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Stiebel Eltron DHC-E 8 Tankless Electric Water Heater Questions & Answers
I installed a dhc tankless heater, but when I open
Hi and welcome to FixYa, I am Kelly.
What is happening is that your cold water flow is greater in volume (gals per min) than your hot water. So when you open the cold water it is mixing with the hot water inside the faucett or shower plumbing and actually reverse flowing back into the hot water heater plumbing. The reverse flow slows the water flow sensing turbine inside the heater and it is thinking that there is not any water flow. (There isn't actually due to the equalization of water pressure when you open the cold water faucett) Since this is a safety feature of the tankless heater to keep it from overheating, it shuts off.
Somewhere in the hot water plumbing there is a major restriction. It may very well be the internal plumbing of the tankless hot water heater or the flow detector design.
There are 2 ways to correct this. The easy way would be to restrict the available cold water flow. You can do this by installing another shut off valve inline with the cold water plumbing and just not open the valve all the way. You would have to adjust the setting so that the hot and cold water can be on at the same time and the hot water heater stays on. The hard way is to locate the hot water flow restriction and eliminate it.
It is possible.... if you have a flow restrictor in a shower head or a screen in a faucett areator that they are partially clogged. Clean any flow restrictors and screens then see how the hot water heater performs before you start modifying plumbing.
Thanks for choosing FixYa,
Kelly
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