No hot water in shower

[OurFreeSociety]

Hi all,

I hope someone can help me please.

I'm in Mexico right now & no one here knows what they are doing. Even locals say that.

Anyway, this rental I moved into has had NOTHING but problems, so cosmetically it looks nice & large, but everything else is crap.

It took months for me to get the landlord to bring in a professional (if you want to call him that) plumber to fix the water leaks in the toilet & sinks & they even caused more leaks. I paid full price & never got the 3 functioning bathrooms until after 3+ months.

Then the pilot for the hot water heater outside kept going out because of the heavy winds. Finally a neighbor recommended his plumber friend. Turns out he's NOT a real plumber, they all have handymen come here pretending to be electricians & plumbers..

He replaced the thermostat (I assume it was that) & the button you press to ignite the pilot.

All was fine.

Then I started to get rocks in the water scratching my face. He spoke to them & they agreed to let him clean out the hot water tank & the tank on the roof. There were TONS of hard white rocks (I have pics & videos if you ever want to see them LOL)

Then 2-3 weeks later I started to complain to him that something happened with the water pressure. I would turn on the hot water in kitchen sink & within 1-2 minutes, the pressure would decrease.

I also told him the hot water for the shower was now luke warm.

They don't listen here, so when he came during the day when it was hot with sun outside, he's like SEEEE, there is hot water as IF I was crazy.

He ignored me about the water pressure issue.

THEN 2 weeks ago or so I had NO WATER and I thought it was something he did.

I opened up the sliding door & the hot water tank had fallen on the ground & it was trashed. It had to be replaced. I know, don't say it LOL

I had HOPED this would fix the hot water issues (sometimes there IS very hot water, but many times there isn't.). If I don't have to turn the cold water on while washing dishes or taking a shower, obviously there's something wrong with the hot water.

On Saturday I took a shower & it was NOT HOT. Initially when I got in it was nice & hot, then withing 5 mins. it was colder water, not even lukewarm.

I thought maybe the pilot had gone out, but when I got downstairs, I could hear it making a noise & within 20 mins. I had boiling hot water again AND I take long showers, so even while taking my 30-45 min. shower it never heated up the water again.

Please tell me you know what's wrong with that & the water pressure.

In my en-suite I noticed that the low pressure from the sink was even less pressure then it normally is & both "plumbers" said that's normal that it's not a lot of pressure because it's upstairs.

Well that's obviously NOT TRUE, but I'm not a plumber either LOL

I would like to have some ideas as to what is going on before I get the guy to come back in because he installed the hot water tank so he's responsible, although it's obviously not the hot water tank because I've gone thru 2 of them now.

Also, even after he replaced the switch/button & temperature dial, all was fine until it started to get cooler outside, but on Saturday it was pretty warm outside, so I no longer think it has to do with that.

In 3rd world countries they don't insulate their pipes which is why I'm mentioning this.

Thanks a ton

 

[havasu]

Being a renter, you are at the mercy of the landlord. Also, there is no tenant protection in Mexico. Basically,you either agree and accept this dilapidated plumbing, or you will need to move. If the landlord is willing to accept ideas from members of our forum, then that is another story. If so, post up some pictures.

 

[OurFreeSociety]

Being a renter, you are at the mercy of the landlord. Also, there is no tenant protection in Mexico. Basically,you either agree and accept this dilapidated plumbing, or you will need to move. If the landlord is willing to accept ideas from members of our forum, then that is another story. If so, post up some pictures.

I wasn't asking for advice on landlord & tenant situations. I know what it's like here. I was asking about what people thought the issue is with the hot water & water pressure.

Pictures of what exactly?

 

[breplum]

the issues cannot be diagnosed in text boxes. Any good plumber knows there are a multitude of plumbing elements that make up a working, reliable system. Without a professional plumber on site, your only solution is to live with it or move on.

 

[havasu]

I was referring to pictures of the water heater, rocks in the tank, incoming pressure, how the water is heated etc, and the size of the water heater. Is sediment in your aerator causing low pressure?

 

[OurFreeSociety]

I was referring to pictures of the water heater, rocks in the tank, incoming pressure, how the water is heated etc, and the size of the water heater. Is sediment in your aerator causing low pressure?

Sorry, I didn't see your reply until now.

This area does get tons of white guck which I assume is minerals and or stones. Below I uploaded a video & some pics they gave me.

They cleaned out the first tank & then I now I have the new tank because the old tank fell on the ground and broke.

I will send you what the boiler (that's what they call it) looks like from the outside tomorrow (it's night time here), but I can't take pics inside.

Someone who worked in the US for a few years is coming on Saturday & HOPEFULLY he will figure something out, but I don't think he's that much smarter than the handymen. I will be very happy if he figures out out. I'm not going to say anything to him unless I see he's at a loss.

I think you hit on something that they would never even think of because it requires brain cells, but this is all new to me, so I'm thinking on the fly here.

So you think when they were cleaning out the first one they did something to the pipes that brings the water into the house? I don't think the pipe you see in the pic is the pipe that goes into the house. There's a huge water tank on the roof. I believe that's where that goes. Many of the pics the handyman sent me are no longer able to be downloaded from WhatsApp. I hate that app. I have no idea what happened to all of the ones I did move to my computer, they all got corrupted somehow, but it was basically just pics of them having cleaned the water tank.

But why would that affect the water going cold after 10 mins. of showering?

The water pressure I could see that happening now that you mention it, but this issue didn't happen right after they cleaned it. I checked, it took around 2 months before I started to notice issues.

Even in the powder room I always got plenty of hot water when the faucet handle was pointing to the middle of the sink, but now it's lukewarm at best & I have to turn it more to the far left to get really hot water.

Maybe the water pressure moved some rocks into the pipes? But again, how does that affect the hot water issues?

https://workdrive.zohoexternal.com/...6b87168b6c04ceb7b89386fbe0348bef56b319aa0b8b3

Thanks a ton.

 

[OurFreeSociety]

I was referring to pictures of the water heater, rocks in the tank, incoming pressure, how the water is heated etc, and the size of the water heater. Is sediment in your aerator causing low pressure?

Did my response get deleted?

 

[havasu]

Nope, it's there.

 

[Rossando]

Sounds like a clogged shower cartridge. They waited to long and the buildup of calcium and magnesium got bad within the tank. Then when you use the water it enters the plumbing system and gets stuck at the showers and faucets.

Basic stuff buddy but there's multiple issues going on with the system your dealing with. I've got some tricks I've done but I'll save it because it depends on a bunch of things. Let's us know what kind of fixture you have and if it's only the shower. Recommend cleaning all aerators to get an idea of the buildup within.