Water Heater Recirculating Pump install.

I'm going to install one of these this weekend.
It takes what seems forever to get the water hot at the kitchen sink and bathrooms.
Had a plumber come out today and he suggested that I install this instead of paying him $800+ to do it.

Watts HRWS Universal Steel Water Heater Recirculating Pump in the Water Heater Accessories department at Lowes.com

Question is;
The kitchen and the master bath are both furthest away from the water heater on opposite corners in the back of the house.
The kitchen is a little further.
He said the only disadvantage of doing the sensor value in the kitchen is that the water will never be cold, but tepid, for like washing fruits and vegetables.

Installation seems very easy.
Y'all have any tips or advice that would help?

TIA..

 

I'll put the valve in bathroom since I never use cold water in bath. I use a lot of cold water in kitchen tho

 

Had a small 1 gallon or so electric water heater under the sink in a house we bought before.

 

That's interesting timing... I've been researching these as well, and recently posted a thread on another forum to which I belong. The Watts unit you linked is the same one I saw at Home Depot.

Yeah, I'd put it in the bathroom. In my case the master bath is the furthest point with the kitchen much closer so it's a no brainer for my application.

Really tired of how much water we waste waiting for hot.

 

Oh, and happy birthday.

 

Thank you.

I guess if it having it in one or the other didn't work, I can add a sensor and have one in both.

$69 Watts Premier WP596816 Replacement Sensor Valve Kit for Instant Hot Water Recirculating Pump System, 2 x 12" Supply Lines & Valve

Watts Premier WP596816 Replacement Sensor Valve Kit for Instant Hot Water Recirculating Pump System, 2 x 12 Inch Supply Lines & Valve - Flush Valves - Amazon.com

The house is only 2100 sq ft and a single story.
I can't imagine needing 2 of them.

I'll ask the warden which one is more important to her.
I'd guess the bathroom for the shower and bath..
I just bought the Watts at Lowes, just about to install it.

I'm not the best with plumbing, but this is pretty easy.
I've got no issue replacing faucets and stuff like that..

 

Yeah it looks pretty straightforward. Take a look at what type of fittings are on it &/or read instructions to see whether or not you need teflon tape (some fittings need it, some don't) on the joints and you're good!

https://everydayhomerepairs.com/when-how-to-use-teflon-tape/

Keep us posted, I'll be interested to hear how you (or more importantly, The Warden) like it.

 

Much more difficult, but do you have access to all the house lines? I built a four zone recirculation setup using a pump and it is easily the best upgrade I've done to our house. Obviously a ton more work and possibly overkill if all you need is one of those cross overs, but worth bringing up.

 

Can you elaborate for us non-plumbers?

Why the four zones... are they separate loops? Does this mean you re-circ hot to only specific zones as needed, rather than the whole system?

Are you using dedicated return lines, or single pipe system?

Sounds like your house might be bigger than mine. (1,500 SF)

 

Four zones which made sense to group sections of the house into with separate return lines. One pump, so there isn't individual zone control other than a ball valve used to balance the return flows. The house is bigger, a bit over 3k sqft, but the position of the water heater on one extreme basement wall also exaggerates the issue.

 

That didn't take long.

I drained the tank, refilled halfway, and drained it again.
It's only 3 years old but still had sediment out of the hose and in the tub when I refilled it and cleared the lines.

I would have liked a prettier install under the sink, but who is going to see it?
Would probably need longer hoses to mount the valve.



Still waiting for the water heater to heat up, but already noticed a difference in the guest bath..

 

Well, pretty much all of us, now... forever. lol

Turn it on, turn it on!! How much faster?

You got that done fast, I've just barely finished the coffee I was drinking when I started reading this thread.

 

I'm going to let the water heater heat up since I drained it and try it out.
I can barely hear the under-sink value running when I had my head under the sink.

 

So how do you like it?

 

I should have done this YEARS ago.

