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Hot water in shower suddenly cuts out / goes cold (gas hot water system)
Adrian requested 3 quotes from Plumbers in South Melbourne
We have a gas hot water system located outside, delivering hot water to the downstairs kitchen and the upstairs bathrooms.
The shower has been trouble free for more than 10 years, but the hot water to the shower has recently become very difficult to manage.
When we first turn on the hot tap in the shower, the water is scalding hot. If we turn on the cold tap a tiny bit (and a bit more, and a bit more), the water is still too hot for comfort.
However, if we turn the cold tap just a milimetre too far, the hot water switches off completely! In other words, even if we turn off the cold tap, the water coming from the shower is still cold, even though only the hot tap is on!
The only way to reset the hot water to the shower is to turn both taps off, wait a few seconds, then start the whole process again.
It seems that the cold tap is somehow sending the wrong signal to the hot water system.
Interestingly, while the shower is running completely cold (with the hot water tap switched on), I can still get streaming hot water from the bathroom taps in the basin and the bath. But if I turn off the taps to the basin, then the shower still runs cold. Clearly, this is a signalling problem.
The problem is so bad that it can take 15 minutes of continually fiddling with the taps before we can get a steady stream of warm water; otherwise, the water is either scalding hot or freezing cold. And even then, there is a good chance that the hot water will cut out mid shower. And then we need to start the whole process all over again.
I don't know if this is a problem with the tax mixers or with the plumbing in the bathroom or with the gas hot water unit.
The hot water unit is a Bosch Highflow YS2433R model. We installed the system about 11 years ago.
Plumbers that Responded
K.R Plumbing
I can\'t speak highly enough of Ryan from KR Plumbing. He phoned me shortly after I posted the job, asked half a dozen critical questions ... and was quickly able to diagnose the likely cause. Within a few minutes of talking to Ryan on the phone I instantly understood the problem and how to fix it myself. (To cut a long story short, the source of the problem was the new slow-flow showerhead I\'d installed recently. When I turned on more cold water the rate of flow through the hot tap was too low to trigger the hot water system.) \r\n\r\nWhen posting this job earlier tonight I had feared that I might be up for hundreds or thousands of dollars (e.g. to install a new hot water system or to have major plumbing work done in the bathroom). Instead I fixed the problem myself, within minutes ... and at no cost!\r\n\r\nThe two things that impressed me most about Ryan were:\r\n\r\n(a) his intelligence, professionalism and quick understanding of the problem and the solution, and\r\n\r\n(b) his honesty in telling me the answer over the phone. \r\n\r\nI suspect that most other plumbers would not have been able to diagnose the problem as quickly. Or, if they had known the answer, they would have kept it to themselves so as to be able to charge me for coming out and fixing it.\r\n\r\nI thoroughly recommend Ryan to other people and have now asked him to quote on a bunch of other plumbing jobs around the house that are long overdue.
· over a year agoWade Pham Pty Ltd.
Your family plumber
Quote Details
- Suburb South Melbourne, VIC 3205
- Specialisation Hot Water Unit Repairs
- Date Listed 27 Sep 2013 - 6:37 pm
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