By Alan Zahniser
Danger. Your baby’s skin is thinner and more tender than an adult’s. Hot water from any water faucet in your home can seriously burn or scald your baby’s tender skin and require hospitalization. What a horrible experience that would be for your little one, and for everyone involved. The problem is typically that the hot water heater in your home is set to a temperature that is too hot.
Why So Hot. Many manufacturers or installers of hot water heaters initially set the temperature to be very hot, too hot. If your household ever had a lot of hot water used, such as a lot of showers in a row so that you ran out of hot water, someone may have set the hot water temperature to be hotter. If you are not the original residents of your home, the previous residents may have set the hot water heater to be too hot and that setting has never been changed. Since our use of warm water is typically a blend of hot and cold water, we normally do not care or even realize the temperature of the hot water heater. Now that we have a baby or little ones in the house, we must care a lot about that setting!! The good news is, this hot water burn danger can be virtually eliminated in one easy step!!
The Best Temperature. Our goal here is to set the hot water heater to a temperature of not more than 120 degrees fahrenheit. This is still hot, but below the serious burn level children may suffer. In my research, I found reports of a certain level of burns reported at about 125 degrees, and more severe cases at or above 130 degrees. Setting the hot water heater to 120 degrees seems to be the accepted safe standard. In fact, Washington State, in the United States, recently passed a law requiring manufacturers to preset hot water heater temperatures to 120 degrees. As a result, the number of children hospitalized for hot water burns in a typical month reduced by half, or about 2500 children per month!! While that is a great improvement, older hot water heaters and those set to high are still still burning 2500 per month in that state. Other states without such laws yet put more children at risk. Don’t let your children be at risk of painful hot water burn injuries.
Hot Water in Your Home. Water coming into your home comes from your water utility company through underground pipes and into your building. The temperature of the underground pipes and your building sets the temperature of “cold water”. Some of that water is fed into a hot water heater that is a large tank of water heated up to certain temperature. When you turn on “hot water” at a faucet, you flow water from the hot water heater through pipes in your home until it gets to you. Before you turned on the hot water, the water in the pipes and the pipes themselves probably cooled down to room temperature. When you first turn on hot water, the water received is the room temperature water that was in the pipes. As you start to feel warm water, you are receiving water from the hot water heater. However, the hot water is not very hot initially because it was cooled by going through cool pipes. As more hot water flows, the pipes will keep heating up, and the water at the faucet will keep getting hotter. Once the pipes are about the temperature of the hot water, the hot water temperature at the faucet should now be fairly consistent. The hot water will continue to flow consistently until the hot water is significantly depleted. As hot water is pulled from the hot water heater, cold water is fed into it to replenish it. Since the temperature of the hot water heater tank is now cooler, heaters will start up to get the temperature of the tank back up to the temperature of the temperature dial.
Find Your Hot Water Heater. The first step is for you to identify your hot water heater. It is typically a tall cylinder-shaped device placed beside your furnace, usually in the middle of your basement or somewhere in the middle of the home. Some homes may have multiple hot water heaters for different areas of the home. If you have multiple hot water heaters, each will need to have the temperature set by the procedure described here.
Identify Temperature Dial. Identify the temperature setting dial on your hot water heater. It is typically a knob that rotates with an arrow pointing to the temperature setting. My current water heater has a setting range from “Hot” to “Hotter” to “Very Hot”. Most hot water heaters I have seen are just as precise! At least the hot water heater dial lets you know which way to turn the dial to make the temperature hotter or less hot. That is normal and OK. We have an easy way to figure out how to set the temperature. We will do this by testing the water temperature at a sink faucet.
Identify Sink to Test. Find the sink that is about the closest to your hot water heater. We want to test the hot water temperature as it comes out of this closest sink. Testing cbd products water farther away may be less accurate, as hot water tends too cool as it travels through longer pipes to other locations.
Test Water Temperature. Test the water at a time of day when your home has not been requiring hot water for a few hours, so the hot water tank will be closest to the temperature of the dial setting. Get a drinking glass or a similar small container that will fit in your chosen sink. Also get a simple meat thermometer that has a 120 degree setting on it. Run hot water for a minute or two to be sure the water seems to be at its hottest. Now put the glass under the faucet so it fills with water and will start running over. Slow the rate of water flow so minimal air bubbles are in the cup. Put the meat thermometer in the water of the cup while the water continues to flow into and out of the cup. The meat thermometer should soon settle on a temperature, reflecting the temperature setting of the hot water heater. If the temperature is 120 degrees or less, your hot water heater is fine. You are done. Good job!
If Water Is Too Hot. If your water temperature is more than 120 degrees, go back to the hot water heater and move the temperature dial to a slightly less hot temperature. That is all you can probably do for this day. Ideally, you will now need to wait a day or so for the hot water heater to be ready to test again. Let showers, baths, washing hands, doing dishes, etc. pull more hot water from the hot water heater so the hot water heater to need to heat up the water again. This time, the water will heated up only to the new temperature you set. Once you feel the hot water heater is stable at the new temperature, go back to your sink and test the water temperature again.
Tankless Water Heaters. A more recent development for some homes are tankless water heaters. A tankless water heater heats up water at a faucet only at the time it is needed. It does not need to store water in a tank. Even though these devices work differently than a traditional hot water heater, they still need to have their hot water temperature set to 120 degrees fahrenheit or less. With traditional hot water heaters, warm water is achieved as a blend of cold and very hot water. With a tankless water heater, the temperature should be set to a desired “warm” temperature. Then, when you want warm water, you simply turn on the “Hot” water faucet only. If you desire slightly cooler water, then you could turn on some cold water also. Therefore, the tankless heater should be set to a temperature much less than 120 degrees. Many tankless systems have a digital degree setting that should be fairly reliable. However, it may be affirming to use the glass and meat thermometer technique to verify the actual hot water temperature Is below 120 degrees.
Future Hot Water for Dishwashers, Laundry Washing Machines. Automatic dishwashers usually wash with hot water. Because of their hot water requirement, dishwashers typically heat up their own water so there is no need for hot water to come from the hot water heater. Laundry washing machines are able to use hot water from the house, but most laundry detergents today allow you wash with cold water. It may be more green to wash in cold water. If hot water is needed, the 120 degrees from the house hot water should be sufficient for your laundry.
Future Hot Water for Showers. If you turned down your hot water heater to 120 degrees, you may not have enough hot water if multiple people need to shower at about the same time in the morning. If that is the case, see if people can take showers at different times of the day, to spread out the usage. Also, have everyone use the gentlest spray possible, and use the coolest shower temperature possible. All of these approaches will help your utility bills and be better for the environment anyway. However, if you still cannot get the needed hot water for your showers or other needs, consider buying a larger water heater. If you do replace your water heater, go through this procedure again to set its water temperature to no more than 120 degrees.
When Visitors Come to Stay. It is common practice to turn up the hot water heater when more people stay in the home who need showers, etc. If you are unable to schedule hot water needs sufficiently or adjust hot water usage, you may need to change the water heater setting. Take the following steps: Mark the current hot water setting with a pencil, piece of tape, or whatever before you can before you change it. Let everyone know the hot water will be very hot. Be extra careful bathing your children or using hot water around the children to make sure they cannot get burned or scalded. Make a note to yourself to change the hot water heater back to its previous setting. A day after you change the setting back, test the temperature with your cup and meat thermometer, adjusting as needed.
Trivial note. We call the device that heats water for our homes a “hot water heater”. I think the term is a bit redundant. Shouldn’t we just call it a “water heater”? We all know the outcome of a “water heater” is “hot water”. … just a thought!