Shower hot water

[Jim n]

My shower has the old 3 handle system. 1 knob for cold. The middle for the tub or shower. The last knob controls the hot water. Usually I have to turn on the hot and cold to get a temperature that doesn’t burn me. Recently my shower head started to leak so I went to get a new one. The new one has considerably more pressure than the first one. After about 30 seconds of use I lose all hot water and only get cold. I’ve completely turned off the cold water knob but somehow the water is still cold. I’ve left the water running, checked other areas of the house and they all have hot water. I switched back to the original shower head and I’m back to instantly getting hot water. I went and exchanged for a different shower head at the store and same results. Even though I only have the hot water knob turned, after a minute I lose all hot water and cold is the only thing coming out. How do I fix having a new shower head and still have hot water.

 

[Jadnashua]

Water will take the path of least resistance. Your old shower head may not have had much of any resistance, and flowed a lot of water. The new one is required to be restricted to no more than 2.5gpm flow. Depending on how it is designed (engineering helps), the actual 'feel' of the output could be stronger. It's also somewhat possible the old head had some mineral deposits.

So, it sort of sounds like there's a cross-over somewhere in your home that is allowing cold water to flow backwards in the hot line to your shower. The usual culprit is a single-handle valve somewhere that is leaking internally. If you have shutoff valves, try to close off the cold on any of those valves that have a single handle and see if that makes any difference.

If that doesn't work, let us know and we'll try to think of something else.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jadnashua]

Another place where you have have a cross-over is if you put a Y on say your washing machine where it is connected to both the hot and cold. If you use a shutoff in your shower up in the shower arm itself, and leave the valve open, that will do it, too. Can't list all of the possibilities, but hopefully, you get the idea...any time hot and cold can be mixed, if it is failing or installed incorrectly, you can get cold flowing in a hot line.

 

[Sylvan]

Did the installer of your water heater install a 27" heat sink (loop) on the CW supply?

 

[hj]

You could have a recirculation system with a bad check valve.