Plumbing, water flow rate

[jsampley]

Hi ,
New guy here, just registered. I hope I am doing this post correctly.
My problem is hot water flow, I have a 2 bath mobile home, one bath has a tub/shower, and the other has a stall shower. After removing the shower head from the stall shower, I can fill a 4 gallon bucket with cold water in 1 minute, it takes 1 minute and 20 seconds to fill it with hot water.
In the tub/shower, it takes 50 seconds to fill the 4 gallon bucket with cold water, using the hot water the bucket only fills about 1/3 full. I see something of a disparity here. Does anybody have any suggestions?
The mobile home is a 1974 Town House 24'x63'.
Thank you,

[Harry]

Hi John

Sounds like a restriction somewhere. I would first see if the restriction is at the tub hot water valve/stem. Turn off the water to the home, remove the stem, inspect the stem, have someone turn on the water to the home and see if any obstruction comes out.

[jsampley]

Hi,
Thank you for the quick response. I took the valve stem out and turned the water on and nothing came out not even a little rust or anything. I live in Reno, NV and the folks in the park I live in say that it is very strange, no one here has ever had a problem like that or heard of one. Leave it to me to be the first.

[Robert]

Hi John,

Do you have shut-offs for the tub/shower ? If so, check the hot water shut-off.

How old is your water heater ? If it is not a newer one, good chance that debris from the WH has floated down the hot water line and plugged the shut-off or an elbow prior to tub/shower valve.

Disconnect at joints and turn on water until you locate good flow.

The blockage will be between there and last joint with poor flow.

If you find a blocked shut-off, replace with a 1/4 turn ball valve type shut-off.

Take care and best wishes,
Robert

[Greg]

John, It is a case of just plain spending time looking. Like Robert said you will have to just keep checking and going farther towards the water heater untill you find the restriction. Greg

[Maureen]

Well Hello Neighbor!

I think this is the first time in all the years I've been on the board that someone has posted from Reno!

Hi John, I live in Sun Valley, fondly referred to as Slum Valley. Right over one of the Northern hills from you! I love living out in the county!!! Wouldn't trade it for anything!

I've got another idea of what the problem might be. I know that most of the parks around here are at least 30 years old. I'm a native, born and raised... spent most of my adult life here. I know that the most popular incoming pipes back then were galvanized. Frankly, I have the same problem. But since we own our property, I have to replace all of the pipes. Galvanized does rust out from the inside out. This combined with an old water heater, like Robert mentioned, could be the culprit!

We just replaced our water heater after the first of the year. Our hot water is running better, but not perfect. That won't happen until we change over to pex. It's on the lifetime 'to do' list!

Another big problem we have here, is plenty of minerals in our water. This holds true whether you're on wells, or buy from the new water company that Sierra Power diversified into another company of theirs. That also cuts down on galvanized pipe and water heater life. We have very' very hard water here.

Welcome to the forum!

Maureen