Water Heaters - Inconsistent hot / warm electric tank

Electric tank, relatively new (bought a model home) so tank is 3 yrs. Pretty sure its a whirlpool as all our applicances are, but I can verify if that matters.

Intermittently hotwater tank will quickly or out of the gate run to luke warm water. There is no consistency as water will be fine for a week or month, then on an arbitrary day/eve have little hot water.

Household is busy 5 people, 2 dogs, I think its a 50 gal tank but cannot attribute loss of hot to too much pulling as some days we do laundry, dishwasher and then showers and its a crap shoot as to whether there will be hot or warm. Has occurred first think in the morning (when no hotwater is used overnight) and also early evening when kids shower after dinner. Of course we only notice the temp in the shower, so it may be occurring in laundry and I might not know.

Before I call a repair man, are there causes I can check/rule out? I checked the forum but most posts show steady degradation. This is not our case, as we are currently on a full week with no issues. Did not see this problem when we first moved in for a few months and when we did thought it may have been the settings, so adjusted temp. This worked for a while. Over the last 3 months of 15, has been more frequent but still inconsistent.

Would appreciate any ideas.

Hi DD, and welcome to the board. Not my speciality, but it does not sound like the heater, more like a mixing valve in the shower control. Do you notice this at the kitchen sink or bathrooms?

When you notice the drop in temp, do you take any action or does it just go away and how long to recover? If a 50 gallon tank gets cold, it will take awhile to recover and will affect the whole house.

Next time you detect a low temp, test the water everywhere you can. And check on the dogs, they can be sneaky:).

Bud

Yes this is a weird problem. We have 3 bathrooms and has affected all of them at one point or another, so doubt its the shower. So far, no issue again, but I will test the other rooms when it happens again.

Thanks!

being this was a model home i doubt the fixtures weree used much. i agree it is most likely the shower valves. they have presure balancing and scald gaurd protection and most likely the part/s that control those are in need of replacement. it could be something with your heater especially if it is a "whirlpool" but is unlikely.

as mentioned, when this happens again check the temp at the sinks. if thhe sinks are doing it also then it is a heater problem and you will most likely need a professional onsite to figure it out