Gutted our house 10 years ago to do a total rehab; been living in it now for the last 3 years. Plumber installed recirculating system for the master bath (which isn’t done at all so we are not using it yet) so spouse and I use 2 other bathrooms. But the 2 must be on one loop, because when we’re both getting ready in the morning, if my husband using hot water in the sink or shower in his bathroom, I get no hot water at all in my sink or shower. Cuts my hw right off. I have to wait till he is done. What can we do? Can we install an instant hot water system at the sink in the vanity and in the closet behind the tub? This will always be an issue…for guests; for future homeowners. We can’t rip out the walls and all of the tile, or snake new plumbing because it’s a large house about 6800 sf and plumbing had to be worked around steel beams and other existing structural stuff as it was, when walls were wide open. (very sturdy house built 1915) help!
Deevee
Replies
My wife blames me for that too...
Sorry, I couldn't resist. Someone will come along with a serious answer soon. having your hot water cut off while you're in the shower is no fun.
Billy
I figured out myself.
First, pressure balancing valve (i.e. spindle) gunked up thus not balancing pressure between hot and cold. Mm showers would progressively go from hot to warm to cool within 5 minutes. Installing new spindle solved that.
But that didn't solve getting NO hot water when husband was using rear bathroom at same time.
Second, in tracing water lines in basement to know which valves to turn off to my bathroom so we could replace above spindle, I discovered my bathroom was at the end of one long loop that serves 3 baths in total - the rear bathroom first, then the 3rd floor bathroom, then my bathroom. As long as rear bathroom not in use (3rd floor never used) then I got hw in sink or shower.
So, will have plumber tee off the HW supply - creating a tee to the 3rd floor and a tee to my bath. This will keep these 3 bathrooms from being on one long loop, where my bath was at the end of the line.
I'm glad that you found the source(s) of the problem. It is difficult to track down when you have two or more things contributing to the problem, and sometimes it becomes a process of elimination.
Enjoy the holidays!
Billy
You did answer your own question, only I would probably use a small electic tank instead of an on demand, the small tanks are cheaper and in my area the minerals in the water would clog up the heating elements pretty fast. Maybe in your area you wouln't have this problem and an on demand would work fine for you. To correct the original problem is too difficult to call witout being able to see the system.
I've looked into on demand hw. Several companies make them that fit under the sink in the vanity. But, we have 5 baths so I'd need 5 of them. I have either marble or ceramic tile about 4 feet up on all walls in each bathroom so I can't easily tap into the electrical behind the vanities and can't simply snake power from the electrical switch near the vanity since there are various studs and cross pieces in the way (old house). I have closets with access the plumbing of the tubs via a removable panel, but no access to any electricity.
Not worth all the trouble and cost to retrofit when I can add 2 more tees off the hw supply that currently feeds 3 areas on the one loop.
Also looked into instant hw on demand to replace hw tank in basement but same issue arises with 3 areas being on one loop.
We get good hw from the boiler system and so we'll just do some plumbing in the basement to divide the one loop handling 3 areas into 3 separate loops. We have the master bath on its own circulating system (but master bath not done yet - thus we use the two other baths)