Water Heaters - Water Heater Temp

I have a 50 gal electric water heater and my temp on my water heater is set to 130 deg and it seems that there is enough hot water for no more than 3 showers. Once the 4th person takes a shower, you have no hot water left. Should I increase the temp or it wont matter?

increasing the temp of the water would help but i would not do this unless you install a tempering valve. 120*F is the recommended setting to prevent accidental scalding.

I currently do not have a tempering valve and my setting is at 130 deg. Besides the tempering valve, what other things can I do to allow more people to take hot showers? Both my bathrooms have fairly new showerheads that my wife just purchased within the past year at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Safely? Install another water heater in tandem, or zoned, if the piping is accessible like in a basement and keep the temperature at no more than 120 F. 3 showers for a normal water heater isn't bad, considering the length of showers taken by most people.

Make sure your shower heads are low flow. 2.0 GPM or less. Many of these "designer" shower heads are built to deliver the equivalent of showering in a tropical rain forest -- and use a LOT of hot water. Three showers on 50 gallons is doing very good. I have a 40 gallon gas water heater, set at 110 degrees, and its all I can do to get one good shower out of it. Another easy fix is to reschedule some of your family showers.....stagger them to give the water heater a chance to recover.

Most electric water heaters have two thermostats, and I recommend that both be checked. Further details on how the two thermostats and associated heaters work can be found at the following website. www.chilipepperapp.com (http://www.chilipepperapp.com/troublee.htm)

Good Luck,
Ed