Arrghh water heater

[Surface Tension]

To take a 20 minute shower from a 40 gallon WH you'd have to have 1.5 GPM or less shower head. Having to adjust the mix after 5 minutes isn't that uncommon.

So test the shower head for GPM.

Lets say your S H is 3 GPM. 3x10=30 which would be 75% of 40 gallons and that is what it should be. You would have cold water after 10 minutes.

[upnorth]

Hi, I am a former Lowe's employee. The situation you have is you are dealing with the manufactuer Whirlpool. Had you purchased an extended protection plan with Lowe's they would be the ones to deal with fighting with Whirlpool. Unfortunately, most people decline the extended protection. In your case, it would have paid off.

Secondly, I left Lowe's and found a much better place to work. Lowe's management is a huge joke and none of them deserve to be employed. The Hibbing store is run by a tyrant, the regional manager that runs Hibbing and all the Twin Cities stores is an stubborn-one and gets his directives from the morons in corporate. None of the managers there have guts to stand up to their directives. May advice, stick to your local business owners and keep your money in YOUR community.

Try going to Lowe's and ask if they will contribute to your local boy scouts or any other non profit, they turn everyone down. Lowe's is a place that should never be shopped, they are like WalMart and are complete vultures. Stay Away from Lowes. And they pay like [PoorWordUsage]......

Most the time I do decline the extended warranty, this time I chose to get as it was an in house repair.

ST I get your math, but we had 40 gallon water heater that never put us in a position of adjusting the water temp within a normal shower.

[Archerysniper]

Have you checked the Temp setting on the heater? It might be cranked way down

[WWW]

This is very funny. maybe not for you up north but very funny for me. You got what you paid for from Lowes. Low ball price and bottom of the line service. Dont forget a piece of dump water heater in you house to.

Here is my take on this since I run a plumbing business. You pay a few dollars more for a quality water heater from us. you get a quality installation. If there is any issues you deal with us. It takes a lot less time to change out a heater than preform some talk tests on it so we just change it out. Apologize to you for the inconvinance and be done with it.

tell them to come take that water heater out and dont contact you again. The only person that is getting screwed more than you on this deal is the plumber that put it in. He doesnt get paid a penny unless everything goes okay and what he got paid in the 1st place is peanuts.

[upnorth]

Have you checked the Temp setting on the heater? It might be cranked way down

[WWW]

Kinda sounds to me to like it might be the dip tube. Cut the cold water line, unscrew it and pull the dip tube out. Have seen where if you solder the pipes to close to the tube it melts a hole in it or falls off. A little teflon tape and compression coupling and you can put it back together.

Would assume it has been checked to see in the hot and cold water are on the right sides. Cold in on the right. Hot out on the left. This is as you are facing the front of the heater. Easy way to check is just feel the pipes after running some hot water.

Other than that is the gas control.

Sorry to hear your plumber is in such a bad situation he has to do work for lowes. Most of the companies I know that work for big box stores have to do the bait and switch or the loose there butts. That is once they get to the home its time to start adding on very high priced extras. $250 gas shut of valve. $300 water shut off valve. Ect. Cant blame them because they need to make money. We would do the same if working for them. The sales through a big box store would need to cost more on average than selling our own water heaters just to cover the hassles of working with them. Its basic business.

[upnorth]

Just got a call from Lowe's and they are replacing the water heater, just need to get it scheduled with the plumber for the install. Sometimes being a stubborn PITA pays off. But no one should have to go through that krap. The installation manager did some whining but thanked him for the help

[harvey lee]

I replaced a water heater not that long ago. I went with the local plumber as I knew if I had any issues, they would be addressed correctly and timely.

Yes, I did pay more and I have not had any issues but if I would have, I know the local guy would have taken care of me.

Guess that is why I paid what I did for the unit.

With that said, if I would have not had the extra funds for the local unti from the local plumber, who knows what I would have done.

[upnorth]

Well we all know the saying....hindsight is 2020

[WWW]

Good to hear. Im sure the next one they put in will be a great water heater. If it was me I would have them haul the old one out 1st, shut the door behind them and never let them back in. Then go buy a real water heater.

[cavalierowner]

Good to hear. Im sure the next one they put in will be a great water heater. If it was me I would have them haul the old one out 1st, shut the door behind them and never let them back in. Then go buy a real water heater.

My water heater is at least 14 years old and I am thinking about replacing it before it becomes an emergency. What do you consider a real water heater?

[nobody05]

they are all junk unless you want to go tankless route or marathon is you have electric. or fork out the cash and get a steel thank thats got a 10 yr warranty.

[harvey lee]

One thing I have done with this last one of mine, I hook a hose up every 6 months and turn the elec off and drain and flush my tank to get ride of all the dump in the tank.

Hoping my tank life will get extended considerably. I also check my anode rod to see that it is still in good shape.

[BoxMN]

they are all junk unless you want to go tankless route or marathon is you have electric. or fork out the cash and get a steel thank thats got a 10 yr warranty.

