What is this circulating pump on my water heater for?

Steve Garson_2

I am about to buy a house that has an indirect hot water heater. I notice that there is a circulating pump that is always on. The circulator is connected to the red pex on the left of the photo.

Can someone explain why?

lchmb

looks like a recirc loop for your domestic HW. not a bad thing to have but I would get a timer on it.. looks like it's plugged into run constant

Zman

lchmb said:

looks like a recirc loop for your domestic HW. not a bad thing to have but I would get a timer on it.. looks like it's plugged into run constant

Those are specially designed to erode your piping and waste energy through uninsulated pipe. The plus side is that you never need to wait for hot water at the faucet.

There are tons of high efficiency replacements available that will run off a timer or return water temp. Some automatically regulate flow to reduce pipe wear.

I unplugged mine a couple years ago and no one notice. It turned out to be a good low tech fix.

lchmb

I would also check for a backflo, expansion tank and mixing valve.. The expansion tank behind it for the boiler looks like it may be fun if replacement is ever needed.. how's the rest of the system look?

kcopp

I would plug it into one of these....
plus insulate.

http://www.tacocomfort.com/products/systems/instant_hot_water/smartplug/index.html

Steve Garson_2

Looks like a cool device.