weird hot water problem?

Question

we're renting an apartment and we haven't had hot water in over a month now. We had our power company (who install and mantain the water heaters in our area) come in and take a look. Everything seemed fine with the hot water heater, it was turned up high enough, and the pipe leading from it was hot. The strange thing is, we get hot water in our shower if we turn on the kitchen tap. But that is the ONLY time we get hot water anywhere in the house. The kitchen tap sporadically will turn hot for 30 seconds or so then goes back to luke warm or cold. The only thing I can see that is odd is that our tap in the kitchen is opposite (it runs somewhat warm when its on the labelled cold side, and vice versa). Our landlord has apparently been in touch with our power company and he claims they just need to change our hot water tank but we've had problems with our landlord before so it may be he's trying to get out of a bigger job then what it really is. Anyone know what the problem may be?

Answer 1

sounds like some one has piped cold water into the hot water out feed pipe, [crossed pipes] , so when you open the one in the kitchen it allows the hot water to reverse its flow, giveing you hot water, for a while,
plumbing pipes needs to be traced, from the hot water heater, to the kitchen,

Answer 2

William is right. The reason you get cold water instead of hot is that the pressure in the cold line is higher than in the hot because it is direct rather than fed through the hot water tank,where you lose a few pounds of pressure

Answer 3

The problem is the landlord. He is responsible for renting a living facility that is in working order. If he does not fix it immediately "MOVE". All ready he sounds to me like a slum lord.