No or Slow Hot Water in a Culinary Facility

Introduction

Many food safety regulations require your facility to have a certain temperature of water within a certain amount of time. As of 2022, the FDA requires hand wash stations to be at 85°F(29.4°C). Your local jurisdiction may have more stringent measures. When in doubt, follow whatever regulation is more strict. The local health inspector is more likely to shut your facility down for being out of compliance. 

Temperature checks should be performed daily at the minimum as a part of your PM program. If you don't have a daily checklist for the area, make one. Include all pieces of equipment that have a required temperature range. The sheet should include the names and expected temperature. Every day record the actual temperature, the date, and the time if possible. This method will help you see if there are any patterns that emerge where temperatures fluctuate unexpectedly or tell you of a major issue before it's too late.

Take Specific Notes

Before you can address and identify the root cause of the issue, you need to gather as much relevant and accurate information as possible. Here are some questions to answer before diving deeper. They will help you get to the root cause or causes of the underlying issue.

1. What hand wash stations are affected?
2. How many are affected?
3. How close or far are the affected equipment to the boiler or water heater?
4. Is it only an issue when the kitchen is near the beginning of the shift?
5. What other water drawing equipment is next to the affected sink?
6. Are other water drawing equipment affected?
7. Does hot water flow out of the cold side of a sink?
8. Are any sinks equipped with sprayers or hoses?
9. Is there a mixing valve?
10. How long has this issue been going on?
11. Is there a circulation loop for your hot water?
12. Is the circulation pump operational if you have one?

1. What hand wash stations are affected?

Identifying the exact location is always the first step. In the event the issue can't be resolved quickly, it is at least isolated and can be shut off till proper repairs are made. Showing good faith efforts towards addressing and repairing issues is always better than blatantly ignoring them. It will also be noted in case you need to reference the prints to the building to see if there is something hidden from plain site that could be affecting this. If your facility has been remodeled before, this is a pretty common issue. Plumbing requirements are different depending on its use. If they tied the piping in from somewhere without the temperature requirements, or if they didn't tie it back into the return loop.

2. How many are affected?

Knowing how many hand wash stations are affected will help you narrow down the potential problems. The less that are affected the easier it will be to isolate the problem. If those that are affected are relatively close, it's likely a localized issue. If there are a few affected that are far apart, but others in between are not affected, you may have several issues to address.

3. How close or far are the affected equipment to the boiler or water heater?

This information will further hone in on where the problem may lie. If it's far away, there is likely an issue with the return loop on your system. If there is no return loop on your system and it's far away, it will likely remain a problem until a circulation system is put in place, or an instahot heater is installed at the problem station.

4. Is it only an issue when the kitchen is near the beginning of the shift?

If the answer to this is yes, you almost certainly have an issue with your circulation loop. The affected sinks may not be tied properly to the system. A return valve could be turned off. The pump could be broke or undersized. The reason for this, the water in the pipe cools over time if it isn't circulating. At the beginning of the shift, the water has not flowed and has had time to cool off. While the kitchen is active, water is being used in various areas allowing fresh hot water to come into the pipes from the heater and allowing the water that has been sitting in the pipes to leave the system.

5. What other water drawing equipment is next to the affected sink?

Occasionally there are issues with another sink, dishwasher, glasswasher, etc. that may be causing issues. Since they are tied into the same system and in close proximity, often one can cause problems in the other.  Be sure to note these types of equipment that are in close proximity. Close proximity includes things attached to an adjacent wall, such as a bathroom or beverage station.

6. Are other water drawing equipment affected?

This is where you will start putting the notes from number 5 to use. Whether they are affected or not will further isolate where the problem originates from. Following the other steps on the checklist while checking if there are issues.

7. Does hot water flow out of the cold side of a sink?

Turning on just the cold sides of the sink and hot water comes out, could solve your issue if it's just the one sink. If the problem only started after a recent repair or new installation, it's possible the water connections were installed on the wrong side. This is an easy mistake to make if installed with flexible hoses and likewise an easy fix. Simply turn off the valves for the hot and cold water. Turn on the sink to confirm the water has stopped. Unscrew the hoses from the sink and swap their positions. If they are in a tight spot, it may be easier to swap at the valve. If the hoses are too short for the valves, you'll either need an extension or longer hoses. After you swap the connections, turn on the valve and make sure there are no leaks. Test the sink and confirm hot and cold are coming out of the proper sides.

