Home Improvement

This is kind of a home improvement idea and a product review. The Master Bath is far away from the water heater in my house, so far that it takes almost 45 seconds to a minute to get hot water for a shower or a shave every morning. That's a lot of water going down the drain. So...

I just installed one of these. Watts Hot Water Recirculating Pump. I got it at Lowes.



That blue pump sits atop the water heater where it is attached to the output of the tank. It has a timer on it that I set to about 1/2 an hour before we typically use that bathroom and shuts off about an hour later. That black thing with the four threaded fittings is a valve that intercepts the plumbing from the stops under the sink in that bathroom. The lines that used to go from the stops to the faucet now go from this valve to the faucet and new lines connect the stops to this valve. Harder to write than to do.

What happens is at the appointed time, the pump starts circulating hot water from the heater to that valve which is at the sink furthest away from the heater. The cold water in the pipe is pushed through that valve by the incoming hot water and returned to the heater. When the water at the valve is hot it closes. The pump can continue to run. The back pressure won't hurt it. Now, you've filled the main hot water trunk line in your house with hot water and that water is almost instantly available to all your faucets/valves. It takes 2-3 seconds for hot water to reach the sink or the shower now. No wasted water. The whole thing is totally transparent. You'd never know it was there.

It took about an hour to do, not counting the 2 hours I spent installing an outlet next to the water heater to run the pump. I also had to replace the pop-off valve ($15) and the drain valve ($8). They were corroded shut and they never sealed again after I messed with them. Oh well, it's a very old heater. The pump was $180. I'm really happy with it and will set some other times on it for like when I do dishes after dinner.

lurker said:

This is kind of a home improvement idea and a product review. The Master Bath is far away from the water heater in my house, so far that it takes almost 45 seconds to a minute to get hot water for a shower or a shave every morning. That's a lot of water going down the drain. So...

I just installed one of these. Watts Hot Water Recirculating Pump. I got it at Lowes.

That blue pump sits atop the water heater where it is attached to the output of the tank. It has a timer on it that I set to about 1/2 an hour before we typically use that bathroom and shuts off about an hour later. That black thing with the four threaded fittings is a valve that intercepts the plumbing from the stops under the sink in that bathroom. The lines that used to go from the stops to the faucet now go from this valve to the faucet and new lines connect the stops to this valve. Harder to write than to do.

What happens is at the appointed time, the pump starts circulating hot water from the heater to that valve which is at the sink furthest away from the heater. The cold water in the pipe is pushed through that valve by the incoming hot water and returned to the heater. When the water at the valve is hot it closes. The pump can continue to run. The back pressure won't hurt it. Now, you've filled the main hot water trunk line in your house with hot water and that water is almost instantly available to all your faucets/valves. It takes 2-3 seconds for hot water to reach the sink or the shower now. No wasted water. The whole thing is totally transparent. You'd never know it was there.

It took about an hour to do, not counting the 2 hours I spent installing an outlet next to the water heater to run the pump. I also had to replace the pop-off valve ($15) and the drain valve ($8). They were corroded shut and they never sealed again after I messed with them. Oh well, it's a very old heater. The pump was $180. I'm really happy with it and will set some other times on it for like when I do dishes after dinner.

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How do you think this would work on a manifold system? Built our house 5 years ago and it has individual runs to every location going through a manifold.

Arative said:

How do you think this would work on a manifold system? Built our house 5 years ago and it has individual runs to every location going through a manifold.

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I'm thinking it wouldn't work as well as it does on a trunk line system like in my house but it would work. You would be pumping hot water to the manifold and on to the fixture that had the valve. I don't think the individual long runs to other fixtures would benefit beyond having hot water in the manifold but shorter runs would.

However, you could always install more valves at key locations (they are sold separately for around $50) to draw HW to those fixtures. If my house was plumbed with a manifold system, I would have put a valve on the vanity faucet and on the lines to the shower. Then at least I would have had instant HW at those two locations. I have a crawl space under my house and connecting to the shower lines would be easy.

lurker said:

I'm thinking it wouldn't work as well as it does on a trunk line system like in my house but it would work. You would be pumping hot water to the manifold and on to the fixture that had the valve. I don't think the individual long runs to other fixtures would benefit beyond having hot water in the manifold but shorter runs would.

However, you could always install more valves at key locations (they are sold separately for around $50) to draw HW to those fixtures. If my house was plumbed with a manifold system, I would have put a valve on the vanity faucet and on the lines to the shower. Then at least I would have had instant HW at those two locations. I have a crawl space under my house and connecting to the shower lines would be easy.

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Thanks. Just the master shower and sinks take a while since those are the longest runs. Can probably do the sinks easily but not the shower without taking out drywall.

I've considered replacing the hot water heater with a tankless one but not sure I'd really gain anything.

Arative said:

Thanks. Just the master shower and sinks take a while since those are the longest runs. Can probably do the sinks easily but not the shower without taking out drywall.

I've considered replacing the hot water heater with a tankless one but not sure I'd really gain anything.

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If the shower runs are not too long you might benefit by doing the sink(s). Hard to say. On the other hand, drywall is easy to repair. Cut your hole with an oscillating tool and the section will slip right back in. Just a little mud and paint and you're done.

I also don't think going tankless would do anything for you.

Good luck.

Lanx said:

is the problem that it's the first thing in the morning and all the pipes are super cold and it's a long distance away, so when hot water flows through, all the heat is dissapted to the pipes. Would an alternative to this solution be PEX? or is PEX only good for easy install and no explosing frozen water pipes?

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My plumbing is pex. But this is an issue with any kind of pipe material.

I want to meet the guy who said textured walls and ceilings were a good idea. I want to punch that fucker in the face. A lot of times. And then pee on him.

Textured walls and ceilings are a mistake always.

GuardianX said:

Okay, so I wanna kill my knockdown wall textures LOL...

Am I up for a world of hurt?

Was talking to my dad and he was saying that it would be way more trouble than it's worth. I hate the look and it's cracked and pitted enough that it looks like garbage, plus the guy who did it didn't even knock down the peaks so I have mountains on one wall in a room and dimples in another.

Whatever material he used, it LOOKS to be about a 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch in depth. I've never worked with plaster or mud in enough of a quantity to even remotely understand which he used.

I really wanna paint my kids room but I wanna kill this shit with fire...

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Removing the texture is hard after it has been painted, which it most likely has. You can try applying more with a large 10" or greater knife in thin skim coats each one filling the valleys a little more each time. Stop when you get to a point you like. Use drywall mud (joint compound) and thin it with water. You need to have some texture when you're done so you might end up spraying something else over your job.

I've seen 1/4" drywall that I suppose was meant for what you're trying to do but I can't imagine it being anything but a wavy mess.

I would just tear out the wall and put up entirely new drywall. Which would be a big job. Seems like even more work to try to smooth it out though. Just you can still use the room during.

But I'm a complete amateur.