Water Heaters - Inconsistent hot water - suspect dip tube

I have a 50 gal, gas Bradford White water heater. It seems to be running out of hot water much sooner than it used to. It appears that the thermostat is behaving properly and I suspect it's the dip tube. I'm reasonably mechanically inclined but have NO copper plumbing experience. I wanted some feedback on how complicated it is to open up the top and check the dip tube. At first look, I'm thinking it's outside my league. But if I can do it myself, I'd really prefer to.

Thanks in advance for your time!

If this is an electric heater, I would suspect the lower element. I would flush it first (assuming you have not done so recently) and then see if it's better. If not, check into whether the lower element is working.

If the upper element fails, you'll only have warm water. If the lower element fails, you'll have hot water, but run out much more quickly.

You should have unions on top of the tank there. If so turn water off, gas off and drain the tank "some" take the cold water union off and you should be able to pull the dip tub out and check it. How old is the tank? Water hard there ? can have a rock build up around the vent stack in it.

ED ;)

Ed,

I drained the tank, got the pipe wrench and removed the cold water union. I was hoping at this point that I'd be able to pull out the dip tube and inspect it. No such luck.

The assembly that the cold water feed attaches to seems to be a fixed/permanent part of the tank. I did notice a lot of corrosion and black stuff where it attaches. For now I may just replace the washer that was part of that union, refill the tank and see what happens.

If you have any further advice on how to actually get at the dip tube, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks

The Bradford-White uses a dip tube that is attached to the steel inlet nipple. Remove the nipple and the dip will come right out. Now, it may be a little difficult to remove the nipple if the water heater is old and there is heavy corrosion. You didn't mention the age or if it's electric or gas. But anyway, the setup is the same for both types. Be sure to explore the other possibilities mentioned by previous posts.

Jim,

Thanks for the response. It's a gas water heater and its 10 years old.

The steel inlet nipple that you mentioned - how is this attached to the tank? As I said in a previous post, it seems to be VERY firmly attached. I tried rotating it with a pipe wrench and it didn't budge. However, I wasn't sure it was supposed to, so I didn't apply a lot of force. But as you said, the the heater is old and there is a fair amount of corrosion.

Thanks again everyone.

It's basically a short piece of steel pipe and unscrews just like any other pipe. However, it will take a lot of force to remove it. You will need a good (18" or more) pipe wrench.

I found a supplier who has the dip tube and I'm ready to move forward. Since I drained and flushed the tank yesterday, is it necessary to drain it again to do the dip tube replacement?

Thanks

It's not necessary to completely drain the tank. But I would drain a gallon or so to reduce the amount of water that could spill on top of the heater.

In extreme cases when the nipples were uncooperative, I drained the tank and set it on its side. For me, it's a little easier to get more leverage on the wrench.

Good luck.