Anyone know anything about plumbing?

I closed on a house a few days ago and have noticed one quirk with the hot water.

Background:

• House is one level-one bath
• Water source is a shallow well. Appears to have some iron and sediment. I changed all filters and cleaned all aerators--I don't think the previous owners ever did.
• Water is heated by the boiler. 40-50 gal tank is a zone off of the boiler.

Path of hot water is: Boiler/HW Tank > Kitchen > Washing Machine > Shower > Bathroom Sink

The hot water is perfect in the kitchen sink, dish washer, and washing machine. It gets scalding hot and stays that way.

In the bathroom, not so much. The bathroom is about 12 ft of pipe away from the kitchen. Neither the shower or the sink will reliably flow hot water. Generally, you'll get hot water for a few seconds, then it goes to lukewarm. Pressure seems fine. Sometimes if you run it long enough, it'll cool off more for a few seconds, go to hot again for a few seconds, then back to lukewarm.

There is a shutoff valve in the basement on the hot water line just before the bathroom (after everything else), but it's a ball valve and seems to operate okay as far as I can tell. Also, I would think if this were blocked at all, I'd never get hot water--it'd just be lukewarm or cold all the time.

If it were just the shower, I would think it was a mixing valve, but this couldn't impact the sink too, could it?

Any ideas?

 

Does ur bathroom sink have 1 knob or 2

 

Are the faucets 1 handle? Sometimes the blender thing goes bad and doesnt shut off all of the cold water, and or when the handles got put on the adjuster may not have been in the correct position (not sure on terminology but if say all the way cold was 3:00 but for what ever reason it was at 5:00 when the handle got put on, when u turn the handle all the way to hot, the actual adjuster will still be about halfway still)

I have had the latter happen when my guest bath got installed and its an easy free fix, u have seen the 2nd happen and u pretty much have to buy new faucets

 

The shower is one handle, sink is two.

 

Pex or copper? Time to troubleshoot. Turn off the ball valve, then disconnect the side going out to the bathroom area (Pex, easy disconnect and reconnect, copper you have to cut, a slip/slip can be soldered to hook back up). Get large 5 gallon bucket, turn on ball valve and check water temps, 5 gallon bucket catches emitted hot water. I think you can figure the rest out on your own.

EZ Peazey...

 

I dunno then lol sounds like crud buildup in mixing valve but with 2 handles that shouldn't happen
Does this happen when u have just hot water turned on in sink?
Before you put new supplies in u should get a water filter of some sort....

 

BTW, sounds like sediment crud buildup, filtering with dirty well water is paramount....just sayin'...I deal with this from time to time with my clients...

 

Yes, it does. I don't touch the cold knob at all on the sink and it's the same behavior as if the tub was turned all the way to hot.

There are two filters, one just after the jet pump, another just before the boiler. They looked horrible when I got here--don't think they had been touched for a long time. I cleaned out the canisters and replaced the filters.

Where would the buildup be? That's what's puzzling me since most things work fine.

 

maybe your water heater has lots of sediment, which only allows a few gallons of hot water, by the time it gets to the bathroom its out of hot water? Or you might have an element out on your water heater....

 

Even with inline filters, sediment crud can start building up, especially if the filters have been ignored for a long time, the sediment can force its way into the system, once it starts to build up it gets nasty, especially at corners and bends and in galvanized pipe connections, very common in older homes, the galvy can get a huge buildup restricting flow, the inside diameter can get smaller and smaller, eventually to the point of not flowing at all...

 

Could there be an anti-scald device installed?

https://www.plumbingsupply.com/scald.html

 

Take some pictures and post them so we may see what your talking about, do you have an amtrol for your hot water or do you have a coil in the boiler? If so your tempering valve may be faulty,

 

This is the tank off the boiler. I believe it's pretty simple--a coiled pipe with hot water from the boiler runs through, transferring heat to the water in the tank, like shown here: https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files...ublic/indirect_water_heater.jpg?itok=lPi0rSXW:



The filters both look like this:


I highly doubt it's an issue with the way water is heated. There's got to be a 50 degree difference between the water in the kitchen and the water in the bathroom--only 12 feet or so apart.

I also don't see how it can be an anti-scald device or anything like that, because then only the shower would be impacted.

Something sediment related sounds right--I just don't see where it could have built up in that span of pipe--unless it's at a bend or at the ball valve shutoff.

 

that heater looks really old...If it were me I'd replace that if its over 12yrs old.

 

The boiler itself hasn't been maintained well. The guy I use said it is a high end unit and efficiency should be very good as long as it is running properly. It is a Riello burner and the previous owner didn't go through much oil at all. He is going to go through it next weekend and see exactly what it needs--he indicated that unless a lot more is wrong than he thinks, it wouldn't be cost effective to replace it.

I am still hard pressed to believe the boiler or water heater tank is in any way related. I think there is an issue in the piping somewhere between the kitchen and the bathroom.

The whole house is flawless cosmetically. The previous owners put a lot of time and money into that. But some of the other stuff I noticed when I originally looked at it (and more so now that I own it), I groan and think "why did they ignore that--how were they okay with this as-is?". For instance, I rewired the garage this weekend and installed new lighting. The fixtures they had were horrifying and just about useless.

 

Refresh my memory please, you have hot water issues in just the bath room,? You said you have a single lever handle on the shower, that means it is anti scalding with a cartridge quite possible a pressure balance valve,the cartridge could be on its way out, but for the faucet, you said it was two handle .? Is it an 8inc spread,if so it has a tee connector under neath the sink that could have sediment in that.
Iron can mess up any number of things, but it sounds like it's just in the bathroom ?

 

The hot water tank looks to be a carlin aqua bank, and the boiler looks like a Weil McLain gold oil boiler ??

 

All correct.

So you are saying probably two separate issues, just coincidence that it is that room and all else is okay?

 

Not sure on the water tank. Would have to look for a label.

Boiler is a Pensotti with a Riello Mectron burner.

 

@Thesandaddict