Why does my hot water run out?

September 3, 2020

A scene often seen in many homes around the UK is a family home with hot water that runs out when you need it most. A hot bath, a long shower after a run, or possibly a mountain of dirty dishes, there are lots of occasions where you could get for the hot tap to receive water that’s barely warm at best.

One of the main reasons for this is the cylinder (normally found in your airing cupboard or store away somewhere near the boiler) is no longer large enough for your growing household requirements. Another reason is the cylinder possibly being faulty or having issues that need looking at.

What’s the reason for the hot water not being hot?

Most people aren’t aware that the average hot water cylinder, in a typical 3 bed semi house, is 900mm high and 450 mm wide and can hold 117 litres of hot water. Now, this sounds like a lot of water, but unfortunately a bath can use up to 100 litres at a time and a shower can use up to 18 litres per minutes. So, it’s no wonder there isn’t any hot water left once the kids have had showers, your partner has had a long bath, or you’ve been washing up a few times already in the day. Even if you have an immersion heater or you have a boost on your programmer, you’ll find that it still takes quite a while to heat up and after an hour the hot water is only tepid.

What can you do about this problem?

The easiest option would be to simply increase the size of the cylinder, this would mean that the cylinder can hold more water and that the supply of hot water would increase. That way when you go to turn the taps, you have a much greater chance of finding hot water come rushing out instead of finding warm water.

However, we find that often there isn’t enough space in the cupboard to accomplish this, or your boiler maybe working at its full output and may not be able to heat the extra water adequately.

Another issue with this, is that if you have growing water needs (a growing family, for example) your hot water needs may change with time. Meaning that what feels like a good fix now, may cause an issue in the future when it’s not enough for all the kids to have showers, following the snowball fight outside!

Another way of solving this problem.

We know that every household is different, there are a multitude of options to suit every situation, but as a boiler installation company we find the most popular choice is a Combination boiler.

You can put them almost anywhere, and in the right conditions a Combi boiler has the potential to run 2 showers at the same time. Combi boilers have capabilities of producing instantaneous hot water every hour of the day, for 365 days a year, and Combi boilers have become the ideal choice for many homeowners who want to get rid of the older water heating conventional systems.

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