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I contemplated posting this in a more general forum but I’m also looking for suggestions as to who I might call to have a look at this, and figured the local forum would be relevant.
Still learning the ropes of home ownership, I’m currently having an issue with the hot water in one bathroom and I’m not sure if I should call a plumber or a boiler tech?
A little background info - I have a fairly new system (installed 2010 by the previous owner). It’s an oil burning boiler which delivers heat via water filled baseboards (3 zones). The system also provides domestic hot water ‘on demand’ so to speak – meaning there is no separate hot water heater or holding tank. It also has a 2-pole aquastat which I currently have the Hi setting at 180 and the Low at 160 (there is no Diff setting).
The system generally does a good job of heating the house (Colonial, 4 br, 2.5 bath, aprx 1900 sq/ft) and provides steady hot water to all the fixtures with the exception of one bathroom, where it sometimes either takes a good amount of time for the water to initially heat up (3+ min) or occasionally will start hot, then cool down to lukewarm.
Being that it seems limited to one bathroom, I’m leaning towards something plumbing-related opposed to a problem with the boiler system. But as I said, I’m still pretty much a newbie with all this. I had read somewhere that there may possibly be an ‘anti-scald’ valve in the fixture itself, but this particular fixture has separate Hot and Cold knobs and as I understand, this valve would only be in single knob fixtures?
Any suggestions as to what may be going on and how to rectify or recommendations on who to call (preferably from personal experience) would be greatly appreciated.
Ugh...could be a number of reasons.
All bathrooms have showers/tubs and no issues with the other ones?
How far is this bathroom from the heating unit?
Is the problem worse in the winter?
A good plumber should be able to help, it does not sound like an issue with boiler itself.
Thanks for switching the ‘Sarcasm Mode’ off there for a moment, Karl =)
One bath is only a half, the other has a stand-up shower – those both seem fine – as does the kitchen sink.
In terms of piped distance from the boiler, now that you mention it might be the furthest – I actually hadn’t thought about that…
It currently doesn’t seem to be any worse in the colder weather, but I’m still trying to determine if one of the heating zones kicking on is influencing it.
It's quite possible. Run a test with the heat and the shower.
Might very well be the distance, it takes time to heat the water and then travel the added distance to the fixture, added with the fact you're heating your domestic and heat on a coil and no separation hot water heater that may be your culprit. You can do some troubleshooting yourself before bringing in a plumber. There are low cost options and tricks if this is actually the issue.
Probably the distance it has to travel - hot water takes forever to get to my master bath, which is farthest from the water heater. However, once it's hot it should not get lukewarm and then only stay lukewarm. But it may be that it's running over something warm, so you're getting hot, then not so hot, then hot again - my kitchen sink is above the hot air duct, so it will start warm, get cold, then heat up again.
Waters getting lukewarm because you don't have a tank. Crank your thermostat all the way up right before you shower. This will keep keep the boiler running and you should notice the water doesn't get lukewarm. If this is the case, you need to add a tank to store the hot water. The most expensive option is probably an indirect water heater but you might be able to get a rebate back if you have gas. If cost is an issue, just add a basic tank with its own zone.
^^ I doubt cranking the house thermostat would help. The boiler will already be running on the call for hot water if its below the set point temperature.
You might be able to increase the temperature on the shower water, but it will also make the rest of the house water hot.
I would just break down and add a domestic storage tank to the system.
Whatever you do, do NOT use Maccarone Plumbing. I recently had a shower cartridge replaced. Simply job, but I didn't know which part it was. They charged me $429. No lie. The part is $40 online. I will never ever use them again.
^^ I doubt cranking the house thermostat would help. The boiler will already be running on the call for hot water if its below the set point temperature.
You might be able to increase the temperature on the shower water, but it will also make the rest of the house water hot.
I would just break down and add a domestic storage tank to the system.
I've noticed at my home, with the so called 'on demand' hot water, the furnace gets confused when the heating zone turns the furnace on/off during a shower. By turning the thermostat all the way up, it doesn't stop the furnace from firing during the shower.
Thanks for all the input. Definitely seems like the consensus so far would be to call a plumber if I can’t resolve it via my own tinkering.
I’ve definitely entertained the idea of adding a separate water heater. I’ve also read about these types of systems having some sort of priority switch for the domestic hot water – not sure if mine has one though…
But now I’m wondering – if it is in fact an issue with the distance from the boiler (being that only this one bath seems to have an issue), would adding a dedicated water heater suffer from the same issue since it would be positioned in the same location as the boiler?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Misfitg
Whatever you do, do NOT use Maccarone Plumbing.
Thanks for the heads-up!
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