Hot water problem in tub
 

We have a problem when it comes to running a bath.
We can only get it half full before the water starts to run cold.
The shower can stay on for hours without running cold.

Is this a hot water heater issue?

The flow out of a shower head is typically less than the faucet in a tub. What size and how old is your water heater?

Heheh! Boston Reefers Unite! :)

Anyways, you could run the tub more slowly to give the heater a chance to keep up with the flow. Or you could turn up the temperature of your water heater, so you're mixing more cold water with it at the tap. But be careful if you have kids in the house. Turning the water up above 115 can be dangerous.

Aside from those changes, you'd have to look at a larger tanked water heater, or a tankless, which can provide constant hot water to an outlet (or more depending on size of the heater).

What kind of hot water heater are we talking about? If it is Electric then it is time to check your elements.... Primarily the lower element if you start out w/ hot water and don't have enough, but honestly, if one is bad, change them both... they are cheap enough.

Boston on the Scene

Here is the solution:

as your shower head can provide your hours of hot water and your faucet couldn't, just use the shower head to fill up the tub... it will work...

Test the elements on that water heater, when ever I have to do a heater with this problem and it's elec, it is 90% of the time the lower element out.

Would you agree w/ my above assertion that it makes to change both while your in there and while its drained?


Oh and Matt - if you don't know how to change the elements, I'm sure you can find a guide on the net but let me caution you most about one thing - after the new elements are in place, be absolutely certain that the tank is full of water BEFORE turning the power back on or your new elements will be fried as well.

Sure you can if one wants to, the reason the bottom goes out before the top most of the time, is the bottom works overtime compaired to the top element.

Are you talking about one tub/shower (i.e. - one valve) where the shower can run "for hours", but the tub cannot, or are they two separate fixtures (a tub and a separate shower stall - each with it's own valve)?

If they're separate fixtures, is the tub valve a wall-mounted temperature/pressure balanced valve? If so, you may be able to just replace either a stem and/or a "balancing spool" depending on the manufacturer and model.