Lukewarm water after 10 hrs?

[Stayouttadabunker]

How long does it take to warm up water to 120 degrees?
I have only lukewarm water after 10 hours.
What gives? My wallet ...that's what!

I have a 8 year old tallboy 40 gal. A.O.Smith domestic hot water heater.
It is using two heater elements rated at 4500 watts each and their prospective thermostats are set at 120 degrees.
With a multimeter, I measured 239 to 241 VAC on each element.

This thing is a slowpoke...
Should I replace the elements, thermostats, or tank?

[Stayouttadabunker]

Oh lordy!
I think I know why it's taking so long to heat up.
Looking at another website, I was able to decipher the A.O.Smith manufacturing date
of this water heater from it's serial number...
Made in July of 1991 !
20yrs-4months old!

Good thing I bought another water heater last week.
Gotta swap it out!

[Redwood]

Well if the water is only lukewarm after 10 hours and you have the right voltage supplied that would leave the problem as either or both the thermostats and the elements....

But at 20 years old...

And you already have another...

It makes sense to swap out the water heater... Have Fun!

[Stayouttadabunker]

I gave you "Thanks" for your...uh...help, Redwood!
I wonder what my electric bill will be next month...LOL

[HayZee518]

I told you before that the thermostats swap after the upper one is satisfied. the lower element does 90 percent of the work. set the upper stat higher than the lower one. a while back you asked a question about your Mom's hot water system. Is your domestic hot water a separate heater or is it tied into your slab heater? Your heating system is an awfully expensive way of heating the house - all electric! I hope nyseg or national grid is giving you an off peak rate! most zone type heating systems use a boiler for steam or hot water - not individual hot water tank type heaters for each or two slabs through a recirc pump and zone valves.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Well,
The sunroom and bathroom slabs are shot.
There's a crack somewhere and they won't hold pressure at all.
I suspect that they busted sometime during the ice storm or some time after.
I suspect the break is in the slab concrete somewhere near to the west side of the house because her east-located bedroom slab survived and is running on a single 30 gal. water heater.

As for your question, yes...the slabs were tied into the DHW system along with the Cantherm.
The Cantherm520 heat pump system is now being removed, as well as the 100gal. recovery storage tank.
DHW is now served via a brand new 30 gal. hot water heater.
(And yes, the top elements are on. )
First time with hot water on that side of the home in 2 years!
I'm going to try see if this, along with the woodstove and a MPI422 monitor, will get us through this winter.
If not, I will install something else next summer...
Here's some pictures of my plumbing work and leftovers...lol
How much is copper going for at the dump? hahahaha!
I will tidy up in the next few days and add support strapping...put the hot water heater covers on, etc.
I also want a longer piece of that metal protective hot water heater
flexible steel pipe for the 230VAC connection.
You can see the flex cover pipe was too short for the lowboy heater...
After I get it all cleaned up...do I have to call somebody in to inspect it? >>>

[Stayouttadabunker]

Another note to myself...make sure the big azzed storage water tank is empty before trying to move it!
I thought I emptied it right?

Opened up the bottom drain valve and let it run out via a garden hose to the sump pump.
The color of the water was pretty brown too so I figured I got all the water out of it. HAH!

Well, I worked and sweated for like an hour and a half moving that sucker out of the room then realized I could get it across the basement floor by laying it down onto some rollers (Old decorative bed frame pipes) and pushing it across the floor.
So I tilt the sucker a little more and realize that it's far too heavy for me to lay down without crushing my cheap bed frame pipes!!! They're too thin!

I see a small basketball nearby, maneuver it with my foot in front of me towards the center of where I think would be the tank when I let it go!!!
I tilt the tank further, very slowly watching everything...making sure I have an escape route!
I tilted it more towards me than ran like a banshee!

The tank came crashing down right on top of the basketball and to my surprise - held up the tank from crashing onto the concrete floor!
I move around the rollers into position and manage to get the basketball out from under it and presto!...moved the tank!

When I ran from the falling tank, I turned to see red colored gycol come out of the two pipes...it was HALF -FULL!!!!
That explains how the glycol was separated from the DHW!
The tank is internally separated from the two fluids from mixing!!

Wowzer! That means I was trying to lug around a 100 gallon tank with about 50 gallons of water in it!!!
At 8 and a half lbs per gallon...that was pretty bloody heavy!
I'm have ...uh...one strong basketball...!

[thurst]

10 hrs should be way hot...

[Stayouttadabunker]

10 hrs should be way hot...

I ended up changing out that water heater...it was finished...lol
The new one heated up in an 1/2 hour!
It's the new lowboy in the second picture in post #6 !

[mrcaptainbob]

Water heater....

Good job! Pretty gutsy with that basket ball idea. That would've been noisy if it did burst! As for the copper to the junk yard....Heck yeah! The copper in one pile, brass from the valves and fittings in another and pipe (and pipe fittings) and water heater in another pile. Remove any copper off the water heater.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Good job! Pretty gutsy with that basket ball idea.
-MrCaptain Bob


haha! I think I was more like stupid than gutsy! lol

[Stayouttadabunker]

Wow, 20 years out of is isn't too bad

lol yes, I think we got our money's worth out of that water heater...haha!