So, hello, one month ago we replaced our hot water heater since we were advised it'd be too expensive to fix, it was almost 10 years old and since first installing it, never gave a fuss. Not once. Then perhaps a few days before the 29th we'd been having temperature issues until the water heater eventually ran out over the weekend, that was FUN, and Lisa decides to just get rid of the thing instead of doing diagnosis of what the problem might actually be, so now we have a Power Miser 12 and it's actually 5 gallons smaller than our previous water heater...

I also couldn't help but notice it made sounds after I got out of showers after I managed to get warmer showers.

That was over a month ago.

Last Friday I noticed the water in the shower went from scalding to steady heat. From between Friday and today, the 29th of December, Lisa and I felt the temperature wasn't scalding; On Saturday, Lisa took a shower around 10 am and I took a shower around 1pm and it got lukewarm then cold. Yesterday I had too up-to-scalding hot showers and then today I get in the shower to discover no hot water. Again noticed sound coming from hot water heater after showers.

We had plumbers come out, LATE, only for them to run a small diagnostic on our hot water heater (the top one, they found nothing; I asked them a multitude of questions, no signs of leaks, water heater or pipes; he stated it's a good sign if the hot water outlet is hot to the touch but not sizzling hot) and they simply turned it back on with the circuit breaker, (it worked, but now I feel we're back to where we started and the stupid thing could do this again)...When I turned the shower on it took a while for the shower to turn hot and the water almost seemed to be flickering. And the temperature reached a certain hot but not necessarily scalding like it could be.

Or maybe it's just me, Lisa tells me my heat limit far surpasses hers.

If it helps, sometimes we open the windows after the shower, and the pipes may not be insulated.

I just want to brainstorm with someone or more than a few 'someones' to know what the cause of the fluctuating temperatures may be.

Thank you very much to anyone who reaches out!



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next time you or lisa are in the shower and it act's up run the lav sink and see if the temp fluctuates there or any other faucet in the house. We must see if it's the shower valve itself or the water heater.



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water heaters don't really run hot-cold-hot-cold. they usually give plenty of hot water when working properly or they quit giving hot water completely.

follow my friends advice and post back the results.



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First of all, Check the automation system of your heater. A failed thermostat or heating element in an electric water heater can also cause hot water temperature fluctuations.
A broken dip tube that carries cold supply water to the bottom of the tank will cause temperature fluctuations.
Replace the dip tube if broken. Some water heaters don't have a replaceable dip tube.



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'lav sink'? We have three sinks for each floor of our house. We live in a shared condominium like placement, we have a sort of an apartment building to our right and a woman who has a similar housing to our left (in accordance to if you were facing our doorway).


Yeah, I thought of whether it was the shower itself. The temperature does fluctuate for the sinks if you count it being cold after not being in use for a while. Moreover, the temperature can get 'just warm' after being in use for over maybe 5 minutes of being scalding.

Well, they checked the heating element, the top one anyway, and they said it was fine, supposedly. They didn't check the bottom one.

How would the diptube have broken, it's barely a month old? I'm only asking since I'm not sure we want our next heater installed by these people if THIS is the result and it needs to be replaced. AGAIN.

Thanks for the timely responses!

Our new water heater is a Kenmore Water Miser 12 if any of you are familiar with them.

the dip tube is fragile and can be snapped if the heater is transported improperly

said tube 'hangs' from the cold water inlet


should the heater have been 'banged' or 'jostled' while in a horizontal position ................ !

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

a broken dip tube would give you hot water at the onset and then depending on where it is broken would turn over to giving you cold. it would not fluxuate as you describe.
so the next simple test is to hold the hot water outlet pipe at the heater when someone runs the shower. see if the water temperature changes coming out of the heater. the next test is more complicated.
shut off the cold feed to the tank and hook a washing machine hose to the drain valve. send cold water into the bottom of the tank via the drain valve and run the shower again.

oh, BTW.. the plumbers did hook the pipes hot to hot and cold to cold?

bern see my post below about feeding CW into the bottom of the tank. this will 100% eliminate any question about a damaged dip tube.

