Slow Getting Hot Water
 

We have a Courtyard Villa and the hot water is super slow getting to the sink and shower. Is there anyone else that has this similar problem, if so is there a solution? Please advise.

I have Patio Villa with the same thing. It's a long way from the water heater in the garage to the master bath in the bedroom. I don't know of a solution other than patience.

Hot water loop
 

Actually the solution is pretty simple. You can do it yourself or have a plumber install a hot water loop. I won't go into the details but it works very well and will cost you about $300. (a lot cheaper than an instant hot water system.) We've had one for a number of years and very glad we made the investment. Regardless of how far you are from the water heater, you'll have hot water within a few seconds, 10 seconds at most.

Good luck

Coming from Maine energy has always been an awareness for us so I picked up on this our 1st week here. It is not an energy efficient design and I don't believe there is much for insulation between water heater and fixtures. So while you are waiting at sink or shower for water to heat up to a useable temperature all that water running while you wait was at water heater temp at one time. Energy loss to ground and slab is high. "Loop" will certainly cut wait time but I'm struggling to understand how it would save BTU's. Maybe the earlier post might explain how the loop works. Fortunately energy cost much lower in Florida but still a waste.

I would love to have someone explain this to me; my northern home hot water travels a LOT further than here in the vollages and yet it is hot almost instantly, even in the winter!! The water waste in Fl is unreal trying to get hot water even to my kitchen sink.

OP: This has been the same, as you said, with all three of our Village homes. If you give it some thought----lots of water is wasted in TV waiting for hot water. It would be above my pay grade to even give an "educated guess" how many gallons per year.

I just had a plumber here today to install a water softener/ filter and an instant hot water system for the whole house. It's amazing.
I didn't think we needed a water softener here, but after seven years, I have found that we really do need one. A neighbor referred me to Thelen Plumbing out of Belleview. After seeing the quality of his work, I highly recommend him, too.
Prior to the installation, it seemed like the water ran for a very long time before it became hot. Now I have instant hot water at every faucet and shower. I'm loving it!

Hot water recirculation pump
 

A system made by WWatts with a constantly running pump (or controlled by the built in clock) will run hot water to the furthest hot water in your house. There is a thermostatic switch that you place under this sink. When you draw cold water the switch closes so that you don't get hot water out of the cold tap. Works like a charm, inexpensive, and available at Lowes or Home Depot or probably online from Amazon or the like. I had a handy man install mine because you need to hook the plumbing into you hot water tank. End of story!

One way to speed-up hot water to showers in distant bathrooms is to also open any hot water spigots in the same bathroom until the shower water is hot. Unfortunately this wastes about the same amount of water as just running the shower.

Cost
 

Can anyone provide an estimate (or guess) as to the cost of additional electricity to run a system like this? Would it be about or more than offset by the water cost savings?

Don

Cost of running loop pump
 

I have the loop system and can only tell you that I was told that it uses as much electricity as any other timer you would have in your home. (That makes sense to me.) Either way, we didn't notice an increase in our electric bill when we had it installed. By the way, this is the second home we've had it installed in as it's definitely worth the money.

Suggest you check out This Old House TV on the web, Season 12, Episode 1 (Episode 1202). Master Plumber Richard Trethewey explains different options for recirculation pumps, one of which seems perfect for recirculating water in a courtyard villa.

Can you list the web link to that episode? Been looking and can not find it.:024:

Too much waste
 

The hot water to the kitchen sink seems to take forever to get hot water. I usually turn it on and go do something else and then come back and it's hot. I put an empty gallon jug underneath the spigot to see about how much water I was wasting for it to become hot and it was about a half gallon each time I turned on the faucet. I expect I wait for hot water about 5 times a day so that's 2 1/2 gallons a day I waste in water or 70 gallons a month. That's a lot of wasted water. Will look into options for conservation.

Try this:

Ask This Old House TV | This Old House

Click "Watch Full Episodes" at the top.