[cvh4878]

Hello all,



My dad is doing a major remodel of his house (built around 1970). The copper piping has had about 5 pinhole leaks in the last 4 years I'm guessing due to well water eating them up (all the sinks have blue residue). We are considering a full replumb with PEX to prevent future leaks. The kitchen, bathroom, and electric water heater all back up to each other which is going to be easy, however the laundry room is an addition and is ~60 feet away from the water heater (And the rest of the water lines).



Currently there is a cold line coming from somewhere that goes directly to the laundry room. There used to be a separate 30gallon water heater in the laundry room (also sprung a leak and was thrown away about a year ago) for just the washing machine (Seems like major overkill). As a result we still have this 30 amp circuit in the laundry room available for whatever we want to use it for.



Main questions that I have:



-We are considering having PEX ran overhead in the attic to the laundry room; is this the simplest alternative? House is on a slab and running it through the lab would be a major ordeal.



-Should we run a separate hot and cold line to the laundry room or install some small or point of use water heater for the laundry room? or something else? We are considering adding a laundry sink as well.


Maybe the plumber will have better solutions but I would like multiple opinions.



Thanks all

 

[roughneck]

You could put a circulator pump to the laundry from the main water heater. That would guarantee almost instant hot water for use in there.
Sounds like the water is high in iron.

 

[joecaption]

To add to what roughneck was leading to, I'd get the water tested to see it should be treated.
That waters doing damage to other parts other then the pipes.
There's no location in your profile, so no idea if running pipes in the attic will work.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

If it were mine I'd run pex 60 ft. behind crown moulding rather in the attic, but replacing the water heater at that point of use is what I'd probably go for.

 

[cvh4878]

Joe,

Location is central Mississippi.

 

[Old Thomas]

Hot water circulating system would give you instant hot water. Laundry detergent works in cold water, we haven’t used hot in the washer in the last 30 years. Shrinkage and running of colors is less in cold. I would put in a hot water pipe and if I ever decided to use hot, I would let it run till it is hot.

 

[huesmann]

Does your attic ever freeze?

 

[AllanJ]

Most washing machines have hot/warm/cold settings. If you would use warm, set the machine to hot and what you will get with no treatment of the long water line will be warm. (Most machines use cold for the rinse portion of the cycle regardless of the temp. setting.) Very few loads of laundry really need hot but if you need it, then run the water in the nearby laundry sink until the hot water arrives and then turn on the machine with that load.

It is preferable to collect the water and use it to flush a toilet rather than let the water just run down the drain. But it is not desirable to carry the water upstairs for use for fear of accidentally spilling the whole bucketful all over the carpet.

 

[bcgfdc3]

You can install an under sink recirculating pump. It is actually quite simple and will do exactly what you need. What it does is it uses the existing hot and cold water lines and will pump water from the hot line into the cold line to return to the hot water tank until the sensor senses a certain temperature water and then it shuts off. it will then turn on when the water cools and off when it gets that temperature again.

It has a built in timer you can set so it only runs at certain times during the day or you can do like I did and install a wind timer switch for it. So if your washer takes 70 minutes to do a load of wash, you set the timer for something like 60- 90 minutes.

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