We are looking at putting a hot water recirculatory system in our house, for almost instant hot water.

As the house is already built, we need to use the type of system with bypass valve at the most distant sink, as there is no dedicated return loop.

Has anyone installed one of these systems? Was it worth it? Does it totally screw up your cold water system?

If you did, and you like it, what brand did you choose?

I've done a bunch of internet research, and still am kind of in the dark on the advisability of this.

Thanks all.

A

My brother-in-law built our house, and he and his plumber buddy designed and installed one of those systems. There was a button on the wall next to the sinks in the bathrooms and kitchen. Once pressed, the hot water circulated through the system for a short while, providing instant hot water.

In this system, the heater was heated with hot water from the water heater, so I don’t remember if the recirculation system was a feature of that or what. The system worked.

The downside for us was the LOUD bubbling from the water heater. My BIL and his buddy were up in the attic several times, but never could make everything work as advertised and not have those loud sounds from the water heater.

It has been a long time now, but I think they finally bypassed the system to allow us to be able to sleep through the night.

We have this system on our home. I wouldn’t say “instant” hot water, but the water is hot way sooner than our last home that did not have a recirculating pump. It was installed by the builder of the home. For us, it is a plus.

I've never had one installed but the house we bought came with it. It's honestly a great thing. You don't have to wait minutes for the water in the shower to get to warm, especially on cold mornings.

I have installed dozens of these systems. Amazon has this:
https://www.amazon.com/Grundfo...s%2C285&sr=8-44&th=1
Make sure you get a Grundfos pump, best on the market. The crossover pipe installs at the fixture/bathroom where fast hot water is wanted and you can use 4 crossovers per system. They work very well. email in profile for more info.

A few years ago I had the plumbers move a hot water heater from the attic over the Master Bath to the other end of the house on the garage floor. They hung PEX pipes through the attic and covered them with foam insulation tubes which was a fairly simple job.

For the recirculator, they installed a Taco 265 electric pump with the mechanical timer face on top of the hot water heater. Thinking about when we usually shower and use hot water in the bathroom, I settled on programming it to start recirculating at 6:00am to 10:00am, then again from 7:00pm to 10:30pm. This covers the vast majority of times when we use hot water in the Master Bath. We have the same "most distant sink" installation, and when the Taco is on takes less than 15 seconds for hot water to get to the shower. When it's off it seems like at least 3-4 minutes. Beyond those periods of the system being on, there's still usable hot water in the pipes for a lot longer than I anticipated

The Taco electric motor housing is about the size of a soup can, so it probably doesn't draw any more electricity than an average room fan. I didn't notice any difference in the monthly electricity bills after we had it installed.

We haven't had any issues with our cold water system, and I'm a bit perplexed at your question about it getting screwed up. For our installation, I don't see how the recirculator would have any impact on the cold water going anywhere in the house.

Our system works great, is absolutely reliable, and worth every penny. It's a great feeling knowing that I won't have 50 gallons of hot water leaking into the bathroom ceiling when the hot water heater begins to leak.

Thank you everyone, I appreciate the tips.

Sunburn, when we get closer to this, I will likely be in touch. Greatly appreciated.

quote:

Originally posted by sunburn:
Make sure you get a Grundfos pump, best on the market.

That’s what the plumber installed in our house in 1999 and it is still going.

To be efficient and work as intended the hot water lines need to be insulated. The cost of insulation can be prohibitive.

quote:

Make sure you get a Grundfos pump, best on the market.

The house we bought in San Diego had a built-in recirculating hot water system, and it was a major feature of the house. We got so spoiled having hot water in less than a minute to the far corner of the house.

Yes, it has a Grundfos pump, which has been working since the 1980's.

My landlord replaced electric baseboard heating with a high efficiency gas fired hot water system. The system also provides hot water to sinks and bathrooms. I was skeptical when I learned that the system would be pulling double duty as heating (-13 recently) and regular hot water usage. I was completely wrong. It works great, very reliable and hot water at sinks and shower is quick and plentiful. Bonus is it saves my landlord a ton of money over electrical heat and hot water generation.

quote:

Originally posted by Lineman101:
We have this system on our home. I wouldn’t say “instant” hot water, but the water is hot way sooner than our last home that did not have a recirculating pump. It was installed by the builder of the home. For us, it is a plus.

This was our home too. New build, already installed. LOVE IT!

quote:

Originally posted by GA Gator:
To be efficient and work as intended the hot water lines need to be insulated. The cost of insulation can be prohibitive.

I’m not doubting what you said is true but help me think this through: if he doesn’t put the recirc system in and assuming his hot water pipes are not insulated, his system will still be inefficient as it is today, right? That would be the baseline. The inefficiency cost will be the cost of the water that goes down the drain unless he saves that water for other use. Then you balance that inefficiency cost with the cost of installing the pump and having the hot water heater working just a wee bit more to warm the water being recirculated. I think the two costs offsets each other except for the $320 price tag of the pump, I was surprised by that. But I think the costs of both sides offsetting each other isn’t significant one way or the other.

But if you add the insulation which you say is very expensive, then I think the payback and return on investment on that insulation would take very long and small. Correct? I just want to see if I’m understanding the situation correctly.

quote:

Originally posted by sunburn:
I have installed dozens of these systems. Amazon has this:
https://www.amazon.com/Grundfo...s%2C285&sr=8-44&th=1
Make sure you get a Grundfos pump, best on the market. The crossover pipe installs at the fixture/bathroom where fast hot water is wanted and you can use 4 crossovers per system. They work very well. email in profile for more info.

This what I put in 10 years ago.
Mine is using the cold water line as the return which is not a problem as we have an unsoftened water supply for drinking. But understand you will be waiting as long for cold water as you would for hot water.
That shower will be a hot sumbitch as both the hot and cold lines are supplying hot water for a few minutes as the hot must be purged.