low water temperature in bath

shopaholicz

Hi,

I don't understand this at all and I'm hoping someone can enlighten me.

Last night I wanted a bath, I don't go in very often, I'm a shower girl at heart, but had some leftover bubbles from last year I wanted to use up before xmas. I 1/2 ran the bath, using the hot tap only, then stopped because it wasn't hot enough. I shouted downstairs and got my other half to turn the water temperature up on the boiler, then began refilling the bath. I had a much shorter bath than I wanted as the water wasn't really hot enough.

Coming downstairs after the bath I went to check the boiler expecting that he'd not turned it up or turned it the wrong way, but the dial had been turned up fully, so not that. I checked the temperature of the water in downstairs taps and then the sink in the bathroom. They were all too hot to keep my hand under the running water. So I checked the bath taps again and the water coming out of the bath tap was warm, but not hot.

Can anybody point me in the direction of what's wrong?

grandma247

Try turning the tap down to run slower. I found that makes the hotter water come through. It does take longer to fill the bath though.

StuC75

Has the boiler been recently serviced?

Has the water flow rate been affected? How many litres a minute is it running at? as too fast or slow could affect if the boiler is firing up or if the water is passing through too slowly to get hot enough?

was the central heating just on\running at the time?

Gordon_Hose

Single mixer tap? Could the valve inside have worn and be letting cold water by?

Xeorix

Combi boiler or hot water tank?

Ectophile

If it's a combi boiler, then it's quite possible that it just cannot heat the water to the temperature you want fast enough. At this time of year, the incoming cold mains water is really cold, so the boiler has more work to do.

The quick fix is to turn the tap down.

There should be a tap on the cold water inlet to the boiler. A better fix is to turn that tap down a bit at a time, until the water comes out hot enough. That way it will work for all the hot taps, and you won't have to worry about turning each of them on by just the right amount every time.

shopaholicz

We have a combi boiler. Don't think it's the boiler as the water coming out of other taps is hot enough, just the bath taps we're having problems with. Can't understand why it's different. Both the boiler and the taps are less than 2 years old.

Thanks for the suggestion Gordon Hose, we can check that.

grandma247 I'll try that first.

Gordon_Hose

The bath tap may allow more water to flow compare to the sinks though.

Restricting the flow will effectively slow the water down and the boiler can heat it up quicker and to a higher temperature.

Ectophile

Bath taps are usually bigger than those in basins or sinks, so they may let the water through faster.

When I lived in a flat with a combi boiler, the difference between summer and winter was remarkable. In the summer, I would use a 50/50 mix of hot and cold water to run the bath. In the winter, it was just hot water, no cold. Even then, I had to turn the inlet valve on the boiler down a bit to reduce the flow and give the boiler a chance to heat the water up.

southcoastrgi

don't turn the flow rate down via the tap under the boiler as it may leak, do as others have suggested & turn the flow rate down on the bath tap