No more waiting for hot water
 

Purchased a hot water recirculating pump from Home Depot yesterday for $200 and installed it in About two hours. No more waiting for hot water, works great! They are about $150 on Amazon, but I didn't want to wait. I highly recommend. This if you need to run your water a long time before it is hot.

what do you define as a long wait for hot water?

What brand was it? Where is it installed? How difficult was it to install? We are so tired of wasting water waiting for it to get hot.

Washing and rinsing my face and the water is still ice cold.

The brand is Watts at Lowes or Home Depot

It's fairly easy to install. Look up on you tube there are several instructional videos on the subject

I'd be very interested to know how much more power you will consume for this convience. The water systems in homes in Villages are not energy efficient. I suspect your water heater will be drawing a lot more current as heat will be transfered to ground where pipes run continuously. The higher the water temp the more energy transfer will happen. Am I misunderstanding how these pumps work? Where is our physics instructor?

I bought one on Amazon and had it installed along with our water softener. The small circ pump is a Watts and fits in the hot water exit line from the water heater. A small valve unit is also required on the furthest hot water - in our case, the master bathroom - installs under the vanity. This allows a link to the cold water sytem so the hot water can circ enough.

Before install it took a good 30 secs for the hot water to become warm. Now, it's actually HOT in a second - really. Have no clue how much more the water heater needs to run/energy cost. I would believe it is a very small price to pay for comfort and running less water. My sig other would certainly echo that - It's a godsend in her words.

The unit has a timer, and we have it running from 7AM to 11PM.

Mike Scott plumbing installed, great. BTW 2 of our neighbors had it installed after us...word of mouth - Mike Scott supplied the unit and install.


Instant Hot Water Recirculating System - What's New - Watts

i actually got a 2 gallon pitcher, from my kitchen, started the shower, used the removeable head and filled the pitcher till the water ran warm.

filled the pitcher to the top.... so I am wasting about 2 gallons every time i run the sink or the shower...

crazy....right....

The timer is a good idea.
I set mine to run at the times we would normally use it.
You will use more energy to heat the circulating water so this is probably not a cost savings device.

I had one when I lived in Atlanta, the installation on the plumbing was easy but I had to pull a line and wire an electric plug inside the cabinet. Did you have to do the same?
Mine said it cost the same as a 35 watt light bulb when running and it only ran for twice a day how we had the timer set. The only negative is that if it has just run you get warm water out of the cold line for a for a sec., as it works by cycling the hot side into the cold line until it reads hot water coming, but we loved ours and figured not wasting the water off set the cost of running it.

Watts great product have on in my Maine home five years now cost about as much to run as an alarm clock

I had a tankless water heater before we moved here. So I was amazed at how much water we wasted just waiting for it to get warm enough to wash my face in the master bath! Had Mike Scott install the re-circ pump and love it. Only problem is that we have warm water on the cold side when the water is first turned on but I don't drink it out of the faucet anyway. I believe that the re-circ pump just moves the already-hot water so I don't think the heater is working any harder. We did have to add a electrical outlet in the mechanical closet in the garage for the plug in. Something else I have noticed is the the floor going from the living room into the guest bath area stays warm. Guess the hot water pipe was not buried deep enough:)

You do need an electrical outlet near the hot water heater. I bridged off the one on the other side of the wall in the kitchen, so there was no running wire from the attic.

We keep an old 5 gallon paint bucket next to our shower and throw that under the shower head while the water is warming up and use it for watering plants.

Is Cold water now hot also?
 

I understand that the "recirculation" uses the cold water line. If so, doesn't your cold water now come out very hot?

No, because the valve at the far end is thermostatically controlled. It is warm for a couple of seconds.

Do you shower and wash dishes with cold water? No? I didn't think so.

The previous owner of our home had a Watts recirculating pump installed on our hot water heater. For some reason, they had the valve attached under one of the sinks in the master bath. It wasn't needed there because our master bath is very close to the water heater. The only area closer is the laundry room which is on the other side of the wall.

We had our plumber move the valve from the master bath to the kitchen and install one at the furthest point in the house which is the hall bathroom. We keep the circulating pump on all the time.

Bottom line is hubby and I love this gizmo. No more wasting water to "call" hot water. I timed how long it took to call hot water to the furthest point in the house and it was nearly a minute just to get warm water. Seems the water has to go over the river and through to the woods to get to the hall bath. This is a wonderful gadget in our home and I never would have known about it if it weren't already installed.

Important to know if you have one of these pumps in your home........ We didn't realize the circulator pump has to be unplugged if the main water to the house is turned off. We found out the hard way when the pump was ruined when we went back to NJ after our first season here in our "new" home. We had another pump installed when we arrived the following season.

Could someone please provide us with Mike Scott's contact info? Thanks!

I believe I read that without a re-circulating pump, 10,000 to 20,000 of water is wasted over a year. Also read that the re-circulating pump costs about 5 cents a day to run. I put one in a week ago and absolutely believe it's worth the money. I run mine from 5 AM to 10 PM. By the way, the sink furthest from the hot water tank in a Gardenia and Camellia is in the guest bathroom. While you are making the installation, you may want to start replacing those "funky" push/pull valves.

