Defective Water Heater 

Our hot water heater does not seem to be heating the water. Is there a quick test we can do perform before we call a plumber to see if the water heater is possibly defective?

An easy in home test to perform is to do the following: Make sure that there are no household appliances using hot water 30 minutes to one hour before filling your bath tub with hot water. By making sure there are no household appliances using hot water, this will ensure that the water in the heating unit is totally heated. Fill the tub using the hot water spicket only. When you feel the water staring to turn cold, turn the water off. The standard size of a tub will take about 120 gallons of water, and the water should turn cold after the tub is approximately 1/3 full. If this situation works, then it would seem your heater is working fine. If you have less than 1/3 tub full of hot water, then more than likely there is an issue and this can be caused by a couple of issues: The drip tube could be defective and or clogged and consequently there is a mix of hot and cold water. A plumber would need to replace this tube. There could also be sediments building up in the bottom on the tank and this reduced the transfer of heat from the heating element. The element could be bad and would need to be replaced.