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only get hot water now, from whole house instant hot

15 years ago

Now I waste water trying to get the cold water cold. Both faucets come out hot. The loop heats all the water in the house now. Any ideas?

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Comments (6)

cloudcrasher
15 years ago
"....in the house NOW". What changes have you just made?? If this is a follow-up post, I missed the first.
jakethewonderdog
15 years ago
Let me guess... you installed a hot water circulator pump that uses the cold water line as the return pipe.

That is a drawback to that type of system.

Make sure that you have insulated the hot water lines, and that you have a temp sensor that turns off the pump when the pipe is warm. (the idea here is that you minimize the amount of time that you are circulating water, which should give the cold water line a chance to cool off.)

Otherwise, you are stuck with installing a return line or shutting the thing off.
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trekker
15 years ago
My aunt had a hot water circulator pump installed after the house was built and she now has the same problem. Makes me crazy, but it's her house. Now it takes forever to get cold water. She even refrigerates water so as to have cold water for the coffee maker. Then there is the fact that she insists on washing all her dishes BEFORE placing them in the dishwasher. So her instant hot water pump is a total waste, in my opinion.

In addition, her water is very hard (I just unjammed her dishwasher, which was almost completely blocked with hard water deposits -- two days of soaking parts in vinegar), which makes me wonder about the condition of the hot water circulator pump.

Jakethewonderdog: are you saying that there is a way to reduce the problem of hot water from both faucets? Where do we install the temp sensor?
jakethewonderdog
15 years ago
Two things:

The hot water pipe must be insulated, both for energy efficiency and, in this case, so that it retains heat longer than the cold water. Note: This isn't an option that you can ignore if you want.

In addition, you need a temp sensor switch mounted to the hot water pipe that shuts off the pump when it gets warm. The pump shouldn't run all the time, it should run just long enough to get the hot water to the end of the run.
dan_martyn
15 years ago
Temperature sensor switch = Aquastat.
zl700
15 years ago
What brand, model?

Is it the unit from Grundfos, also packaged for Watts that has the little plastic manifold under a sink inbetween the supply lines?

If so, and it worked once, the thermostatic valve has failed or is stuck. These systems require quality soft water.

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