I guess I don't get this... because I picked up a (brand???) heater up from menards about 6 or 7 years ago, threw it in myself with help of neighbor, and it has just been working fine since. I think it had a 6 or maybe 9 year warranty, but it cost me about $300ish on sale for gas 40 gallon. If that is junk, I will buy junk all day long And just to be clear, I am no plumber or contractor, so have no knowledge of good or junk, maybe just lucky... But I say that the effort to put one in is, well, much less than cost associtate with it, from the estimates I have heard bantered around. I guess mine might have just been very easy... and it was.

[nobody05]

could be a water quality issue in my area. I have a customer that has replaced 4 water heaters in the 6 year warranty period. On average i'd say of every 10 water heaters I sell 6 of them get replaced under warranty. As far as price I still dont unerstand how menards can sell a water heater to the pubic at a cheaper cost than I can buy one from my wholesaler.

[cavalierowner]

I would assume that the big box stores buy far more water heaters from the manufacturer than the wholesalers buy because they are buying for all their stores, not just the ones in this area.

[WallEYES]

Cav....+1 on that and check out btu input of the water heater...box stores sell below 40,000 input, plus depends where they are made...example mexico compared to the USA.

[WWW]

I listed some good brands of water heaters in a previous post. If you have the skills to put in your own water heater buying a $300 heater from a big box store is great. The thing craps out on you in a few years or days like the original poster no big issue. Go buy another and put it in. Buying two water heaters in a week from a big box store and installing them your self will still be far cheaper than hiring a plumber. Then again you dont have the over head or running a plumbing business. We get these calls ever week people wondering why we charge more than their neighbor or father in law would of charged. Why do they even call if getting such a good deal? My guess is because they are about as cheap a person as there is and still want to see if they can get a better deal than free.

Interesting comments on warranties. if you are buying a higher end water heater with a power vent or lots of controls a extended warranty is not a bad idea. The tanks will most likely last the 12 to 14 years like expected but the control will act up somewhere along the lines and these can easily be half the cost of the water heater if not more. Even with this keep in mind many of those extended warranties are parts only. No labor.

Just because a water heater comes with a longer warranty it does not mean its a better quality water heater. You buy a extended warranty for your caro or just about anything else did they give you a beefed up car. No they gave you a beefed up warranty and a bill to pay for the warranty. A few companies will put a extra anode rod in the tank on 10 and 12 year warranty models. I dont see any real proof that this will increase the tank life. My thought is the water will just eat both at the same rate.

marathon water heaters are one exception. Plastic tank that is supposed to last for ever. Cant argue with that but the parts do not last for ever. Think the last elliment I purchased for one was over $100 my cost. We at least double all parts cost and then add on labor.

[chanfish]

i posted awhile back on the very same thing..lack of hot water..had the plumber come back out since its under warranty. alot of technical talk and tried to sell me add ons...he turned up the heat and it seems to have helped with the hot water...keeping my fingers crossed.

[cavalierowner]

www...Where is the post where you listed good brands of water heaters. I looked here and didn't see where you posted brands. Is it on another thread? The more I think about it, the more I think it may be time to replace my old clunker before I'm forced to do something in a big rush and just buy what I can get in a hurry.

[Surface Tension]

My 20 year old Master Plumber Reliance 501 has been good.

[Archerysniper]

One thing I have done with this last one of mine, I hook a hose up every 6 months and turn the elec off and drain and flush my tank to get ride of all the dump in the tank.

Hoping my tank life will get extended considerably. I also check my anode rod to see that it is still in good shape.

I recommend this for any heater. It will help out a lot especially on electric heaters that build sediment in the bottom causing the lower element to burn out. Like Harvey said turn the power or gas off,hook a hose up to the bottom and use the well/city pressure too blast anything out. They can get pretty chunky. If you shut the water off and completely drain the heater make sure you bleed off the air at the highest hot faucet outlet before turning the power or gas back on.

[Redlantern]

Harvey Lee, Bradford-White is about as good a water heater as you'll find.

[WWW]

Thought I had mentioned a few in a previous post. Rheem Pros series is the main water heater we sell and have good luck with. 40 or 50 gallon natural gas, gravity vent. Bradford white, A.O.Smith, State are other good brands. Just like buying a boat look at who you are buying it from to incase you need follow up service. To tell you the truth I cant remember the last call back we have had on a water heater we sold and installed. Can tell you its weekly we get calls to work on water heaters that people have purchased from big box stores. I always have to ask where the water heater came from since it did not come from us. This is usually followed up by why didnt you call them for service. The answers from this question are all over the board.

[upnorth]

Lowes replaced the water heater and this one works better. Not sure it is equivalent to the old heater, but can take a normal shower without a dramatic drop in water temp.

Summary. May do better to do a bit more research on what someone is buying or go with an independent instead of a big box store.

This time I left work early to be there when they installed it and talked to both the installer and the owner of the company installing it and even he said it was no where near normal to start seeing a noticeable temp drop that soon. He said something like 60% of water heater capacity should be available without a real noticeable temp change. So we should see something like 24+ gallons before it drops much. And modern shower heads are between 2 gpm to 3 gpm. So a ten minute shower should be well within reason.