How long does your hot water take?
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We had some work being done on the house yesterday and I mentioned that the hot water takes about 20-30 seconds to get to most faucets and even longer to reach the upstairs shower. The hot water heater is in our basement, and we have two floors above it.
Anyway, the guy was saying it should be much faster than that. What's your experience?
He also suggested instead of doing an annual draining of the hot water heater (turning off the power or gas, releasing the pressure, and draining) that one thing he suggests is just to hook a hose up to the (on/hot/pressurized) hot water heater at the drain spigot and just to pressure release a few gallons to help stir up and remove any sediment at the bottom.
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“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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@mik said in How long does your hot water take?:
And your guy is spot on about draining your water heater every year. It will make it last longer.
Do you drain it using the full method (power/gas off, pressure released, full drain) or just the high-pressure spigot of a few gallons to get the sediment at the bottom mixed up and out?
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Ours takes maybe 10-15 seconds.
I've never drained our hot water tank. Maybe I should.
Funnily enough, we just had our furnace serviced on Tuesday - they accidentally left a wire misconnected, so that when the boiler asked for hot water, it switched on the heating instead - I came downstairs from my shower to a house like an oven - and then when I clicked the thermostat, both A/C and heating were running full-blast. I could have cut out the middle-man and just set fire to a load of $20 bills.
The guy came in yesterday to investigate the problem, and was completely at a loss to explain how it happened. His young apprentice managed not to look too crestfallen, however I'm pretty sure it wasn't me that disconnected the wire....
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over a minute on the top floor. I have a three story house. My plumber once offered me a device that keeps the water circulating constantly which would presumably cut the time down to zero, but I don't think it's worth it. Just another thing that might break.
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@89th said in How long does your hot water take?:
@mik said in How long does your hot water take?:
And your guy is spot on about draining your water heater every year. It will make it last longer.
Do you drain it using the full method (power/gas off, pressure released, full drain) or just the high-pressure spigot of a few gallons to get the sediment at the bottom mixed up and out?
As specified in the owner's manual.
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Secondly...Most people don't care about a thirty second delay on a shower or bath water, but you might want hot water instantly at an upstairs lavatory or at the kitchen sink. Consider a small tankless water heater. If you've got juice available, they're pretty inexpensive.
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1-5 minutes. Old place.
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@klaus said in How long does your hot water take?:
We have a circulating pump that takes care of "immediate" hot water regardless of distance. I thought these days they were pretty common!?
Depends where you live and how old your house is . Only my friends in California have I experienced the instant hot.
I wonder how it would cost to add a recirculator for me. I don’t think it’s a no brained or I would see lots of ads for it.
My shower is a long way. At some point I will time it, but an easy fix is to follow someone.
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@loki said in How long does your hot water take?:
I wonder how it would cost to add a recirculator for me.
I guess it would be rather elaborate to add that to an existing house. You obviously need a circular pipe, and the pipe must be isolated very well to avoid wasting energy all the time.
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The Germans are so efficient.
Our town doesn't even have a bloody sewer. It's like living in the freaking middle ages.
I'm no expert, but...
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@doctor-phibes said in How long does your hot water take?:
Our town doesn't even have a bloody sewer.
I should hope not. <shudder> Plain water sewers are groady enough.
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@klaus said in How long does your hot water take?:
@loki said in How long does your hot water take?:
I wonder how it would cost to add a recirculator for me.
I guess it would be rather elaborate to add that to an existing house. You obviously need a circular pipe, and the pipe must be isolated very well to avoid wasting energy all the time.
This is a good video about your options, such as a thermal bypass valve if you don’t have a separate dedicated recirculating pipe.
Link to video
