Natwerk Designs

I have two bathrooms and only the one farthest from the water heater gets hot. Why?

I have a condo & it has 2 bathrooms, the one next to the water heater does not get hot water (only warm), the one farthest from the heater has steaming hot water. How is this possible? I just bought this condo (950 sq ft) and this is the only issue that I have (knock wood) Can anyone help?

Public Comments

1. The problem is probably in the shower spigot. It is probably clogged being too close to the hot water tank. Or you may have a problem in the spigot that is allowing cold water to mix with the hot before it comes out. Like a seal on the cold water side being bad. Doesn't sound to bad though, I would try back flushing the hot water lines first, not hard to do if you turn off the hot water tank, drain it, then turn both sides of the shower on and let the pressure of the cold water push the dirt and grime back through to the hot water tank. Then drain the tank again. Fill tank, turn the water back on, keep one hot water spigot on and turn it back on.
2. It could be several reasons, all having to do with the pipes. Do all the hot water pipes have an insulating wrapping on them to keep the water hot? Are the bathrooms piped directly to the water heater, or is one piped through the other? Is the closer bathroom actually piped to the water heater? Is the hot water knob (the one under the sink) turned on? Are the pipes blocked (not getting full water pressure through the pipe)?
3. you probably have single lever faucetts (1 handle or knob controls both hot and cold) and they need to be adjusted to allow more hot and less cold
4. Is this on the bathtub/shower or lav also ? If the tub/shower is a single handle faucet , it may have the hot limited for the anti scald child safe setting. you would remove the handle and there should be a plastic limiter that can be pulled out and realigned to a higher setting