was about 15 years old at that point. The plumber said lifetime can vary between the different models, but that 8-10 years was normal... he was very surprised our water heater lasted as long as it did.

On a side note... if you do need a new hot water heater, stay away from the big box retailers. We bought one only to find out that there were all sorts of extra costs. A local plumber can come out and make a list of everything you need so there are surprises after the fact. In our case, we needed a new stand since Georgia code now requires metal stands (the old one was wood). When the plumber told me this, he didn't have one and had no way to go buy one and bill/charge me. I had to pack up my 8-month old daughter and go to Lowe's on a cold Saturday morning to buy a hot water heater stand. The plumber also had to make multiple trips since he came unprepared. If I had it to do over, I would have spent my money on a local plumber that didn't drive 40 minutes to my house.

 

[Poohbug]

If you have a well, you may want to check out the pressure tank. We recently replaced ours because our water temp. would vary greatly and the pressure was just gone. The pressure tank has a bladder inside that can get a rip in it. This affected our water temps because we have a tankless heater. I don't know how it would affect other types of water heaters.

I think you are going to have to have someone come and check things out.

 

[xipetotec]

Do your pipes make any noise? We had a similar issue because we had air in one of our pipes. Turning on the faucet would cause the pipes to vibrate and no hot water and low water pressure would occur.

What we had to do was turn off the water and open the lowest faucet in the house to basically "drain the system". Then turn the water back on slowly.

Probably not your problem, but figured I'd share.

 

[BrettS]

I am afraid to call and get estimate! We have warm not hot water and the pressure in the shower varies greatly. We do have a coil that needs to be replaced but I'm hoping we don't need a whole new furnace. Any professional opinions? other thought was well pump? I know you can't diagnose sight unseen but any thoughts? price range?

I'm thinking water heater. Most water heaters have a tube inside that allows the new cold water to enter at the bottom of the tank. Since heat rises, the hot water stays on the top, so you can get nice hot water for your shower.

Apparently there is a common problem with water heaters from about 5 or 10 years ago where this plastic tube can break off inside the water heater. Apparently the plastic that was commonly used for this tube can't stand up to the high temperatures in the water heater and it becomes brittle. This allows cold water to enter at the top of the tank which mixes with the hot water in the tank, so you only get warm water out. Additionally, little pieces of the plastic tube can enter your water system and clog your valves and faucets and cause low water pressure.

Try to take the shower head off of your shower (It should just unscrew, but if it's been on there for a long time you might need a wrench or a pair of pliars. If you need to use a tool, cover the shower head with a washcloth or something to keep the tool from scratching it.) Once it's off, look inside and see if you see little pieces of plastic in there. Also, while it's off, try to turn the water on and see if you have higher pressure without the shower head in place. If you do have little plastic bits in there, then I'm thinking this may be your problem and you'll need to have your water heater replaced to fix it.

I know you mentioned your well pump too, but unless you're experiencing low water pressure throughout your house I wouldn't think that would be the problem. If the pressure is low everywhere, then the well pump might be the culprit.

 

[npmommie]

I am afraid to call and get estimate! We have warm not hot water and the pressure in the shower varies greatly. We do have a coil that needs to be replaced but I'm hoping we don't need a whole new furnace. Any professional opinions? other thought was well pump? I know you can't diagnose sight unseen but any thoughts? price range?

does your hot water come off your furnace? thats how ours is. we had this same problem not long ago.
i forget exactly what they replaced, but it was about a $300 fix.

 

[DISdreamin']

Apparently there is a common problem with water heaters from about 5 or 10 years ago where this plastic tube can break off inside the water heater.

BTDT with this issue! And only 3 years into a house that was custom-built! We had a Rheem HWH and the plastic bit separated/disconnected so it was basically putting the cold water in on top and then immediately siphoning off the warm mixture instead of stratifying as designed.

Anyways, we got a new HWH when it happened the SECOND time (the first time they thought it was the backflow valve on top and tried replacing it). We did end up paying about $175 for the install on the new HWH and thus far - knock on wood - we haven't had a problem with this one.

I do know if we had to pay OOP for the new one they said it would have been about $1200 - it's a 50 gallon unit with power vent and such. Very pricey things, evidently.

 

[msmayor]

Apparently there is a common problem with water heaters from about 5 or 10 years ago where this plastic tube can break off inside the water heater. Apparently the plastic that was commonly used for this tube can't stand up to the high temperatures in the water heater and it becomes brittle. This allows cold water to enter at the top of the tank which mixes with the hot water in the tank, so you only get warm water out. Additionally, little pieces of the plastic tube can enter your water system and clog your valves and faucets and cause low water pressure.

Went back as far as 1995. We had the same problem about a year in to our brand new house and I discovered a class-action settlement had been in place to replace the dip tubes free of charge. We had it done, and that HW heater worked great afterwards; lasted 15 years. Just this week we replaced the original unit as I knew it was on borrowed time and wanted it done before there were problems.

 

[ceecee]

How old is the water heater? They only last about 10-20 years (depends on your water) Ours is ready to go at 10 yrs as we have very hard well water with a lot of sediment. $900-1000 is about the price for a good (not cheap) 50 gallon size. I wouldn't think your furnace would be involved at all.

 

[nd5056]

...We have warm not hot water and the pressure in the shower varies greatly....

Warm (not hot) water in the shower only or everywhere???

.

 

[Gigi22]

You could also have a quick look at the circuit breaker for your hot water tank--if the problem is not your hot water tank, the breaker may have tripped.

 

[dznyacct]

We just had to replace our 7 year old 75 gallon hot water heater this week. Luckily, I have a WONDERFUL brother-in-law who is a plumber and got us the water heater at cost and put it in free of charge, but...........it was $1,200 .

 

[dpratt68]

Warm (not hot) water in the shower only or everywhere???

.

everywhere & low pressure

 

[cglaura]

Also check the front of the hot water heater. Mine had an access panel with a trip button. Sometimes if it is set too high it will trip off as a safety. Just push the button back in (sort of like a gfi on an electric outlet).

But if that is the case, you need to find out why it tripped and fix that issue. Mine was that the heater was on it's way out and it wasn't regulating properly (close to 15 years old).

Do you maintain the heater? Drain and refill to remove sediment? This should be done about once every 6 months. It is pretty easy, you can get instructions online. This wouldn't be a fix for the issue now, but something to think about if you get a new one.

Not sure about the pressure. Unfortunately the only experience I have was that I needed a new pump (well water, not city).

I'd check under the house too just to make sure there are no leaks.