Shower hot water temperature occasionally warm (not hot)

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LLigetfa

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today I tried running hot water at the bathroom sink and it was also not hot... just warm.

Does the sink have separate hot and cold levers to be sure you are drawing just from the hot side? Does the flow on the hot seem less than on the cold?

Some possible reasons for temp variation:
Heat traps sticking, reduce fow.
Dip tube broken, resulting in blending.
Pressure balance spool in single lever control sticky.
Pressure balance diaphragm ruptured causing crossover.
Temperature stacking caused by frequent small draws of water.
 

LLigetfa

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If you have a crossover situation, the heat traps could still be sticking, but the crossover maintains the flow so you need to rule out a crossover first. Any fixture that has a single handle with anti-scald pressure balance could cause a crossover... the diaphragm types more so than the piston types. If you have shutoffs at the fixtures, turn them all off and see if that makes any difference.

Usually if you have a deteriorated dip tube, you will find small bits of plastic coming out the draincock or trapped in aerators. With a bad dip tube, the water starts out hot but doesn't last.

Temperature stacking causes the water to get hotter than normal at the top of the tank when repeated small uses of hot water causes the heater to fire. After the usage stops and the heater has time to sit, such as overnight, the temperature evens out top to bottom.
 
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