Hot Water Recirculating Pump
 

Had a problem with hot water reaching the master bath. We have a newly-built Lilac in Charlotte. Water was merely tepid after running for minimum 4 minutes. Complained to Warranty Department. Builder checked it out, admitted that it took a long time (after he ran the water), said that waterheater needed a recirculating pump. Now, I find this hard to believe. I lived in an apartment in NYC, a two family house (second floor) where the boiler was in the basement, and a one family house with a boiler in the basement, and never had to wait 4 minutes for hot water. $485 later, at least I have hot water in the master bathroom. Project Manager claims "that's just the way it is". No remuneration offered. This must be a design flaw (like the stupid windows with no bottom "lip"). I love my house...generally, but am disappointed with some things and annoyed that both the builder and project manager consider these things "normal". BTW - I don't think the water is travelling all that far - from the garage to the master bath, but I'm beginning to think I'm nuts about these things.

Surely they checked,
 

but what is the temp set at on the water heater? We felt it made a difference in ours, although we have a gas water heater.

I believe hot water is running through the slab, not through insulated, interior walls. That will cool the water quickly, although 4 minutes seems a bit long to me. Out master bath is at the farthest point from the water heater possible, and, while it takes a while, I don't think it takes as much as that. I even notice that when I take a shower a couple of minutes after my wife gets out, I still have a wait for hot water, so the water cools off in the pipes fairly quickly.

The temperature is set per the manufacturer's recommendation of 125, which is plenty hot. I didn't believe it took 4 minutes either, until it was timed. We spoke with a plumber's rep (the same plumber who worked on the house) and she said that the biggest item sold to Villages residents is recirculating pumps. That really says something...

This is true....

OK... this is what we were told. Because of the McDonalds lawsuit the manufacturer's recommendation is 125 degrees. This is lowered from what it used to be. Our hot water heater is electric with two elements. We were told that if we turn the thermometer up on notch it would take care of the problem.

The old water heaters used to have an adjustment on the outside and now are inside so you have to open it up to make the adjustment. We were also told not to over adjust as it would overwork the water heater and it wouldn't last as long!

Sounds to me like this is a problem that needs to be fixed by the builder....

*normal* when it doesn't work right is poor quality.
Seems to happen often enough these days and this is one more case.

You could try asking the POA property owners association.
If enough people had this problem, TV might offer up some help.
Best wishes.

Does the water pressure seem normal (about 65 PSI)? If the pressure is low the water will flow slower.

If you turn the shower on and also the hot water in the lav it should cut the time for hot water to arrive nearly in half.

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hot water
 

Join the crew at the villages. We turned our up to 135 degrees and still do not have hot water quickly. I will have to time it. I turn the shower on...get undressed and the water is still not hot.

What everyone said is true...a lower setting is set when installed, running through the foundation, and one more....they use water saving shower heads and this mean you are getting less water coming through. It gives you a good shower but the water level is less....so thus it take more time for that hot water to get to you.

Also you might think of a hot water timer...it does not get the water to you quicker but is run the tank less...you set it for the times you want hot water in the day...off all night...turns on 6-9. I have plenty of hot water all the time. Just readjust the times if company is here.

The water lines are actually buried 8 to 12 inches below the slab. Take a look when you drive by a lot with the forms for the slab in place, and pipes sticking up above. This is my main complaint with the builder (not bad, considering). If the hot water lines were buried a little deeper, and imbedded in ,perhaps, a spray-in styrofoam product, the results would be quite a bit better. If the builder had any real environmental responsibility, or was interested in 100% satisfaction of customers complaints on this issue, something would have been changed long ago. As it is, you as a homeowner, are paying for the several gallons of water wasted while waiting for hot, paying for that water to go through the wastewater system, and/or paying to have a recirculating pump installed. None of which is the correct fix IMHO. Even the pump, which is the most convenient fix, uses extra energy to reheat the recirculated water.

We also have the problem of hot water taking a long time to reach the MB. I usually turn the shower on while I shave and then the water is usually hot enough to take a bath. Increasing the temp. will not shorten the time it takes to reach the shower head, only make it hotter when it does get there. I did increase the temp. so the dishwasher performed better. We are considering replacing the water heater with a tankless water heater. There was a vendor at the craft show in Spanish Springs a couple of months ago. This would not help with the time problem, but would not be heating water when not needed.

Anti scalding faucet
 

Today's faucets are "anti scalding". Which means, if you turn it all the way to "hot" there is a certain amount of cold water still goin thru. If you turn up the hot water heater, it will help but cost more to operate.

For all you math majors......
 

So... If a recirculating pump cost almost $500 and also cost extra or the electricity... How long does it take to recoup your money from water not used to heat the water up three to four minutes faster?

I would guess the additional electric cost is more than the water saved cost.


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If my math is correct, you would have to use 290697.67 gallons of water @ $1.72 per 1000 thousand to equal $500. Let's figure a rate of 2 gals per minute with a warm up time of 2 minutes. This means you could warm up 72674 showers before reaching the $500 break even point. That's 199 years worth of daily showers! If figured at 5 gals per minute, it would be approximately 81 years.