The hot water from our tank at the back of the house is producing hot water to the kitchen and laundry, but it is only luke warm (if we're lucky) in the bathroom (middle of the house) and ensuite (front of the house).

The house is 18 years old and single story, has PVC water pipes through the roof, and has a new Rheem hot water service installed 2 of 3 years ago.

Why would the temp of the hot water in some parts of the house be steaming hot, and not in the bathrooms ?
Thanks

Blockages in pipes or the temperature is set to low at the hws for the distance the water has to travel. Have you got a tempering valve?

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ok said..
Blockages in pipes or the temperature is set to low at the hws for the distance the water has to travel. Have you got a tempering valve?

They should have a tempering valve as they are meant to be fitted when a HWS is replaced. If they didn't you would still expect them to get hot water, just a little slower at the front of the house.

The kitchen and laundry are allowed to have tank temperature water and the bathrooms have to have the tempered water. The tempering valve can be adjusted and checked by a plumber to make sure its in the safe range its supposed to be.

^^^^
I get your vibe ,
but it won't replace our boring national anthem .
ps : you gotta remove that from your screen saver .

ok thanks .. I am happy to engage a plumber to check the termpering valve. I think there was one outside near the HWS when originally installed, but it was removed over the years ... if I am thinking of the same thing.Appreciate the advice :)

djh50 I had the same problem as you, I googled termpering valve so I knew what it looked like and what to do, got up in the roof and gave the adjustment some turns, did this a couple of times till all good. Mine had a plastic cap that you take off, turn upside down and use as a tool on the adjustment, easy. Oh, if it's too hot it's not in the safe range, use common sense, not rocket science

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firiebob said..
djh50 I had the same problem as you, I googled termpering valve so I knew what it looked like and what to do, got up in the roof and gave the adjustment some turns, did this a couple of times till all good. Mine had a plastic cap that you take off, turn upside down and use as a tool on the adjustment, easy. Oh, if it's too hot it's not in the safe range, use common sense, not rocket science

Yeah, the temperature on these should be set by a plumber, but in my experience they just use a thermometer anyway after running the water for a while. Initially mine was set for 40 degrees which I felt was hot enough.

I am surprised when I find places that don't have tempering valves. They regulate the water temperature much better than you can do without one and its nice not having that 'fun' when a hot water system goes from luke warm to scalding hot and then back again.

I had one play up once, and it turned out to be that the filter screens that are normally infront of the water supplies were a little blocked from debris.

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djh50 said..
The hot water from our tank at the back of the house is producing hot water to the kitchen and laundry, but it is only luke warm (if we're lucky) in the bathroom (middle of the house) and ensuite (front of the house).

The house is 18 years old and single story, has PVC water pipes through the roof, and has a new Rheem hot water service installed 2 of 3 years ago.

Why would the temp of the hot water in some parts of the house be steaming hot, and not in the bathrooms ?
Thanks

Seen this before, the bathrooms had warm water while the kitchen area had scolding hot water, both from the same HWS.

It was a Rheem storage unit as well, the hot water pipes out of the unit to the bathrooms ran through a tempering valve however the pipe to kitchen didn't. The tempering valve would increase or decrease the bathroom water temp but not the kitchen, the kitchen water remained the same temp regardless.

Always wondered why, is it suppose to be like that or did the plumber just f up?

I think that normally the kitchen water needs to be hotter for washing up, than you want for a shower.

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goofy said..

djh50 said..
The hot water from our tank at the back of the house is producing hot water to the kitchen and laundry, but it is only luke warm (if we're lucky) in the bathroom (middle of the house) and ensuite (front of the house).

The house is 18 years old and single story, has PVC water pipes through the roof, and has a new Rheem hot water service installed 2 of 3 years ago.

Why would the temp of the hot water in some parts of the house be steaming hot, and not in the bathrooms ?
Thanks

Seen this before, the bathrooms had warm water while the kitchen area had scolding hot water, both from the same HWS.

It was a Rheem storage unit as well, the hot water pipes out of the unit to the bathrooms ran through a tempering valve however the pipe to kitchen didn't. The tempering valve would increase or decrease the bathroom water temp but not the kitchen, the kitchen water remained the same temp re

Always wondered why, is it suppose to be like that or did the plumber just f up?