Xavier

We had them install a water softener and the Watts circ pump about 8 mos ago - think the entire job was about $350 (labor and all parts/pipes needed) - I provided the 2 units from Amazon.

2 neighbors (the wives) came over to see/feel the hot water job and insisted to hubbies for the pump to be installed at their homes. Scott provided the Watts pump and install - they are so happy too. Can't guarantee prices etc for you, diff install etc. I think their install incl the Watts pump was $400 or so. But would absolutely recommend the HW pump and Scott for install. Beautiful job all around. Would be tough to live without the quick supply of hot water now. Truly, I turn on the shower and in a second I'm in, with comfy water. Too old for cold showers...those days are gone...



Mike Scott Plumbing
The Villages
352-748-9111

Residential Plumbing Services & Commercial Plumbing in Central Florida - Mike Scott Plumbing Licensed Plumbers

Mike Scott is quoting 425 installed. And you must have electrical outlet within six feet. They install the Grundfos system. Does anyone know if that is same as the Watts system?

As somebody who does plumbing for a living, I've installed both the Grundfos and the Watts. In my opinion the Grundfos is the better unit. The Grundfos is a pro quality unit and the Watts unit is made for the retail market. However I can't tell if the Grundfos lasts longer or requires less service than the Watts because none of the units (Grundfos or Watts) that I have installed have required any repairs or have needed to be replaced yet. Only time will tell...

Bumped into a friend on mine that installed one of these, and I think he hit on the perfect installation. He has a wireless remote to turn on the circulating pump, and a time to turn it off after 10 minutes. So when he needs hot water, hit the button, and while you are getting ready for the shower, etc. the water warms, and then it turns off automatically, as you do not need to run it when you are actually using hot water. This approach should limit the energy lost in keeping the pipes hot, the running of the pump, and the wasting of water.
If and when we decide to install one of these, I think this is the approach I will be taking.

Thanks to everyone for these fabulous ideas! Can't wait to get one of these pumps!

VT, Please pass more specific info on that install - it seems much more efficient then one that runs on a timer. Please provide circ pump and installer name. Thx, Jimmie

Msfooter,
I have not done an install, my friend did. As I understand it, this was the normal install using a plug in pump unit, but he added the remote control (wireless, plug in type), and the timer to automatically stop the pump. NOTE, you could get away from using the timer by using an ON - OFF remote, simply push to on button to warm the water, and when you are ready to start using the hot water, hit the OFF button.
I will try to get more info when we get together again.
Hope this helps.

This has been on my "to do" list for a long time! I can't wait til i get to TV so I can start checking some of these things off!

I know a number of residents who have put this issue on the annual survey. As precious and costly as water has become in recent years, this solution or another should be taken care of when the home is built.

One of the first things we noticed about our new home was the loooong wait for hot water - both in the kitchen (just a few feet from the water heater!) and our master bath. In the Master Bath, it could take as much as a minute before the water was comfortable for a shower.

I installed the Grundfos recirculating pump above the water heater and it solved the problem in the kitchen immediately. Hot water in about 3-4 seconds.

Reducing the delay in the Master Bath required the installation of a second mixing valve under one of the Master sinks. Most people don't know you can add multiple mixing valves once you've installed the recirculating pump.

The Grundfos motor takes about 2 bucks a month at current kWh pricing. I'm sure there's a cost associated with heating the water in the pipes under the house, but I really didn't see a huge difference in our electric bill.

I understand that the Grundfos works with a timer. How did you set your timer so it only cost you $2 a month? How many hours a day is yours working?

Here's the numbers:
- Pump runs 17 hours per day (6:00 AM until 11:00 PM)
- Pump motor consumes 35 watts
- Daily consumption is 6/10s kwh
- Our bill shows 13 cents per kwh
- Daily cost is about 8 cents, so about $2.33 per month

The remote someone spoke to earlier in thread sounds like a nice compromise. I do believe it is a little bit dishonest to sell these systems based on cost of small pump and not mentioning the water heater. When we bought here I read in my material house had Florida energy seal approval. Pretty low standard if water systems not included. Does anyone know if hot water line underground are insulated? I suspect they are not.

I would guess (but not entirely sure), that they are immersed in the concrete slab and, thus, fairly well insulated :thumbup: Someone else may know differently :o

They are laid on the ground under the sand base onto which the slab is poured. At least in the "old days" of customizing the homes you could order insulated water supply pipes. I do not know what is done now, but I assume they use the least expensive and quickest way.
If I remember my old high school science classes correctly, the ground temperature remains at about 65 degrees or a bit less when sheltered from the sun and weather. That would be the temperature of your pipes if not insulated.

For those interested in a financial analysis check Ask Pablo: Will a "Water-Saving" Hot Water Recirculation Pump Really Save Me Money? : TreeHugger

Bottom line, you would save some money on your water bill but you would spend more on your electric bill. I like the idea of using a bucket to collect the waste to water plants. Also know that the grey water from houses south of 466 goes to a treatment plant and is then used to water golf courses so it is being reclaimed even if it goes down the drain. This reclaimed water is NOT used in the home irrigation but only on the golf courses.

we had a pump installed last month by Kiley, works great, the booklet said the cost of electric is about the same as a 40 watt bulb. less wasted water at our house in the shower and at the kitchen sink.

Thank you for confusing this discussion with facts.