Natural gas water heater after vacation

Not sure I understand what you are saying.... sorry you're having to explain this to someone with no know how, but why is this happening and is there anything I can do about it?

Vacation mode??? Would that help this? That thing is deep in my attic and pretty hard to access.... I simply know of its existence

For sure not....its just so strange to me that everytime we got away and come back our hot water barely lasts whereas a normally we never run out of hot water. Is this not a normal problem, because I cant find jack on it

Gas.... getting up in age...14 years I believe. And yes... the hot water always comes back after a few hours, but this is the only time it goes out.

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Gas.... getting up in age...14 years I believe. And yes... the hot water always comes back after a few hours, but this is the only time it goes out.

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I had something similar, though not exactly as you described, some years ago where the water heater burner would intermittently shut off, and cleaning the thermocouple fixed the problem. See if you have a nice blue flame on the pilot light and not a weak, yellow flame - indication something is dirty and not getting sufficient air.

As Zappas suggest check the water heater and see if you notice any leak/moisture, even if ever so small. I wonder if some moisture builds up on the thermocouple, pilot tube, etc. when you are days away from home, not using hot water, and the heater’s burner is not turning on frequently, thus not keeping the components dry. Once you return home, deplete the tank of hot water, the burner kicks on drying components, and works fine hereafter if the system components are dry. While at home you are always using hot water, the burner runs frequently keeping things dry. Anyway, just speculating, throwing out ideas.

See if this might give you ideas to things to check. LINK