hot water pressure

I have a home with a well. The hot water pressure "only" has dropped to about 50% of the cold water. 2 bathrooms and a kitchen are all the same...very low hot and great cold . A new hot water heater was installed in august of 2001 and the house was built in 1992. This seems to be something to do with the heater...any suggestions.

Greetings jr welcome to the Forum.

Has this happened suddenly, or over a period of time?

Drained/Flushed the Heater lately?

Checked that all Valves are completely open?

Damage of supply lines (bent/pinched)?

Do you have any history of your Faucet Aerators stopping up excessively?

Any Cartridges missing from your Filters?


Have a good Day !
S.W.

Apparently over a period of timethis has been happening. My son is living in my home in northen michigan as I live about 4 hrs away. All valves are open...no bent / pinched lines, faucet aerators are ok and no bad history. The water heater has not been flushed that I know of and it was installed new in 2001. One odd thing that happened after I posted this is when the hot is on in one faucet (say kitchen) and then i turn the water to warm in the bathroon, the presure would increase in the kitchen..but if i turned the water to hot or cold in the bathroom the pressure dropped back down. The faucets are all single handle in the home. I was upnorth today and he is draining the tank. thanks for the help...much appreciated

jr,

YES, those single handle Faucets can transfer pressure across the lines !
Given you have your own system, I can't help but think it's a stoppage in the outgoing line from the heater.

As a last resort you could Back-flush, and this is the easiest way I know to do that.

Shut cold supply off to Heater.

Connect a standard Garden Hose to the Drain Valve, and run it outside somewhere.

Open the Heater drain Valve.

Go to any Sink, the further away the better.

Make a "Jumper/connector" pipe, from your Cold to Hot Valve under the Sink. That'd be a copper line about 24" long, with appropriate fittings for the supply line Valves. (Compression/Flare)

Turn off both sink valves, disconnect the supply lines for that sink, and connect the jumper pipe/tubing on the Valves.

Turn both hot and cold Sink valves on, and let it run for about five minutes.

That should reverse the cold water back into the hot pipe, flushing any debris back into the Heater, and hopefully out the drain.

All Faucets should be off during flush.

During the Flush, it wouldn't hurt to tap the Hot Water piping near the Heater, with the handle of a Hammer, not to hard, just enough to give it a good shock/rattle.

I know this is kind of a chore, but, it's the only way I know of to get it done, without starting to replace pipe, or running some De-Scaler through the system.

Have a good Day !
S.W.

I do not think it is a great idea to flush a tank with cold water as this may cause thermo shock to the tank especially glass lined type

Second suggesting a cross connection is not such a great idea I think one would be better off doing one of the following

1-Slowly open the drain valve of the heater to flush out any mineral deposits /sediment

2- CAREFULLY Open the T&P to make sure it is working

3- If back flushing is really needed then the tank should be allowed to cool off considerably before attempting back flushing

jr,

I'm sorry, I should have explained this better!

1. You should always turn off the fuel supply (Electric/Gas/Oil) before any repair is made on a Heater.

2. When draining/flushing a tank, one would always open the T/P valve, to expedite draining the Tank.

3. By the time the Tank is drained, there should be sufficient time for the unit to cool, where a backflush can be done safely.

4. I think you're already tried just draining/flushing the Tank and it didn't relieve the problem, right !

Have a good Day !
S.W.

Thanks for all the help I appreciate all the suggestions. So far no luck so considering now that I've tried it myself and it cost me as much as a plumber to travel to the home, it's time to call the experts. Thisis a great forum and I'm glad I found it. Hope I can help someone else someday. Thanks again.

Was a dielectric fitting (nipple or union) installed to prevent electrolytic action from happening?


Also some of the new heaters have a nipple with a rubber check built in that can really cause a severe volume/ pressure drop over time