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December 31, 2007
Whirlpool Romance Gets the Cold Shoulder
Q: Ed, my wife and I love your column and enjoy reading it together with our morning coffee. Also, we are pretty good handy people around our home. So good, in fact, that we recently installed a whirlpool in our bathroom with very little help. After all our efforts and expecting a very romantic evening, we started to fill the whirlpool and then seemed to lose all hot water at about the halfway point of the tub.
The hot water eventually came back on but by then the water in the tub and our romantic plans had cooled off. Our water heater is only about six years old, could it be wearing out already? It has worked fine up until now, how can we fix it? Bob and Tammy (Washington)
A: Hi, Bob and Tammy, and thanks for being loyal readers! I do get a lot of letters like this and feel that I have to remind everyone once again on how to tackle a job that may be a little out of your league. First, I applaud your efforts and your willingness to work around your home.
However, as you know from reading my (Scripps/Howard) newspaper column and my book, Ed Del Grande's House Call, along with project information, I constantly remind people to consult with contractors on larger projects. Consulting with a licensed contractor does not necessarily mean you cannot do the work yourself; ii simply means that you have an expert to guide you through all the ins and out of the project, such as code information and pulling permits. (You did pull a permit, right?)
Many contractors also work as consultants, and the fees will vary depending on how much you use them for the job. You may know how to install something, but if you don't know the back-up system requirements for the fixture, you may end up in hot water. Or, in your case, you may end up in cold water!
What seems to be happening with your whirlpool is a very simple oversight. A bigger tub needs a bigger water heater to fill it. Don't be embarrassed; I have seen a lot of people overlook the fact that most whirlpools hold a lot more water than a standard five-foot tub. Installing a new larger whirlpool and hooking it up to a home's existing standard 40- or 50-gallon water heater will usually leave you with a lukewarm tub of water.
Do not raise the temperature of the water heater, since this may create scalding water throughout the house. The solution to your problem is to install a water heater large enough to fill the whirlpool while still maintaining the safe manufacturer temperature settings in the tank. Depending on the whirlpool, usually a 75- to 100-gallon water heater may do the trick. Because you are now working with fuel-fired heating equipment, this is the time to call in a licensed plumber to help you from here.
Don't worry, you will be able to get this fixed. So, let's keep a positive attitude when you explain the problem to your plumber. Don't say the whirlpool is half empty; say it's half full!
Posted by Ed Del Grande at December 31, 2007 12:50 AM
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Comments
Ed" Here's my problem. I'm a single woman & when I had another new Central H/A installed a few yrs
ago, the day it was installed, the timer light came on for the whirlpool tub. I couldnt' get this to shut off. I asked the installer if the
helper could have hooked up some wires underneath
the house to this timer switch. He assured me, this did not happen. Then, when I had the installer back out a couple yrs later to work on
my A.C. he messed w/the compressor & then the
timer switch to another whirlpool tub in the mstr
bath reacted the same way, & can't be reset.
What caused this? The first one had never been
used, so it's not like the tub was wore out, &
the second one was used very seldom. Is it possible I was right in assuming he tied into the
whirlpool timer switch on both tubs?
Betty (MO)
Posted by: Betty (Missouri) at January 22, 2008 10:30 PM
