I’ve been in my apartment for almost one year and had periodic hot water problems since I’ve been here. When I first moved in I had little or no hot water perhaps 3 or 5 times within 2 weeks. The landlord kindly offered to buy a new heater (all apts. have individual tanks) and that definitely made a difference though I’ve had occasional episodes every few months. Now I’ve had no hot water in the morning twice in two weeks. Both times, when I come home at night the water has returned.
I am wondering if hard water might be causing this. The water here is EXTREMELY hard, with giant chunks of calcium building up very regularly in my kettle. When I first moved in I had to soak the shower head in vinegar to because it was practically sealed up too.
So is there any reason why calcium build-up would cause this problem only in the mornings?
No.
Check that there isn’t a timer or a switch on the power to the water heater. Also, make sure that something isn’t using hot water when you don’t know about it, like a dishwasher or a leak.
I’d guess there is a bad electrical connection somewhere. Had this happened only in weather below freezing I’d suspect bad insulation somewhere allowing a pipe to freeze at night thus blocking the hot water flow and to thaw by the afternoon allowing hot water to flow.
When we first moved into our last house our water heater would occasionally not work. We found out that it was radio controlled by the electric coop and they could turn it off whenever they needed to during peak hours. For this we got a small amount of savings on our bill but they also used to give free water heaters to new customers of electric water heater use if they would sign up for this program. Look for a box somewhere near your heater with a red or green light.
A water heater doesn’t keep the water at exactly the same temperature all the time or it would run almost continuously. There is a range of heat between the coldest and hotest temperature before it will kick on. In the morning you will get the coolest of the range and it will then cycle to the hottest setting and shut off. If you got up 1 hr prior to taking a shower and did the dishes then you would likely experience hotter water because it would have kicked on after doing the dishes.
You can try raising the setting on the heater but be careful the next time you use it.
Could it also be that another unit in the building is connected to your hot water tank and the resident use up the hot water before you in the morning.