I have a customer that has been having water heater problems. He had a 1 yr. old unit that quit making hot water. Thinking he had a bad element, he replaced both of them. Still no hot water. He ultimately replace both thermostats and had warm (not hot)water for about a week, and then no hot water again. He finally went and bought a new Whirlpool unit. This unit has a self-diagnostic control box on it. He had hot water for one day and then the control box indicated that the top element was bad. He called me to look at it. I pulled the top element and it was coated with what looked like a calcium deposit. I cleaned the element and reinstalled it. The unit began making hot water, but within 3 hours the control box again indicated that there was a problem with the top element, and quit heating the water again. A little background: The house is in a rural setting, so water is supplied by canal (Colorado river water). The canal water in this area is generally clean, but does contain some fine silt. The water goes through a Culligan softening system immediately before the water heater. A check of the electrical shows 230V at the top element. The customer also states that he's noticed an increase in electrical consumption since he started having these problems. I suspect that the problem may lie in the fact that the elements are quickly becoming coated with scale, creating an "insulation" around them. Anyone have ideas? Ron Peeks Pumpman

It seems that there is a whistling noise coming from either my shower head or the water temp adjustment nozzle. The water temp adjustment is one nozzle which you turn to the left for hot and to the right for cold. The noise appears when you turn the nozzle towards the left (hot) and seems to go away when you either turn it hotter or colder. I recently changed shower heads and the previous one didn't make this noise. Fyi, the replacement shower head is NOT new..it was in another shower. Could it be that the washer is worn out inside this head?? Any tips would be appreciated!! Thanks, M