Water luke warm in spring/summer


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Old 04-29-13, 11:08 PM
R
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Water luke warm in spring/summer

I live in Arizona so my garage gets really hot in the spring and summer. For whatever reason, when ever we have a 90F+ day my gas water heater doesn't want to heat up the water. Any ideas why ambient temperature would affect the water heater this way?
 
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Old 04-30-13, 04:57 AM
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Welcome to the forum.
Is this a new issue, or has it been like this for some time?
This could be many things.
Is the tank in the open air or closed off?
Could it not be getting enough fresh air?
What is the make, model and age of the unit?
 
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Old 04-30-13, 06:11 AM
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Just a guess based on what happened to me when I lived in SC.
Your incoming water lines are not bured that deep so the water is already hot when it comes into the heater, the heater is sitting in a hot garage, so there's a chance the thermostat is not calling for heat because the waters already hot.

What's the thermostat set at?
Try running the hot water at a faucet and stand by the heater and see if it's even coming on.
 
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Old 04-30-13, 10:09 PM
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The tank is in the garage, out in the open.
Its a A. O. Smith Promax Plus, model GVR 50 100 and is 6 years old.
We have noticed it the last 2 years.
The thermostat doesn't have temp markings, just a triangle (which I think is what the recommended setting is) and then A, B C (temp goes up as it goes to C). It is set at A.

I let the hot water run this evening for a few min and the heater didn't kick in. The pipes here are exposed outside of the houses and the "cold" water doesn't get very cold in the spring/summer.

It's usually fine in the morning, after the garage has cooled off, but in the evening or at night its just warm water coming out.
This only happens when the temps get up in the 90s so it seems it has to be something with the air temperature or incoming water temperature causing the thermostat to not kick over.

Any ideas about how to fix it?
 
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Old 05-01-13, 05:54 AM
J
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If A is the lowest setting then just turn it up to take suggest temp. marking and see what happens.
If it's working right just turning it up should make it kick on.
 
 

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