Trouble with kitchen sink/hot water

kid320 · 04-29-2010, 01:53 AM

I moved into a house that was built in 1940 about a year ago. It has a pretty new gas hot water heater that works great (it is NOT a tankless, btw). When I turn the hot water on at any of my fixtures, with the exception of my kitchen sink, I get hot water almost instantly.

Now, my kitchen sink has been a bit of a head scratcher for me. When I initially turn the water on, it is always cold. When I call for hot water, it takes about 15 seconds before I am able to feel the slightest bit of temperature change and another 15 to 30 seconds for it to go completely hot. I could be running the cold water for 10 minutes straight before I switch to hot or I could just turn it on and call for hot right away, and it will still take the same amount of time to warm up. Once it warms up, it gets hot and stays hot. I can not figure out why it takes so long to get hot.

The kitchen sink is not any further away from the hot water heater than any other plumbing fixture in the house. In fact, there is a bathroom directly above my kitchen sink and a half bath off the back of my kitchen that are further away. All of these fixtures get hot water pretty much instantly.

I've replaced the faucet in my kitchen, thinking that might be part of the problem, but it did not solve anything.

It has been suggested to me that I probably have a valve that is partially shut off going to the hot water of that sink, but that doesn't make much sense to me because once I start getting the hot water, it will stay hot, just like I would expect it to do. If I weren't getting enough hot water, I would think that it would still warm up a little faster, but it would only reach a certain temperature and not get any hotter. I've checked as much of the pipe as I can and I don't see any valves on it, let alone any that are partially closed. So, I really don't think that is the case.

I am confused on what could be causing this problem. Perhaps someone here could make a few suggestions. I would sure appreciate it.

Scuba_Dave · 04-29-2010, 10:14 AM

The sink may not be further away, but how was the piping run ?
If the pipe was run from one place to another then the kitchen might have more pipe

Yoyizit · 04-29-2010, 10:22 AM

FWIW, 100' of 1/2" ID pipe contains one gallon [of cold water?].

kid320 · 04-29-2010, 11:31 AM

I can pretty much trace the pipe in the basement from my hot water heater to just under the sink, so I think it is a straight run. Now, that pipe MAY branch off at some point and feed the 2nd floor shower and sink and the half bath on the first floor. I will take a look at this when I get home. Other than that, it is going 35 feet, at most, and it isn't passing through any other fixtures first.