Erratic Hot Water

[whoppr]

Hi there....


I was hoping to get some help troubleshooting a hot water problem... I have an oil fired hot water tank that has been giving me problems. My problem is that the hot water throughout the house has been really erratic.. It will be piping hot and then slowly cool. I thought it might be something in the tank like a dip tube if there is one, but the tank is virtually brand new... It failed about a year ago and was replaced... Up until a few weeks ago the hot water has been really reliable...

I thought that it might be a failed tempering valve so I bought a repair kit.. The valve is made by Watts regulator. I was able to replace the thermostat and guts in this valve and it seems better however Im only getting water that is warm not hot. To compenstate I have the temper valve turned all the way up as well as the tank....

I have pictures of the setup but Im not if and how I can post them. Most of it I can figure out like the cold and hot going into the temper valve but there are some pipes that I simply dont understand..

Other things I can share that might give insight... The pipe coming out of the tank is REALLY hot so I dont think its the burner... The other thing is several weeks ago I was working on one of the faucets in the house replacing a cartridge so I had the whole house shut off which might have kicked up sediment. Lastly the pressure to the house seems fine on both hot and cold. Its hard to tell since the shutoff for the hot is after the temper valve so if I were having pressure problems coming out of the tank I wouldnt know.. I tested the pressure by turning off the cold supply under a faucet and turning on just the hot and it seemed fine..


Thanks in advance... Im really at a loss.

Whoppr

[LazyPup]

It sounds as if you have done a good job of troubleshooting the situation.

Given that the problem is common to the whole house rather than just one point of demand isolates the problem to the supply tank or the tempering valve rather than an individual faucett issue.

You stated that the discharge line from the water heater to the tempering valve is hot, so the obvious point of failure is the tempering valve.

To prove that you might run the water till the problem occurs, then check the water heater discahrge line to insure it is still hot, If so, we can be confident the problem is the tempering valve.

The solution would be to turn off the water pressure and dissassemble the tempering valve and check for sediments or other problems that are effecting the valves performance.