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/22437/6.04-Hot-Water-Plumbing-Installation-of-Tempering-Valves-and-Heat-Retention-for-Hot-Water-Piping.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwijwvLxvJLjAhXF6XMBHSr9A_UQFjAAegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw2D9Vkm0atCVlz_KJ4qZPNR&cshid=1561941410397

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decrepit said..
I think that normally the kitchen water needs to be hotter for washing up, than you want for a shower.

Yes, I think when they first mandated these, people would just install one for the whole house, and the result was a lot of complaints about the temp at the kitchen sink.

I have a separate tempering valve for the kitchen. I think tank temperature is too much, but water temp for the bathrooms is too low, so a separate tempering valve, set at a higher temp, was installed. Works perfectly and I only remember how hot tank temperature is when I use the taps in the laundry.

Tank water if storage needs to be high due to legionnaires.
Tempering valves limit t temperature to prevent scalding and were brought in due to incidents where kids,elderly,disabled etc could accidentally turn off cold water and even 30 seconds under 60deg water is not nice to tender skin.
Tempering valves need to be retrofitted if a hottie is changed out and to have a separate line to the kitchen can be prohibitive it is nice to inform the owner though. I have pretty tough hands but even I struggle to keep them under running water too long that is 50deg have not found too many people have a problem washing their dishes.
Tempered water needs to be set at 50deg at the outlet best and cheapest way is with a thermometer under the running water of the outlet, it can fluctuate slightly especially say in winter when the cold water is a lot colder than in summer.

Tempering valves make it near impossible to warm up a bath without wasting a ton of water.

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Marsbars said..
Tempered water needs to be set at 50deg at the outlet best and cheapest way is with a thermometer under the running water of the outlet, it can fluctuate slightly especially say in winter when the cold water is a lot colder than in summer.

Even 50 degrees is pretty hot. When the plumber initially tested mine, it was set to something like 40 degrees out of the box, and it was hot enough for me. I figure that its at a temp where you can have a hot shower without any cold at all, and its amost too hot.

The again, I have the luxury of having the pipes easy to get at and separately accessible for the bathrooms versus the kitchen.

Its a shame you can't have 50 degree tempered water that you can access when needed but otherwise limited to 40, but I guess that defeats the purpose a bit.

I do worry about my parents and the way they run their solar HWS though. For some reason Dad thinks that the booster will use a lot of energy so he turns it off. In summer that may be okay, but in spring or autumn I don't think he appreciates the risk of Legionnaires disease.

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Mark _australia said..

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firiebob said..
djh50 I had the same problem as you, I googled termpering valve so I knew what it looked like and what to do, got up in the roof and gave the adjustment some turns, did this a couple of times till all good. Mine had a plastic cap that you take off, turn upside down and use as a tool on the adjustment, easy. Oh, if it's too hot it's not in the safe range, use common sense, not rocket science

You are a bloody legend.

Have been boiling water for weeks waiting for real estate to fix.
I read this post and immediately went downstairs found the cap, flipped it over, turned counter clockwise 1 turn, checked..... OMG hot water...

Hot shower in 3...2...1....

Thanks Heaps.

...Why would the temp of the hot water in some parts of the house be steaming hot, and not in the bathrooms ?
Thanks....

You were saying the distance for the luke warm taps is much further , presume it has simply lost heat over that distance ias its winter, i've never met a hot water system in which it didn't take at least 30 seconds to become hot after turning on the tap.

Alternate point, is that the gauge of the pipes and the type to the cold taps is very large diameter in which heat is lost over a long distance !

**nb: That "HOT" song and gym advertisement, the advert looks like a joke about 3 different countries "light cruisers" are meeting to engage in battle on a battleground called "the mall" while there is a destroyer sitting some distance away listening in, "light cruisers don't carry much ammunition in their purses" but may have enough combined as a pair to sink another one in the fudge shop, the destroyer is just worried because at any one time at its own standard size its carrying enough ammunition to sink them all and itself combined, it could really offer another one and another by weight of the thuggery of how much it carries (it sitting there just out of it so it seems to come down to temptation) !

...Or it could be an aircraft carrier (don't see any evidence of children around - they are bigger and heftyer after they've had a few children)
That would make them corvette class, she could send them to fudge bomb them and then the destroyer torpedo with fudge sundaes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvette