Water Heaters - New water heater: not enough hot h2o

Greetings,

We just had a new electric water heater installed (yesterday) to replace a really old Rheem that had started leaking from its rusted bottom. The original was an 80 gallon electric. We replaced with a 50 gallon electric. There are only two people in the house so I thought that 80 was a bit of overkill.

After 1 10 min shower this morning, we were basically down to lukewarm water. Now, one thing is that our diverter is not working that well and leaking a fair bit of water out of the tub spout. Also, we have a older speakman shower head that seems to put a really high water flow. I'm guessing this might have some effect on the amount of available hot water for the shower.

The only other odd thing that I have noticed is that when you turn the water on at the tub, you basically have to turn it all the way to hot to get warm water. This was true with the old water heater as well.

I'm going to call the plumber that installed the water heater, but do any of the wise folks that frequent these boards have any suggestions as where to look other than the heater itself as the problem?

thanks,
Erik

The combination of a smaller tank and the old showerhead would definately cause at least part of the problem. The new water saver heads are rated at 2-1/2 gallons per minute. This would mean that a 10 minute shower would use 30 gallons. I realize that part of that water is cold, but, as you use hot water, it is instantly replaced with cold water. This tempers the temperature of the water in the tank. With the old head, you are using more water.
The mixing valve for the shower/tub also seems to need some attention. May just be bad seats or cartridge. Good luck.

Just turn up the thermostat on the new heater. The new ones are shipped from the factory with the lowest possible setting.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'lb be getting a new shower head and turning up the heater thermostat, along with fixing the diverter spout.

cheers,
Erik