Hot water recirculator

Shrute

They saw some type of recirculator that uses the existing pipes, it sends water back thru the cold water pipe in order to bring new hot water to the bathroom.for?

AllanJ

Now if you want really cold water, you would have to wait while the recirculated hot water in the cold pipe gets flushed out.

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Alan

Basically you have the opposite problem.

Is there access underneath to the piping?

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Shrute

Yes, there is a 4' crawlspace underneath.

Other than the delay for cold water, are there any other drawbacks to this type of system?

If it matters, their current system is PEX. It's a large diameter which is also a factor in why it takes so long in getting hot water to that side of the house.

plummen

how about just running a recirc line with a check valve from furthest point possible on hot water line back to bottem of water heater?

Shrute

Is that better than the system I described? If so, in what ways?

My Father saw the system in the paper and asked me to look into it.

plummen

no pump or electricity required,no affect on cold water lines.

Shrute

What circulates the water?

Alan

A pump.

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Shrute

????????

SULTINI

140 feet a long run. The recirc system you referenced in the beginning is really what you need piping, check valves, pump, and shut off valves.

The system is called a recirculating or tempered loop system where you always have hot water available near the point of service.

plummen

lets try this again,since im not good at drawing lines on a computer ill try and type my way through it.put a tee in the line as far up as you can go towards other end of house bring a line back from bottem of the tee to where your drain screws into bottem of water heater ,install check valve someplace close to water heater so it cant force cold water out through the line.
when you open the hot water faucet a lot of the water thats in the hot water line will get pulled back through the recirc line and allow the hot water from the heater to fill the hot water line in place of it.make sense?

plummen

lets see if i can make this picture work of what im trying to explain

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plummen

NO PUMP

Alan

WTF? I've never seen a recirc system work without a pump unless you've created a thermal loop. (this is not possible under the house)

If you just cut a tee into the hot line and no other fixtures are on the return line, how is the hot water going to be drawn into it????

The heat might radiate a few feet from the furthest fixture into it, but this idea is kind of pointless without a pump of some sort.

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