Water Heater Service?

Is there any regular servicing that needs to be done on a regular basis for an electric hot water heater? My wife is convinced that our water heater needs something done to it. I haven't noticed any issues, but she says she runs out of hot water when she's taking a shower. (Yes, she likes long showers.)

If there is a regular servicing that needs to be done, what actually is done to the heater?

A 2.5 GPM shower head @ 20 minutes, depending on your heater temperature setting, will take almost 50 gals of hot water.

How big is the tank? What is the temperature setting on it? If you raise it, you should probably consider a tempering valve to protect people from potentially scalding water, but it will then operate as a larger tank, since you'll use less (and more cold) to achieve the same output temperature. it will also have larger standby losses. typically, you can only utilize about 75-80% of the water in the tank before it cools off too much, so a 50-gallon tank often has about 40--gallons if it is dumped quickly (the heating elements will extend the quantity a bit, but need time).

My wife and I watch a lot of movies and, along with a few other symbols, the movie symbol of a person taking a shower means the person "wants to get rid of something."

After searching the Web for a correlation between long showers and what it might mean in the real world I've decided that rather than pursuing this line of inquiry you might want to get a bigger water heater.

There is no "regular servicing" required, but if the shortness of hot water is due to a heater malfunction, then it DOES need to be repaired.