Limited hot in the shower

hi all,

I'm getting luke warm water in the shower on full hot. If I let it run long enough it goes cold. I can turn on the sink 5 ft. away and continue to get scalding hot water while the shower is cold. I have a universal knob in the shower, crank it all the way right for full hot.

Any ideas on what I can check and hopefully fix?


Jim

If it is the same every where in the home you have a problem with your water heater which is probably electric...

so why would the sinks be always hot when the shower is cold?

If it is just the shower only what brand of valve do you have....is it 2 handels or 1...if 1 how does it turn on...

Modern shower valves have a limit stop that prevents you from turning the knob all the way to full hot. It might have worked fine in the summer when the incoming cold water was maybe near room temperature, but it could be 30-40 degrees colder this time of the winter. You may need to take the trim and handle off and adjust that limit stop to allow you to get more hot. This is one reason I like thermostatically controlled valves...leave it set the same place winter/summer, beginning of the water heater output, or after a couple of showers when it is cooling off. The water temp stays the same until you actually run out of hot.

To provide the safety limit stop come summer, you may have to readjust the stop to keep the max temp from getting too hot again.