Put the sensor under the kitchen sink which is the farthest from the water heater.
Both bathroom sinks, tubs, and shower have hot water in under 5 seconds as opposed to a full minute or more (seemed like 5 minutes).
The kitchen is hot in the matter of time it takes to clear the supply hose from the sensor to the tap, just a few seconds.
As previously stated, the kitchen COLD water isn't COLD, but a little tepid.
More cool than hot, but noticeably warmer than cold.
We don't really need cold water in the kitchen anyway.

Cold water is 86° in the kitchen, hot is 118°
Cold is 78° in the bathrooms, hot is 119°
Outdoor tap is 75°, it used to be colder.
I have no idea how the lines were run in the slab..

We drink and cook with bottled water.
The dog drinks bottled water because the city water either smells like chlorine or algae.
Besides that, he is too precious to drink tap water...

 

Very cool, well done!

Glad to have you leading the way and posting positive results... I've been trying to decide on doing this and if so which method - return line or single pipe.

 

So, if I’m following this, it is simply back flushing your hot water through your cold water lines back to the water heater (until it senses the water at the sensor location has come back up to set point)…

I guess at the expense of ever actually having cold water, that’s ok.

I’ve got 45-50* well water most of the year (420ft deep well) and I like that. Luckily when we built our house my basement was unfinished and I had access to cut in a proper recirc loop. I think even without great access, I’d try to fish a proper recirc line into the attic or crawl space back to the pump just to not lose actual cold water. Or go for an under-cabinet 1-gallon point of use unit to provide the initial hood until the line water reaches it.

My next house will be designed to be fully zoned for recirc.

 

I am interested in this, so some questions. When my water heater went we were going to install tankless but the costs was to great. Do you lose cold water if it recirculates through the cold water lines and is the hot water heater constantly heating and or more so during the winter months. I'm in the south so not as bad as the north east but still gets cold during the winters. Would your gas bill go up. I'm assuming you would use less water if you don't have to waste it while your waiting for hot water.

 

If you use a cross over, yes, you lose cold water as it becomes warm since it is now the recirc's return. If you've got chilly well water, and want that, then the problem would be inverted - must wait to flush the cold line to get all of the warm return out of the way. @1lowlife's use case is a good match for the cross over since they don't use/need real cold.

My setup has dedicated return lines, with a tankless, and I'm in the south so can give you a similar reference. I did use 1" insulation on all hot lines as the faster those cool, the more the recirc has to run. Think of them as your buffer or a mini tank. On average the loop runs for 2mins every 45mins to bring the return lines up to 105degF (there's a 15degF differential from set point when it turns itself off). The pump's power consumption is marginal, something like 16W.

Net result is far less water usage as you don't just throw it down the drain waiting for the hot supply to flush all of the cooled water it's holding. If my memory is correct from 3ish years ago, I think it added sub $20 to our monthly gas bill. One minimization trick is to add a controller to the tankless which lets you set operation hours.

Edit: we had a new build but the house was plumbed with trunk and branch. At the time I didn't know what recirc was so couldn't specify it. My conversion with four zones and extra return lines makes my setup less efficient. If you were to do it correctly during a build, the whole house should be one giant loop. I think the numbers I put above could then be improved some. Of course, it all comes down to house size (IE hot water line footage).

 

I'd like to revisit this thread 6 months after I installed it;
Every time I turn on the hot water, I MEAN EVERY TIME, I'm so grateful I did this recirculating pump.

It is so nice to turn on any faucet, tub, or shower in the house and have hot water within single-digit seconds instead of minutes.
In the kitchen, I smile when I turn the hot water on, that one had the longest wait.

I'll reiterate that the cold water isn't as cold as it used to be, but that far outweighs the long wait times for hot water..
Before it was probably a minute or more to get hot water, but it seemed like hours standing there with your hand under the faucet needing hot water.

If you've thought about doing this, do it..
Your entire family will thank you.