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We lease an apartment and the maintenance has been less than effective at fixing this issue so was wondering what other people think about it.

We've got 2 showers and 3 sinks, this issue is happening across all of them. The water 80% of the time is room temperature, it will then sometimes get hot after about 5-10 minutes. Then it will quickly run out.. but sometimes it doesn't and stays somewhat warm for about 30 minutes or so. In the winter it is freezing cold water instead of room temperature so you can see how that's an issue.

The temperature on the water heater itself was set to max 'VERY HOT' and it's still having the sames issues. I've decided to turn it down and nothing's really changed other than the water not being scalding when it does work.

I've taken a few pictures as well so we can look at what's going on. enter image description here

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  • Hello, and welcome to Stack Exchange. When you run the hot water, what does the temperature do at the heater outlet? Does it vary widely?
    – Daniel Griscom
    Jun 19, 2018 at 1:57
  • Heater Outlet being the Faucet? It's room temperature at first then warmer then back to a room temperature.
    – Daniel Writz
    Jun 19, 2018 at 12:01
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    No, he means put your hand on the plastic pipe that you’ve labeled hot, then have someone turn on the water. You can feel if the water stays hot, or if it varies as you described. This verifies if the hot water heater works correctly. I suspect the problem is not your hot water heater at all but the route the pipes take between the point you have pictured and the faucets.
    – Tyson
    Jun 19, 2018 at 12:57
  • Ahh thank you @Tyson I'll do that as soon as I get back home and report back!
    – Daniel Writz
    Jun 19, 2018 at 15:50
  • Ok so we tested it and the hot water pipe coming from the water heater is hot and it was hot while we ran the water, however the water coming out of the faucet was not so hot. @DanielGriscom
    – Daniel Writz
    Jun 20, 2018 at 14:47

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The pictures do not show anything useful, except that maybe the heater may be old.

it will quickly run out, the dip tube may be broken off.

The dip tube extends the inlet so that the cold water enters the tank at the bottom, below the hot water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fnQEIx-anI

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