Why is my hot water in my house sparatic?

Question

Sometimes I take a shower and there is no hot water upstairs and sometimes there is.

Answer 1

run the hot water and check the pipe coming from the hot water tank and see if it gets hot right a way.if not it could have calcium buildup in it .it might just allow a little bit to flow through.same thing happened to my in laws and they had the rental tank replaced.

Answer 2

if it was clogged pipes the problem would not be intermittant. i suspect the plastic pipe in the water tank that distributes the cold water to the bottom of the tank is broken. if you have not used the water for anything else and get hot water but after using hot water somewhere else don't this is a good bet. the cold water coming in is not being distributed to the bottom of the tank and is being forced right back out.

on the other hand, is this the only place in the house that has the problem? if it is then the water heater is fine and the valve in your shower is faulty. figure that out first.

Answer 3

Your hot-water heater has 2 heating elements and one is burned out. Some hot-water heaters have only one some has two.

Good Luck