3rd floor unit hot water problems

[Walid Zaibak]

Hey guys, a week or so ago I had a small flood at a property of mine in the office above the utility room. A sink had improper pipes put in with no shutoffs. Water started seeping down into the utility room until I got there and turned it off. I got a plumber to fix everything. I also got an HVAC guy to come replace a part on the hot water tank that got wet and fried. Everything seems fine for my other tenants but this guy tells me that he cranks the water all the way to hot and it's barely warm. I know the heater temp is fine since I just set it and everyone else is fine. I'm really not sure what's going on. Any ideas on how to fix this issue?

Thanks,
Walid

[Just Don]

if the water has to travel up 3 or 4 stories,,,is he giving it enough time to get from the heater to his faucet??There is alot of pipe if it is 3/4 especially. My shaving sink has to run for almost 2 minutes to get hot because it is so far of travel.

Can you put one of those small helper units in line, right in his apartment? They can fit in pretty small places.

[Steve Babiak]

Did somebody cross-up the hot and cold water piping somewhere along the line?

Where did you "set" the water temperature and how? I measure the water temperature right out of the faucet in the tenant's unit, just after the hot water burner has shut off after a heating cycle.

If you set the water temperature as I just described, there is no way that the temperature wouldn't get hot.

[Jeffrey K.]

In the future try running a PEX manifold system with home runs. This is great because the hot water is almost instant. Viega makes one that has a ton of control.

[Walid Zaibak]

Thank you for the responses. Apparently the bottom two units are fine with their hot water, but the top two are not. Here is what the girl living on the second floor told me "when showering it constantly switches from cold to hot or it just doesn't go very hot anymore at all"

I turned up the temperature on the hot water tank but it hasn't changed anything. I am personally thinking there isn't enough hot water which is weird because there hasn't been hot water issues before.

[Jeffrey K.]

What size are your heaters and how many do you have?

[Walid Zaibak]

I have one heater supplying 4 apartments. I'm not 100% sure what size it is but I think it's 200L.

[Jeffrey K.]

I would run dual 40gal gas units. This should be able to handle the units. 200L is about 50 Gal and unless it is a commercial unit I dont think it is big enough. You should check with your local plumbing supply house. You can tell them the number of fixtures and they will do a water calc for you.

Have you checked the water yourself? It is strange that only one unit is having this problem. There might be a problem with the shower mixer.

[Don Hines]

I think Jeffery is on the right track with his responses. Besides possably being undersized with your heaters, gravity could be fighting you. Is it possable to loop the service line from the longest point back to your boiler? Cold water is going to be heavier than hot. It would force it's way back downstairs and into the boiler. So, this system would keep water circulating and reduce the variances and time for hot water at the longest point.
Don

[Walid Zaibak]

Thank you all for your very helpful responses. It certainly helps me get a better idea of what may be the cause. I will be running tests on every water element and check when the plumber comes in.

[Jeffrey K.]

Do it before the plumber comes in. When he is there it costs you $100/ hr.