If you are constantly running out of hot water and you haven’t had your water heater maintained in years, here are 5 causes and solutions for your hot water problems:

1. Build-up of Sediment

You can usually tell this by the colour of your water- if it’s coming out dirty or an off colour then flushing your water heater is the best solution. Basically, you empty the water heater and flush it with fresh water to get rid of the sediment in your hot water system.

How to flush a water heater? You can do this yourself by following your manufacturer’s directions. (But be sure you follow all the safety precautions!) Or you can have a professional plumbing company do this for you.

2. Old water heater

If your hot water isn’t working, there could be other parts malfunctioning on your hot water heater that is keeping it from properly heating your water. This is a common reason for malfunctioning systems, whether it’s an electric water heater, gas water heater or even solar.

3. Thermostat problems

No, not the thermostat on the wall. Your water heater has a thermostat that regulates the temperature of your hot water. It could be set too low or it could be malfunctioning. This is another one of the common reasons for no hot water.

4. Small water heater

Your water heater might just be too small for your site and you may need to upgrade your water heater or hot water unit, especially is your hot water is constantly running out. Talk to a hot water technician to see if there is an alternative option for your site.

5. Faulty tempering valve

The tempering valve works to blend the hot and cold water at a ratio that is adjustable and then being piped to the bathrooms or building. This means kids are not being scalded by hot water.

Faulty valves are prone to failure and generally lead to a loss of hot water, a lack of water pressure or reduced hot water temperature. Apart from a little leaking around the valve connections it is quite hard to detect and you will need to contact a plumber for this particular job but you can feel relief in the knowledge that this is much cheaper to fix than most.

These problems can be repaired by a professional plumbing company, or you can consider getting a brand-new water heater. If you choose the latter option and you use lots of hot water, a tankless water heater might be a great option. If you reside in an area with no electricity and less sunlight, you can switch to a gas hot water system or gas water heater.

Mathiou Services offer fast and reliable hot water repair and installation services for commercial projects, and we’ll tackle all your hot water system problems. Noisy hot water system? Notice water leaking? Sediment build up? Faulty water heater? Still no hot water? These are all easy fixes for our efficient team.