Help! My Water Is Only Lukewarm. What’s the Problem?

When you open the hot water tap at your sink, you expect to be rewarded with a stream of piping hot water for your washing needs. The same thing applies when you set foot in the shower, or when you wash a load of clothes on the hot setting. However, there’s a chance that when you open that tap, the water that comes out will be lukewarm rather than hot. What’s the problem here? Actually, it could be one of several different issues.

The first thing you need to do is to check the thermostat on your water cylinder. It should be located between halfway and one-quarter up the cylinder from the base. It will most likely be a plastic box with a round dial on it, although newer models might have a digital thermostat instead. Check that the thermostat is set for between 60 and 65 degrees. If it has been bumped somehow, the temperature could have been accidentally set lower than this, which would give you lukewarm water.

If the thermostat is correctly set, the problem might still lie with it. There is a chance that the thermostat is faulty and will need to be replaced. However, the issue here is that your cylinder actually has two thermostats, and you will need to determine which one is bad before it can be replaced. Easy Flow can help do that.

If you have a thermal store water cylinder, it can maintain the temperature of the water inside it for a long period even without a source of heating. The water will slowly cool down, eventually reaching lukewarm before it becomes cold. If the thermostat is not the problem, check the power to the system. The place to do this would be at the breaker that controls the water cylinder.

If it has been tripped, then no power is getting to the system. Flip it back into position and see if the water heater turns back on. Note that a tripped breaker is often a sign that there’s a deeper problem that needs to be addressed, as circuit breakers are designed to trip in the case of over-power situations where the cylinder is drawing more electricity than it is designed to handle.

Depending on the water cylinder model in question, you will have one or more fuses that control unit operation in addition to the circuit breaker. If one of these fuses is blown, your cylinder will not receive electricity and will not operate. The good news is that replacing a blown fuse is usually not a difficult process, although locating the fuse in the first place can take some time.

Finally, there is a chance that one of the immersion heaters in the cylinder has failed. If this happens, the remaining heater will still attempt to warm the water, but it will not be able to get it up to full temp and the result will be lukewarm water. In this case, the faulty immersion heater will need to be replaced.

There you have them – some of the more common reasons that you could experience lukewarm water from the tap rather than hot water.

EasyFlow can send an engineer to you if you’re located in Greater Manchester, Warrington, Liverpool, Chester or Leeds.