Sorry, this is a long one. I have an interesting problem and thought I'd post up here to ask the community.
Problem: hot water isn't getting hot enough at taps... Intermittently. It's obviously a problem for showers. just randomly started happening maybe 3 weeks ago. It's intermittent yet seems to be getting worse.
Background: HTP rgh-199 crossover wall hung water heater. This thing is apparently smarter than I am. Even the techs at htp don't even know how it works. The input is 1" from the city, pressures hover around 80psi. the output is 1" risers serving 3 floors plus basement. Each floor has a manifold close to the fixtures with 1/2" branch lines to each valve. All the valves are single stick left hot/right cold ceramic cartridge style (see photo). Except, there is a washing machine on the 2nd floor that has regular hot and cold taps.
When the issue happens, water coming out of taps are around 100F, when the water heater is set to 140F. The heater has a thermocouple at the outlet which you can read on the LCD from the secret menu, which is reading 140F. I also have a tridicator downstream of the heater which also reads 140F (it used to be down stream of the tempering valve, but I ripped that out in frustration)
I attached a crude riser drawing. I'm sorry for my bad drawings skills. But you'll get the gist of it.
At first, as a temp fix, I maxed out the water heater output to 160F. It seemed to work at the time, but now it continues to sometimes work, I've left and the clients are still complaining of not hot enough, which is around 100F.
freakin’ baffling to me. Hopefully someone on here has some insight to share.
Problem solving:
So in my mind, I've widdled this down to 2 things. It's either the water heater, or cold water is getting into the hot line somewhere.
The water heater is not faulting, its all clean in there as its a new unit and probably 3 months in use before this issue started. No intake blockages or anything, although it would fault if anything like that was wrong, like low gas pressure, low water pressure, not enough intake etc. At first I though maybe the intake or output thermocouples are giving false readings... Does that happen? Like it still gives readings so the system doesn't fault but the TC becomes miscalibrated mid use?
The other thing I can think of is one of the valves is crossing over. That's what I thought was happening with the tempering valve, So I pulled it out. But I can't imagine one of those would cceramic cartidges would cross over THAT much water? looking at the cartridge, the only place cold water can cross to the hot is from that little gasket as the back, if the gasket failed, sure some water could get through, probably make a lot of noise at the valve, or get water leaking out the outlet right?
I'm out of the country now, and trying to problem solve this. Any other possibilities someone else can think of? Before I send someone in there on a wild goose chase running hoses off washing machine taps and feeling pipes.
Thanks
Problem: hot water isn't getting hot enough at taps... Intermittently. It's obviously a problem for showers. just randomly started happening maybe 3 weeks ago. It's intermittent yet seems to be getting worse.
Background: HTP rgh-199 crossover wall hung water heater. This thing is apparently smarter than I am. Even the techs at htp don't even know how it works. The input is 1" from the city, pressures hover around 80psi. the output is 1" risers serving 3 floors plus basement. Each floor has a manifold close to the fixtures with 1/2" branch lines to each valve. All the valves are single stick left hot/right cold ceramic cartridge style (see photo). Except, there is a washing machine on the 2nd floor that has regular hot and cold taps.
When the issue happens, water coming out of taps are around 100F, when the water heater is set to 140F. The heater has a thermocouple at the outlet which you can read on the LCD from the secret menu, which is reading 140F. I also have a tridicator downstream of the heater which also reads 140F (it used to be down stream of the tempering valve, but I ripped that out in frustration)
I attached a crude riser drawing. I'm sorry for my bad drawings skills. But you'll get the gist of it.
At first, as a temp fix, I maxed out the water heater output to 160F. It seemed to work at the time, but now it continues to sometimes work, I've left and the clients are still complaining of not hot enough, which is around 100F.
freakin’ baffling to me. Hopefully someone on here has some insight to share.
Problem solving:
So in my mind, I've widdled this down to 2 things. It's either the water heater, or cold water is getting into the hot line somewhere.
The water heater is not faulting, its all clean in there as its a new unit and probably 3 months in use before this issue started. No intake blockages or anything, although it would fault if anything like that was wrong, like low gas pressure, low water pressure, not enough intake etc. At first I though maybe the intake or output thermocouples are giving false readings... Does that happen? Like it still gives readings so the system doesn't fault but the TC becomes miscalibrated mid use?
The other thing I can think of is one of the valves is crossing over. That's what I thought was happening with the tempering valve, So I pulled it out. But I can't imagine one of those would cceramic cartidges would cross over THAT much water? looking at the cartridge, the only place cold water can cross to the hot is from that little gasket as the back, if the gasket failed, sure some water could get through, probably make a lot of noise at the valve, or get water leaking out the outlet right?
I'm out of the country now, and trying to problem solve this. Any other possibilities someone else can think of? Before I send someone in there on a wild goose chase running hoses off washing machine taps and feeling pipes.
Thanks