Gas Water Heater not hot enough

Does the water heater ever shut off? If not then you have a serious hot water leak and the water heater cannot make enough water to keep up with it. A manual would do you no good since it would just tell you to turn the temperature knob. There is no safe adjustment you can make to the thermostat other than turning the knob. If it is an old water heater then the minerals could be enveloping the thermostat probe and shutting it down too soon. If it is a newer one, you could have a failing dip tube. You need a plumber to check the heater and see which of these, or some other one, is the problem.

You can get a manual from the manufaturer http://www.apollohydroheat.com/.

The water heater also provides hot water to the central forced air system which has no gas connection itself so in heating season, the hot water is shared. I have an Apollo myself and experience the same issue. If turning the control on the unit to a hotter selection (counterclockwise) doesn’t help, then your problem may be that the system is old and the sensor is covered with corrosion.

We don’t have the same brand down here but we do have the equivalent and we have found that in winter the fan blower extracts way too much heat from the hot water causing it to chill down too fast and the gas burner b
virtually keeps on a truckin and racing away with the gas bill. Try slowing the fan blower motor down a bit – it worked for us.
You don’t have a leaking relief valve there do you which would allow hot water to continually discharge to waste causing the water heater to run on most times and you would only have a small amount of hotn water available before it ran cold.
The thermostat is a mechanical device that cannot be dissassembled and repaired – it is possible that the differential settings have gone out of whack which would give a very wide differential setting bewteen cut in and cut out temperature – causes the same fault problem.
More than likely if you are in a hard water area that the sensor probe on the thermostat is coated with calcium or lime and it is not registering properly. Don’t muck about with it get a professional in to change it over for you and reset the gas pressure to ensure efficient operation.

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Selgas Services Ltd
Craftsman Gasfitters, Plumbers, Electrical Service Technicians

Re-set gas pressure?

Hi

It could be a broken dip tube or even the water pipe could be connected worng, you might need a licensed to help you with this one.

» This message has been edited by PLUMBILL on 23 November 2005