Part 2 Of No Hot Water Question From 2 Days Ago, Thermostat????

[drizler]

Checked and both elements have continuity both are working to hear them. I drained the tank outside and didn't notice a hardly any sediment. Come to think of it I knocked all the crap out only about a year ago. Anyways refilled the thing and it seemed to work.
This seemed odd to me though. Bottom element kicked on and ran about 2 minutes. Then it went off and on came the upper element and that was the way it was when I left, heating away. Of course tennant calls me back last night saying there isn't any hot water so back I have to go today. When I talked to her on the phone I had her set its temp to Max which "in theory" should give her a bit more hot water as well as shut her up for a day or 2. I never noticed any serious sulfur or rotten egg smell at any time either like she says. Being a Hud Queen and not having both her oars in the water part of the time I take a lot of what she says so things can be hard to diagnose.
Anyways , does it look like it needs a new thermostat to you guys?????

[Dana]

Didja measure the water temp? (At the tank drain first, then at other taps.)

A defective mixing valve at some tap might be mixing in cold with the hot distribution lowering the temp at some other location.

If the dip tube is broken off inside the tank it could also be mixing in cold water right at the top of the tank- thermostat could still be fine, but the output water on the not-so-hotso side. The temp would drop fairly linearly with the volume drawn, since the average temp falls with the dilution of the top-fed cold water.

If the temp at the tank drain is over 120F when the tank thermostat is satisfied and there hasn't been a recent hot water draw, the thermostat is likely to be fine.

[hj]

The lower element may NOT have gone off after 2 minutes, the upper thermostat may have COME ON, which would have shut the lower one off. If so you have to find out WHY it happened, one remote possibility is a cracked hot water line under a concrete slab which is draining the hot water faster than the heater can produce it. Many people, and plumbers, have replaced water heaters when they had this condition without checking for it, and found out they still had the problem.

[drizler]

No it cant be a busted line anywhere, its on a well and all the lines are visible and then there is no drop in pressure if it sits. Since I had her turn the thermostat up on the bottom bottom it seems to have "gone away". Ah how I love dealing with someone who isn't rational all the time. Now she says there is plenty of water and no smell anymore. Heck, I never smelled anything when I first looked at it yesterday, duhh. It makes me think someone just want's attention. I guess I will just wait and see what develops now if anything. If there was anything wrong with it it must have healed itself, yea right.

[drizler]

After working for a day since I drained it the smell is back. She says rotten eggs, I don't smell that but it is some sort of pungent stink. There is a very very high calcium content in the water and always was. It isn't as bad as a lot of Florida water I have smelled but sure does have a hot burned sort of stink. Still not all that hot either. I ran it full bore hot on my hand and it wasn't making me scream. I am thinking it's time to just go buy an annode and dip tube and just do it. Tank is a Richardson (rheem) 8MV 40-2 about as old as the warranty, 6 years I guess.

[hj]

The odor sounds like magnesium sulfide and if so it could be a reaction with the magnesium anode rod, (nothing to do with the dip tube). Replace it with an aluminum rod.

[drizler]

My question now HJ is how does this start to happen after all this time? Either way it's off the the plumbing supply tomorrow. If that's all it ends up costing me then it's easy peasy lemon squeezy compared to most things I have had to do in that trailer. Thanks for the reply.
Almost forgot: I was thinking about the dip dube because the water didn't seem all that hot by my hand in the stream. Seems weird to me both problems at once but not living there anymore it is hard to judge and talking to her about it can be dodgy, oars not all in the water like I said before.