New water heater and gravity recirc
I'm replacing my 27-year-old water heater (finally) and want to maintain the function of my gravity-fed recirculation system.
The heater is in the basement, and the crossover loop is in a 2nd floor bathroom.
I understand that WHs now have heat traps installed, and that these will prevent my recirc from working. Can I pull the valve out of the traps? Hot/cold/both? Or do I replace them with dielectric nipples?
A professional plumber will be doing the work. Will he balk at modifications to the new heater? Code problems?
The WH will be a 75-gal AO Smith gas unit.
Thanks for any advice!
WallyH
2 Attachment(s)
My thermosiphon hot-water setup
I'll take advantage of Mark's diagram to show how my system is arranged.
My WH is in the basement and the sinks shown are in the 2nd floor master bathroom. It used to take a long time to get warm water all the way up there until I installed my recirc system.
The key component is this:
Attachment 49351
It is supposed to be used in conjunction with an electric pump, but I found that if my WH is in the basement and there are no heat traps, thermosiphon magic gives me quick hot water throughout much of my house WITHOUT THE PUMP. These are in the $50-ish range. Some say they quit working after a year or two, but mine has been working for 5 years so far. It is essentially a temperature controlled valve that "shorts" the hot and cold supplies together until enough hot water has traveled up the line to the valve, at which time it closes, separating the hot and cold feeds from each other.
Here is my setup:
Attachment 49352
The one downside to this arrangement is that the cold water at the 2 sinks is not really COLD until you run it for a while. This is a small price to pay in my opinion.
Hope this helps someone!
WallyH