Hot Water Turning Cold? Here’s the Fix!

LESLIE: Hot Water Turning Cold? Barb in Illinois is on the line with a tankless water-heater question. How can we help you?

BARB: We’ll go along with a shower or some – or dishes for a while and then all of a sudden, the hot water will quit.

TOM: Right. It’ll get freezing cold.

BARB: Well, it gets ambient cold, anyway, which in Illinois is fairly cold.

TOM: OK. Yeah, I bet.

BARB: But if you turn it off completely and then turn it back on – and it only takes, you know, maybe 15, 30 seconds – it will come back fairly warm.

TOM: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

BARB: But the only way to keep it going, if it starts going down, is to keep turning it up higher and higher.

TOM: Yeah. Yeah. So what you need is called a “pressure-balanced valve.” Now, the way that works is it controls the mix of hot and cold, regardless of what the pressure is in the line. So, if you have a lot of water pressure, it’s going to control the mix between hot and cold. But if just maybe the cold pressure starts to drop, well, it will equally drop the mix of the hot-water side so that you never change the temperature. You may have more or less flow coming out of the showerhead but the temperature won’t change and you will never have that shower-shock experience that you’re describing.

So ask your plumber for a pressure-balanced valve. Once you have that installed, you will no longer have to fool around with those faucets. It’ll work properly.

BARB: One for the kitchen sink, one for the shower, so on and so forth.

TOM: Those do not exist for the kitchen. So I think, in the kitchen, you’re going to be kind of on your own. But at least it’s just the kitchen faucet.

BARB: But it’s the same kind of thing?

TOM: But it’s the same kind of thing, yeah, except they’re designed for showers, mostly, and bathtubs. So, in the shower and the bathtub, that’s where you’re going to put the pressure-balanced valve. OK?

BARB: It’s also an intermittent problem. Is that …?

TOM: Yeah. But it’s going to solve it. Whenever it happens, it will solve it. It’s a permanent fix. OK?

BARB: Thank you.