Do it Yourself: Re: [DIY] Need help with water heater & recirculator

21 December 2015

Re: [DIY] Need help with water heater & recirculator

Sounds like your recirculator isn't. Not sure about the check valve at the end of the circuit. I can't picture in my head what that's supposed to do.

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On Dec 20, 2015, at 9:08 AM, 'oakridgefarm@gmail.com' oakridgefarm@gmail.com [DoIt_Yourself] <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

As mentioned earlier, all this is new installation and new plumbing. New water heater 5 weeks ago. New half-bath plumbing & hot water recirculator pump and system a week ago. My understanding was a check valve is placed at the furthest point, which is the half-bath, so you have hot water within seconds at any faucet. We went with the more expensive system in anticipation of installing another bath in the MB in the spring. The kitchen is 20-30'(?) from hot water heater, the half-bath on the same wall about 20' further. The new bath would be another 20' past that. The plumber agreed on Friday that yes, we should have hot water from every faucet within a few seconds anyplace in the house — but it's not happening.

Originally the water was hot enough I could not hold my hand under it - after recirculator installed water just very warm and the wait is as long as ever. Plumber was out, said hot/cold valve in half-bath reversed, he fixed. Said legally he couldn't turn the hot water heater over 120 degrees for safety. OK, show me where it is and I'll turn it up. He turned off the power, checked around then he checked with his meter and said the bottom element was bad, pulling 5.6 when it should be the same as the top element which was 11-12. Called Bradford who said to replace always replace both elements; they would cover the parts but not the labor. Plumber wants $85 to replace elements. Called contractor who installed water heater, he picked up the new elements but said there was a "reset" and when he did that they both kicked on. He set it to 140 degrees and we are getting that at the kitchen faucet, less at the half-bath. The problem is we are still waiting almost a full minute for hot water at the kitchen sink and 4.5 minutes at the half bath. Even once it's been used, wait a half hour and you start all over. My other concern is the hot water is a trickle in the half-bath…..and if you turn it to center to get a better flow, you can't get more than barely warm water. If the cold water flows fine, and the lines are the same size, shouldn't we get the same flow from the hot line as well as the cold?

The plumber is maintaining the lower element is the cause, that instead of pushing hot water up and out, it's pushing only warm water which dilutes the hot water so we're not getting hot water quickly. This sounds reasonable but the contractor says he can't believe a bad element is the problem, being it is brand new water heater and was working fine, unless they did something to damage it. (I do know the plumber turned the well off for several hours to repair a leak, and it drained out and we had rusty water for hours till it flushed out again. Would that cause a problem with the elements?) The contractor wants to wait a few days before he comes back and see if anything changes. We have hot water again, just not very fast. The plumber is pointing the finger at the electrician and the contractor, the contractor believes the problem, if there is a problem, was caused by the plumbers. I have paid contractor, electrician and plumber close to $15,000 total at this point, and not too happy about having to pay out more money.

I believe the problem is somewhere in the recirculator since everything seemed to work till it was installed. And since the plumber provided and installed it they should be held responsible till it's working right. I was interrupted by a phone call so checked again and it takes 4+ minutes and 5 gal of water to get the temp in the half bath to 100 degrees.

Thanks for any thoughts or ideas on how to handle this situation. The plumber is coming again in the morning and I'd like to be able to get some satisfaction.

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Jan Flood
oakridgefarm@gmail.com