19 Gal. Water Heater?

[Jbecks]

I have a customer that wants to know why their 32 year old 120V water heater only puts out Luke warm water.
I almost laughed on the phone. It's only 19gal. In a 65 year old Mbl. Home, 1 element 1500W @ 120V

 

[charlie b]

As time goes by, water heaters accumulate minerals at the bottom. That alone could account for poor heating results. 32 years on one unit probably exceeds their useful lifespan by 20 or more years.

 

[kwired]

If element is embedded in minerals it won't take long for it to burn out. If temp is never right (too hot or too cool) thermostat needs replaced.

That been my experiences with this type of water heaters regardless of tank size or voltage. Small tank like you mention likely only has a single element, so diagnosis a little simpler than for the typical dual element types.

 

[Barbqranch]

Also, the dip tube that brings the cold water to the bottom of the tank can fail, so incoming water mixes at the top of the tank hot water.

 

[Eddie702]

If it is really 32 years old its time is up regardless of what is wrong with it.

 

[tortuga]

32 years is pretty good I have seen even older ones. When I had the same issue with my water heater about a year ago I was surprised to see a 1996 date code on the old tank. Mine is a 50 gallon 4500 watt, and it had both the hot and cold entering on the top of the tank, there was thin plastic tube inside the tank that I suspect took the cold to the bottom of the tank. This tube had cracked and broken and little plastic pieces of it were getting stuck in the filters on my sinks.
With that tube broken the cold water coming in was too close to the hot going out so my amateur diagnosis was the hot water just mostly sat in the tank.
After the tank got removed it appeared to be in quite good condition and my plumber commented that if I wanted I could just replace that tube, another metal rod, and flush the tank, but the most expedient solution was total replacement.

 

[Eddie702]

32 years is pretty good I have seen even older ones. When I had the same issue with my water heater about a year ago I was surprised to see a 1996 date code on the old tank. Mine is a 50 gallon 4500 watt, and it had both the hot and cold entering on the top of the tank, there was thin plastic tube inside the tank that I suspect took the cold to the bottom of the tank. This tube had cracked and broken and little plastic pieces of it were getting stuck in the filters on my sinks.
With that tube broken the cold water coming in was too close to the hot going out so my amateur diagnosis was the hot water just mostly sat in the tank.
After the tank got removed it appeared to be in quite good condition and my plumber commented that if I wanted I could just replace that tube, another metal rod, and flush the tank, but the most expedient solution was total replacement.

Broken plastic dip tubes are fairly common.