ColdSnowden

To the last poster: I feel this is a really bad way to handle this problem I'm glad that someone else agrees. Hopefully the work they have done will fix it but if not they are going to give me a new water heater, and I am not cranking it up any more. I felt that 130 was at least somewhat reasonable with 30 seconds to scalding time. But 140 at 5 seconds to scalding time is a different matter to me. yes the elements were checked with an ampmeter.

The red says hot next to it and blue says cold. I saw this as well to confirm they were hooked in the right place. Well the supervisor was the one that came back after the upper element replacement didn't work (no surprise). So after testing the lower element he said it was bad even though the previous three people said it was fine after doing their testing. So now the lower element and thermostat is replaced and hopefully this will correct the problem. Hopefully this isn't the norm for maintenance, but I am glad they at least stay on it as long as it doesn't work. Not sure if the top thermostat was replaced as well. I just know the the upper element was replaced earlier. And now the lower thermo and element as well.

No the water was not drained as far as I know. Unless this can be done fairly simply. I don't recall the valves being touched or anything. The pipes do not appear to be switched the blue side gets cold when the hot water is running and the red side pipe gets very hot. I was thinking that our shower head is 2.5 GPM and with a 40 Gallon capacity that should be FULLY heated water available for 40/2.5=16 minutes. Since we do not use full on hot water it should last even longer. Edit: Maintenance just came and replaced the upper element and the rod that goes into the heater. It was extremely discolored from hard water buildup. Waiting to see if this fixes it, I mentioned the bottom one might be bad too but unfortunately I'm on a wait and see if this works basis.

He did check them with a meter. I suppose I chose the wording "looked ok" because I felt that more than that should have been checked. Could it be the dip tube even though it is made in 2005? If it is how can I prove it if they refuse to look at it? I have no idea how to confirm this myself.

We recently moved into a new apartment and the hot water only lasts about 5-10 minutes. It is a 40 gallon tank and has 4500 watts at the upper and lower elements made in 2005. We told the management and the maintenance man checked out the elements and said that it looked ok. They claim that a lot of tenants have this problem and cranking it up to 140 solved it for them. We had to sign a waiver to take it above 120 and now it is at 130 and it is not much better. Could it be a dip tube issue? Though I have heard that only effects 90s models. Sediment buildup? When water has not been run for awhile the cold intake will become hotter than the the hot outtake, is this normal or a sign of a problem? The hot gets hot and the cold gets cold as normal when hot water is used though. I really don't like how this apartment complex is leaving me no choice but to raise the temperature when this could be a defective unit. Not sure what to do. Edit (may be significant or worth nothing): I just ran some cold water while feeling the pipes. The outtake pipe was still burning hot from earlier hot water use. The cold water intake was also getting somewhat hot and felt like water was flowing through it (Could be wrong about this). If it was cold water surely the pipe would be cool? Could some hot water be running back through this pipe?