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I have an older home, built in 1972, which is all electric, including the hot water heater. From what I can tell, it appears to be the original tank. The house is relatively small (1300 sq. feet) and all one level. Hot water reaches the kitchen pretty quickly (tank is in garage close to kitchen) but takes about 4 minutes to reach the bathrooms. I feel like I'm wasting so much water waiting for it to get hot. Is this a sign of old pipes or should we replace the tank to speed up delivery? Once the water gets hot, it's piping hot.
This is simply a matter of letting the cooled water out before you can get to the hot water because of long pipe runs. If the water comes out with pressure, your options are to run the water into a bathtub to get hot water in the pipes, install a circulating system so hot water quickly fills the pipes or install a remote tank-less heater in the bathroom. Here's a circulating system that doesn't waste water:
This is simply a matter of letting the cooled water out before you can get to the hot water because of long pipe runs. If the water comes out with pressure, your options are to run the water into a bathtub to get hot water in the pipes, install a circulating system so hot water quickly fills the pipes or install a remote tank-less heater in the bathroom. Here's a circulating system that doesn't waste water:
If your pressure is low in the bathroom but good in the kitchen, then your pipes might be clogged and need to be replaced or flushed.
Water circulators are nice except the ones I've had (not sure about the one above) deliver warm water out of the cold taps as the hot/warm water is circulated upstream in the cold lines. This sort of sucks in summer but nice in winter. I would turn them off in summer.
sounds like something that happened to me and it was because of the house age. The pipe from the HW heater first went to the laundry room, kitchen, guest bath and master bath last. So the run was one long run and not several shorter runs. But the problem was that betwen the kitchen and the guest bath, the pipe dipped a half inch and that dip caused sediment buildup over two decades that narrowed the pipe to half what it should be. They cut out that section, added new and bam the water was running fast. Still took longer to get hot water but it came much faster and with more pressure. They also cleaned out the hot water heater and flushed the pipes which they said needs to be done from time to time to remove sediment.
Just call a plumber and get the pipes flushed . It sounds like a problem I had in my house and I just called the plumber and told him to fix . I was a single mom and had two teen boys in the house at the time and could not afford not to have hot water for showers or dishwasher .
I'd probably go for the cheap fix first. Replace the elements in the hot water tank. If replaceing the elements doesnt do it then replace. If the tank is original it should have been replaced years ago . Its probably filled with sediment. Go out to Home Depot/Lowes and buy one. Let them do the install as it a fixed standard rate. If their guy finds other issues then he's there at a reasonable rate to correct them.
Use this link to get the part numbers. Made by Sears does not matter.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Recirculation may be your best bet from a cost/benefit standpoint. It could be that your house is plumbed with relatively large diameter pipe. For example, 60' of 1" pipe would hold about 2 1/2 gallons and water moves through it at around 100' per minute. 60' of 2" pipe would hold almost 10 gallons and water would move through it at around 20' per minute; it could very plausibly require four minutes to deliver hot water to the end-point.
A recirculator will require a bypass manifold at the shower and the installation of a little pump on top of your water heater. The little pump will need a 120V electrical outlet nearby. The bypass manifold at the shower uses the cold water pipe as a return loop to the hot water heater and keeps circulating water from the H/W heater down the hot water pipe, across the bypass into the cold water pipe and back to the H/W heater. This means that you will always have hot water at the ready in the bathroom.
Be sure to check the screwe fauset screen in the bathroom as they could be clogged with minerials etc. i have seen thsi alot and is worse in some areas with hard water.
Be sure to check the screwe fauset screen in the bathroom as they could be clogged with minerials etc. i have seen thsi alot and is worse in some areas with hard water.
My dad did this last year when he was out visiting. It helped a bit, but still didn't resolve the problem. I'm guessing the pipes need flushed and the tank needs replaced. It's really old!
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