I'm having a problem with the shower in my basement spare bathroom. It only stays hot for a few minutes before turning cold, which is really frustrating. The bathroom is only about 15 feet away from the water heater, and this is the only location in the house with this issue. Does anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this?
3 Answers
When the water goes cold, does that happen to other taps too, or just the shower? If it’s just the shower, then it's most likely an issue with the mixing valve. If all the taps are affected, we might need to look at the water heater itself.
You might want to consider the flow rate in your shower too. I had a similar issue where my basement shower head was really high flow, and it drained the hot water tank faster than it could keep up. I swapped it for a low-flow model, and it worked wonders!
It sounds like your mixing valve could be the culprit here. If it's not functioning properly, it might not be mixing the hot and cold water correctly, leading to inconsistent temperatures.
That's a good point! I’ll check the mixing valve and see if it needs to be inspected.
Great tip! I’ll look into changing the shower head if checking the valve doesn’t help.