hot water tub problem

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I just bought my home and I am experiencing hot water problems only in the tub. Kitchen sink and bathroom sinks both work fine, the shower head gives a good amount of hot water but you need to constantly adjust the cold water gauge to a lesser amount to allow the hot water to continue otherwise it turns cold. The actually tub poors out about 10-15 seconds of hot water and than gets cold, if you turn it off for 30 seconds and than back on the same situation will occur. Now I have radiator hot water heat (no problems there), I don\\\'t have a hot water tank, and I had my oil company clean the coil on the boiler and it didn\\\'t help. My only problem seems to be with the tubs hot water, are there any fixes for this situation other than buying a hot water tank? Any feedback please.
 
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Have you got a very high or very low cold mains pressure? Either can cause problems like this. Either the cold overwhelms the hot which is limited in the boiler, or the cold starves the hot!
 
ChrisR said:
Have you got a very high or very low cold mains pressure? Either can cause problems like this. Either the cold overwhelms the hot which is limited in the boiler, or the cold starves the hot!

I am sorry, forgot to mention I have no plumbing knowledge (or very limited), when you ask about the low mains pressure what exactly is that, and what would be a good indicator.
 
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fitz1 said:
whats the boiler. name and type please.

It is a beckett burner not sure what type, I am at work wife is home and she has no idea what to look at, I could get that when I get off work tonight.
 
taps may not be suitable for a tank fed system.where does hot water come from
 
fitz1 said:
taps may not be suitable for a tank fed system.where does hot water come from

The hot water comes directly from the burner, I was told by the oil company that the hot water is created in the coil at about 5 gal per minute, and he told me to get a hot water heater, I figured there had to be some other cause to the problem, since I have no other hot water conflicts in the house and no problems with my heat.
 
ChrisR said:
Have you got a very high or very low cold mains pressure? Either can cause problems like this. Either the cold overwhelms the hot which is limited in the boiler, or the cold starves the hot!

It seems to me that the cold water pressure is pretty strong, not sure if thats what you were asking, it is definately not lacking although I am not sure if it very high comparably or at a normal level.
 
Try opening a cold faucet say at the kitchen sink, then try the shower. That'll drop the mains pressure a bit.
 
ChrisR said:
Try opening a cold faucet say at the kitchen sink, then try the shower. That'll drop the mains pressure a bit.

So I turn the cold water on say at the kitchen sink than try the tub and if it works I would have to do that everytime I fill the tub or take a shower?
The only thing is if I just leave the hot water on for the tub it only runs for about 10-15 seconds would that have anything to do with cold water pressure? (thanks for the help btw)
 
Could it be you are describing a rudimentary thermal store or even an oil fired combi? In either case the water which has laid in the coil will be toasty hot, the next bit will only pick up heat proportional to its dwell time in the coil.

Try running the hot water in the bath tub at basin tap flow rates, does it run hotter now? If it does you may have to ask some questions of the (apparent) descale work, like was it only the inside of the heating coil that was "cleaned", what about the boiler side?

Has it ever worked properly?
Has it ever worked better?
 
meldrew's_mate said:
Could it be you are describing a rudimentary thermal store or even an oil fired combi? In either case the water which has laid in the coil will be toasty hot, the next bit will only pick up heat proportional to its dwell time in the coil.

Try running the hot water in the bath tub at basin tap flow rates, does it run hotter now? If it does you may have to ask some questions of the (apparent) descale work, like was it only the inside of the heating coil that was "cleaned", what about the boiler side?

Has it ever worked properly?
Has it ever worked better?

I am not sure if it has ever worked properly because I just bought the house about 2 months ago and since than it has not worked properly. When he cleaned the coil all I had was a bunch of nasty setiment in the tub so I am pretty sure that was an inside cleaning job. Let me ask you what you mean by basin tap flow rates? I don't have a hot water heater all I could squeeze out of my wife at the moment was that the burner is a beckett (I am at work she is more clueless than I am).
 
ChrisR wrote:
Try opening a cold faucet say at the kitchen sink, then try the shower. That'll drop the mains pressure a bit.


So I turn the cold water on say at the kitchen sink than try the tub and if it works I would have to do that everytime I fill the tub or take a shower?
The only thing is if I just leave the hot water on for the tub it only runs for about 10-15 seconds would that have anything to do with cold water pressure? (thanks for the help btw)

Just try it will ya? We are attempting to diagnose the problem. I have already said it may be related to high CW pressure. There's alot of accumulated knowledge and experience amongst the guys on this site and it isn't possible to explain everything for every answer!
 
Sorry, didn't mean to be a pain in the ass. I tried it but still only 10-15 seconds of hot water from the tub.
 
Going back - assuming here that you have a shower with some sort of mixer, on the bath. Is there a non-shower outlet, ie a tap for a bath?
If you just turn the hot on without the cold what happens - 10 seconds hot then it turns cold, or...

How cold is cold? Same as the cold tap would be, or simply not hot enough?

Suppose you turn the hot down to a lower rate. Adjust the flow to 9 litres =2 UK gallons = 1 household bucket, per minute and see how hot it is.
Heat/flow rate is limited by the boiler.

I've never heard of a "beckett burner " but I don't see oil - are you in the UK?
 

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