8. Are any sinks equipped with sprayers or hoses?

Likely your 3 compartment sink has one of these. If it is in close proximity to the affected station it is highly likely to be your issue. You pull the handle on your sprayer or hose and hot water almost always comes out. The problem is the hot and cold taps on that faucet are likely both open to each other, but with nowhere for the water to flow when the handle isn't suppressed. This creates a cross connection, with the cold and hot water mixing inside of the pipes. Cold water in your system is typically higher pressure since it doesn't flow through a heater before coming out of the pipes. This back pressure of cold water feeds into your hot side, affecting other parts of the system. 

Solutions for this situation can be ensuring that the tap is turned off when not in immediate use. In practice, that's unlikely, as human error is high and can cause work inefficiencies. A better solution is to install a check valve on the hot water supply of the sink with the sprayer or hose. Check valves allow water to flow in a single direction only, helping prevent backflow conditions. The simplest to install in this instance screw directly onto the valve supplying the sink with the supply hose then attached to the valve. The effects of this will become apparent after the pipes have been purged of the cold water that fed into the hot supply. Test immediately but also verify at a later time to ensure this wasn't the only issue.

9. Is there a mixing valve?

Often on hand wash stations that have either knee of foot pedals to operate, there is a mixing valve. They are used to regulate the temperature. If it is plumbed incorrectly, it could cause more cold water than hot to come from the faucet. It could also just need to be adjusted. Additionally, it could have an internal failure resulting in a cross-connection.

10. How long has this issue been going on?

Knowing this will help focus on if a specific event has caused the issue. If it started going on after a major remodel. The problem is likely caused by some issues that happened during the remodel. If it's very recent with no major changes in the operation, something may have broke or one of the other described issues may be going on. If a minor repair has happened, it may have been done incorrectly. After either a major or minor repair, valves may have been turned off that someone forgot to turn back on. This often happens with return valves. Hot water will still run if a return valve is off, but it will not circulate. This causes a time delay that may not be acceptable for proper operation. It is always crucial to keep track of the time of changes in operation for this reason, it helps to narrow down issues as they arise.

11. Is there a circulation loop for your hot water?

If you have a small building, you may not have any type of water circulation. This can cause issues when the water isn't running for long periods of time or for fixtures far away from the hot water source. You can have a circulation system installed, though it will likely be costly and time-consuming. A better option is to install instahot water heaters for the affected areas. Depending on your electrical layout, installation could be done in under an hour. If power needs to be ran, it's still often quicker to install a new circuit than it is to install all new piping. 

11. Is the circulation pump operational if you have one?

Your pump should be checked at least daily. If it goes down, you will have hot water issues at some point. There should be a pipe coming in from the kitchen on one side and a pipe going out and into the water heater. The pipe coming in should be warm or hot. If it's not, your pump may not be working. Check if there is a switch that controls the motor. Is it turned off? Turn it on. Is the pump running now? The pipe should start to warm up. 

The pump is running but it doesn't seem to be moving water? The impellor may be broke. Check the motors amp draw on its nameplate. Do a volt and amp test. If there is the proper voltage and very low amp draw, it's likely not moving any water. You'll need to open up the pump at this point. It's best to do this after hours if possible, since any repair may affect other parts of operation. 

Turn off the valves going to and from the pump if it has them, if it doesn't you need to shut off water from the water heater. If this is the case, plan to install valves when possible, preferably now while the system is shut down. LOTO the valves and the power to the pump. If you can take off the housing of the pump till you get to the impellor. If it's broke and you're able to replace it, do so. If it's a smaller system, the parts aren't always replaceable. In that case, you may need a new pump altogether. After replacing the impellor or getting a new pump, reinstall it. Tighten everything up and slowly open the valves. Check for leaks and make any corrections if other issues arose during the install.

Congratulations

If you've made it this far, hopefully, that means this has been informative and helped you to find the issue, or just help you brush up on some knowledge you may not be aware of.