hotwaterless
New Member
Glad I came across this forum. So here is my story and I hope someone can shed some light on what to do next. I live in Huntington Beach California. I had a slab leak and had the house re-piped in August 2018. I used a plumber who used a third party piping company to do the work. This isn't about bashing my plumber or piper or Bradford White. But it is about a problem neither of them can solve and everyone is pointing fingers.
Right after the re-pipe I had the plumber put in a new water heater since the one I had was 20+ years old. It was working fine but I just decided to do some PM and get ahead of the unit dying. At the end of August the new water heater was installed. The issue is that the water heater cannot deliver hot water for more than 7 minutes. The water heater thermostat gets cold, then tries to heat up and the condensation causes the zizzling as the heat burns the moisture. So the plumber replaced the entire control system on warranty. Same problem. Water heater will not deliver enough hot water to get through two showers.
So the plumber puts on a check valve on the hot water line of the heater thinking that I have a cold water leak that is reverse filling the water heater with cold water and causing the unit to shut down. He believed that the one-way shower valve was the culprit in my master bath, allowing cold water to pass through to the hot water side of the valve back into the tank. Bradford White Wholesaler is the one who planted that seed. This is when all the finger pointing began. So that didn't work. All I got from that was a big BANG with backflow slamming against the check valve.
So the piper and the plumber come out last Saturday (2/23/19) and run some test and determine that indeed our water is going from hot (110 degrees) to warm 80 degrees 5-7 minutes. The piper concludes the water heater is bad. They rip it out and replace it with another 50-gallon Bradford White Defender that same day. Next morning? Same thing. About 6 minutes into the shower water goes from hot to warm.
I do have a water softener in the fray. So yesterday we bypassed it but got the same results. Today we unplugged it as the plumber is now trying anything. I have heard good thing and bad things about Bradford White water heaters. I just read in another forum someone having the same issue with the thermostat always not able to keep up with basic water use. So the plumber is hanging on to my Delta faucet cylinder being the cause because the Bradford Rep said so. Delta is claiming that it sounds like a piping problem. The piping guy is blaming the water heater, not his piping job.
I am interested in any thoughts as to what some experts on here believe we should consider investigating. We are running out of "let's try this". I am inclined to have the Bradford White replaced with a different brand to eliminate that as a cause. With the finish work from my painter, I am $20k into this without a solution.
Appreciate any insights you may have.
Joe
Right after the re-pipe I had the plumber put in a new water heater since the one I had was 20+ years old. It was working fine but I just decided to do some PM and get ahead of the unit dying. At the end of August the new water heater was installed. The issue is that the water heater cannot deliver hot water for more than 7 minutes. The water heater thermostat gets cold, then tries to heat up and the condensation causes the zizzling as the heat burns the moisture. So the plumber replaced the entire control system on warranty. Same problem. Water heater will not deliver enough hot water to get through two showers.
So the plumber puts on a check valve on the hot water line of the heater thinking that I have a cold water leak that is reverse filling the water heater with cold water and causing the unit to shut down. He believed that the one-way shower valve was the culprit in my master bath, allowing cold water to pass through to the hot water side of the valve back into the tank. Bradford White Wholesaler is the one who planted that seed. This is when all the finger pointing began. So that didn't work. All I got from that was a big BANG with backflow slamming against the check valve.
So the piper and the plumber come out last Saturday (2/23/19) and run some test and determine that indeed our water is going from hot (110 degrees) to warm 80 degrees 5-7 minutes. The piper concludes the water heater is bad. They rip it out and replace it with another 50-gallon Bradford White Defender that same day. Next morning? Same thing. About 6 minutes into the shower water goes from hot to warm.
I do have a water softener in the fray. So yesterday we bypassed it but got the same results. Today we unplugged it as the plumber is now trying anything. I have heard good thing and bad things about Bradford White water heaters. I just read in another forum someone having the same issue with the thermostat always not able to keep up with basic water use. So the plumber is hanging on to my Delta faucet cylinder being the cause because the Bradford Rep said so. Delta is claiming that it sounds like a piping problem. The piping guy is blaming the water heater, not his piping job.
I am interested in any thoughts as to what some experts on here believe we should consider investigating. We are running out of "let's try this". I am inclined to have the Bradford White replaced with a different brand to eliminate that as a cause. With the finish work from my painter, I am $20k into this without a solution.
Appreciate any insights you may have.
Joe