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tepid cold water

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jumper
jumper Member Posts: 2,466
in Plumbing

Friend complains that his cold water is too warm. He says that his house has a hot water recirculater controlled by a timer. Twice a day. Can it pump hot water back into cold water supply?

Comments

  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,471

    Always been a problem for him or just recently?

    Plumbed wrong or failed check valve.

    mattmia2GGross
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 26,210

    It can. But there are a number of other possibilities… mixing valve faucets for instance, can allow hot water into the cold side, either locally (is it only one faucet which has the problem, for instance?). Other cross connections. Leaking check valves…

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 2,688

    Does your friend have something like this under the sink that he is complaining about?

    What is his hot water source?

    th.jpg
  • Larry Weingarten
    Larry Weingarten Member Posts: 3,903

    Hi, I'd start by having him do a crossover test to see if there is an unwanted connection between the hot and cold sides. Just shut off the cold supply to the water heater, turn off recirc pump, and open a hot tap. Water should stop running in seconds. If it keeps running, cold is getting into the hot. Now to trace it down, which can be a longer discussion 😎. Also, everything said above is true and they are good places to look further.

    Yours, Larry

    ps. A test of the recirc would be to turn off power to the pump and see if the tepid problem goes away.

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