It is obviously desirable to have a functioning shower water heater that provides constant hot water. But sadly, the heat temperature is commonly found to be inconsistent or faulty in most showers. Sometimes, as a result of the current weather conditions, your shower water temperature might give you the exact temperature you do not want. That is, your shower has warmer or even hot water in summer, while you can’t just seem to get it warm during winter. It is normal for homeowners to find it disturbing when they can’t get their desired water temperature at every point in time. Also, aside from the joys of a sweet hot bath, hot water temperature kills bacteria that might be in your water. As West London Plumbers, a plumber in West London, points out, it is actually necessary to get your shower temperature fixed perfectly.
The Perfect Shower Temperature Varies Between Different People
Actually, getting your hot water mostly just requires adjusting the temperature carefully so as to get that perfect setting. You don’t want it too hot, so you must avoid getting scalded or burned by mistake. The perfect degree for that is usually set at exactly 120 degrees Fahrenheit. However, you should know that this level of temperature might not be suitable for everyone. Others in your home such as young children, elderly people or sick people might find this temperature too hot for them. So you might need to adjust the settings. This is probably why faucet manufacturers make their products in a regulated manner, restricting the maximum temperature that your shower can be.
How Do I Adjust the Water Temperature in My Shower?
Turning up your water temperature is really something that you can handle yourself. In most modern bathrooms, all you have to do is turn up a valve to the required temperature. However, in some other shower types, the setting is kept away from the surface, to prevent mishandling or accidents. So in such cases, you might try and still get little result. Even when you’ve tried, and seem to have gotten to an unsatisfactory limit of hotness from your shower, there are still ways you may get your hot water up and running. It is usually an electrical issue that needs to be reset.
What Do You Need to Turn Up Your Heat Temperature?
Your specific faucet type might have descriptions on how you can go about it in the manual. However, the process is basically the same in most cases. You don’t really need to get the services of a technician to do this. Neither do you need to be an expert yourself to sort it out. As long as you can recognize the basic circuit in the valve system, which is fixed beneath the faucet, then it is quite easy. In fact, you might not need anything besides some screwdrivers and your keen observation. You can simply use the following steps:
- First, turn off the water heater by flipping it off at the circuit breaker. This is a safety measure against electrical accidents.
- Look for the panel that covers the temperature dial and use a screwdriver to remove that panel.
- There will usually be some sort of insulation behind the panel cover. Remove this insulation and you will see the temperature setting properly.
- Then simply adjust the temperature setting a bit. Then you are done!
- Make sure you replace the insulation and the panel cover properly.
- You can then turn on the heater and enjoy your hottest bath.
However, you might still need to readjust it for an appropriate mixture of hot and cold water. You honestly wouldn’t always want hot scalding water even if you want a hot bath. This would mean you have to adjust the Rotational Stop Limit (RSL) within the valve, so as to control the mixture of hot and cold water. There will be an indication of what direction would be used to adjust the RSL, whether clockwise or anticlockwise.
In case it feels difficult to turn either way, you can pull out the cover a bit so you can adjust the RSL in the right direction. This process would help you get a fine mixture of hot and cold water. If this doesn’t do the trick, then you can simply repeat the process and turn the RSL a bit more. Most times, when your faucet is new, it might be set to give you cool water, and would need you to turn the RSL much more to get it properly warm.
Finally, you might have some issues if you cannot locate your faucet manual. You might have to call in the services of a plumber. This way, you can adjust too hot or too cold water temperature once and for all. To get it done by yourself, you can get further directions by watching YouTube videos.