Packy, are you thinking what I'm thinking.... A dry fire and the elements (one or both) are partially cooked?.

:RogueDrag205, did you or the Plumber that installed this turn the power on before the tank was filled?



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I wouldn't be surprised, the guys strike me as ham-handed at best, but at the same time that doesn't sound right since it'd have been fluctuating from the get-go, then, wouldn't it?

Hmm, fluctuate, now just to reiterate, it gets cold when not in use, then before it stopped giving hot water completely yesterday, there are times where it seems to run out and be cool (like when Lisa took a shower, then 2 hours later it got cold on me, THEN it seemed to start giving back hot water after the shower) but then it gives a hissing/water running noise after I'd had a hot shower, both the old and new one. How long should it take to get hot? I suppose it doesn't help that it's winter, so I can give that a pass, I guess?

The plumbers did hook the hot to the hot and cold to the cold, yes.

And not to be jumping around steps on the to-do process, but could those damages result in the water heater shutting off/having to reboot it with the breaker? It was still running, I could hear dripping before they rebooted it with the breaker, the water just wasn't hot, even the hot water pipe wasn't hot to the touch.


Edit: Brand new month-old elements? Also the top element seemed to be fine when they examined it.



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How's the bottom one?, If you can test/or have them tested it would eliminate alot of problems.. 12 to 13 omhs is what you want to see accross each element.



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Maybe I missed it ----- Do we have a recirculating system ?

Pictures of the install ?

If you read my mentioning at the top they didn't check the bottom one. We don't have the equipment to really check. Much as I wanna try DIY measures on appliances to avoid strangers in the house, DIY is a double-edge sword....

I honestly think the bottom one is fine, like I mentioned the whole thing is a month old, and given how yesterday went, I wouldn't be surprised if they were to have checked it, it would've turned out fine too....


I'm waiting for the basement to air out, one of the guys was coughing and I'm deathly afraid of the pandemic, not so much the virus itself but the potential for long haul symptoms. That's not negotiable.

I'll see about pictures in maybe a week's time, if that's alright. The standard hot water pipe is curved rectangularly, the cold water leads up to a big white smaller pipe and there are two pipes attached to THAT. Then there's another pipe, the TP I think.



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Good luck. Nothing more this forum can do for you without Pictures of the Piping and a clean bill of health for those elements. Happy new year.

Fair enough, though like I mentioned there were no signs of leaking from those pipes and they were screwed on properly, at least according to the plumbers.

Like I said, just wanted someone to air questions and muse over facts with.

Yup, Happy new year!



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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

So, so far things seem to have gone back to normal, the shower/all faucets can get scalding.

The elements work far as I can tell.

Any theories as to why the water heater would act up to the point of no hot water and having to shut it off and on with the breaker a month after it got installed?

The plumber business operator said a tripped breaker was common.

a tripped breaker IS normal. BUT only when something is wrong.

Hmm, I'll try to get the pictures by next week.

Would it be possible for a new waterheater to have a faulty thermostat or heating element just after a month?

The plumbers even said it may be the breaker wiring itself which means we'd need to call an electrician....

Greetings again, I got my pictures and fortunately so, it's having fits again, like I feared it would.

Although I'll confess 'fluctuations' was a poor turn of phrase, it is currently hot but I think it was either running out of hot water faster than usual, and part of the issue is it's cold outside and we have to wait for it to get scalding to be comfortable, but then I felt sometimes it gets only lukewarm, which I suppose means it's run out.

Last time this happened it kept giving us lukewarm and hot till it finally stopped giving us hot water altogether...

We also have a Dominion Water Heater Control Device that is supposedly no longer necessary and Lisa is under the impression it may be causing problems...