Getting More Hot Water in the Shower

You may remember how there wasn't hot water coming out our tub, but there was hot water coming out the sinks after we flushed the hot water heater. I was so in need of a shower, but so not thrilled about taking a lukewarm cold shower! I tried. Then got out and decided I was going to take care of it right then!

After fiddling with the water heater for a bit with no luck, a quick Google search lead me to finding this on some forum:

"most new faucets are purposely designed to NOT allow ALL hot to keep kids from getting scalded... the factory setting on the guide sometimes barely allows for lukewarm water depending on your volume and pressure and the temp of your water heater..."

Okay gotta figure out how to change that setting! I read something about unscrewing something. I guess it was just the handle but I took off the whole plate. You don't have to do this!

Just take off the handle. There should be a little screw. Ours is missing, so there wasn't one! (Don't mind the big screws in my hand, remember you shouldn't have to take those out!)

The manual online did not look like what I was dealing with! At least not as far as I could tell. There were these two gold pieces and the white stopper that keeps the handle from turning past them. The gold pieces need to be adjusted so the handle can make a longer rotation before it hits the stopper. 

Slide the little rubber gasket (Is that what that's called?! I have no idea. I'm a plumber in the making!) out so you can slide the gold piece out.

Slide the gold piece out so you can rotate it. 

Rotate it to where you want. The manual says to adjust it in increments. I did mine as far as it would go.

Ideally you'd check the temperature with a thermometer to make sure you're in the safe range (less than 120 I think).  Since our water heater doesn't doesn't even get that hot in our sinks I knew I going to be okay. Once you check you can make any adjustments. 

Put it back together and enjoy a hot shower!!!

 . . . or go check up on an ant infestation while you wait for the water heater to heat water because no hot water is coming out! because at the beginning of this ordeal while you were fiddling with the water heater you must have turned it off and now no hot water comes out anywhere in the home. 

Go to bed stinky, and tired, and frustrated, and cold. :-( 

The good news: there was hot water by morning!!! Yay for taking a hot shower for the first time in I don't know how long!!!

The bad news: there wasn't enough hot water to wash my hair and shave my legs. Oh well. A little fur will keep me warm in the winter, I guess ;-)