Grundfos domestic hot water circulator system

HWR

Steve, I have never used the new Grundfoss system but have been intending to look into it. Years ago I put a Metlund system in my home and have since put several in for other folks and have never had a problem with any of them. Push the button (or remote) and the pump moves the cool water out of the hot line until the sensor "feels" the hot water. Most new houses we do get full time HWR (alwase circulating). With the slab floor you probably won't go that way, but if you do find out what kind of plastic pipe you have before install, some pipe is not rated for full time HWR. Hope this helps. Metlund by Advanced Conservation Technology Inc. Newport Beach Ca.

you will lose a lot of heat

if you can't insulate you hot water mains and you have a recirculating line. why not bruse your teeth first with the hot water turned on, by the time the hot water comes up, you will be ready to wash up. the reason the hot water seems to take so long now is because newer faucets conserve water and the water flows a lot slower than it used to. Bob

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I have the Grundfos \"Comfort\" setup

in my house and enjoy it. I put one in my sister's house too. The one I have (I did not check your link specifically) has the timer and thermostat built-in and goes for about $140. The timer end is turned upward and is overall rather funny-looking IMHO. Simple to install. Taco indeed has a similar product and both have a family of similar systems.

Why Grunfos calls it "Comfort" is not clear to me. It is not for heating, and with or without it, you are not going to get into a cold shower (unless your wife has a headache when the drawbridge is up).

The weak link in my opinion (on the pump setup, silly!) is the timer, which has lots of dip switch type tabs to be pushed in or out to set the sequence and is a one-day timer. This is what I did:
I set the unit to "manual" (always on) and intercepted the circuit with a digital Intermatic timer (7-day programmable) to suit schooldays and weekends. I did this also on my indirect heater but that is another story...

Grundfos Comfort System

I installed one in my home and lets just say my wife loves it. Super easy to install. It does migrate a portion of warm water into the cold line from the bypass valve that is uses, but it's well worth the investment and labor savings.
Bottom line it's a great product.

Required...

According to the Mass. Plumbing Code under Water Conservation, 248 CMR 2.14(10)(a), any installation that has the farthest fixture over 100 developed feet from the DHW source requires return recirculation.

Of course within this is the determination of what constitutes a "source" -heater? Main line branch connection?. Also if you are using metering faucets -mostly in commercial installations- you may want to drop that 100 foot bar a good bit. Telling an owner, "it meets Code!" when they have to wait 5 minutes at 0.25 GPM to rinse their hands will not fly too far...

And as mentioned above, be generous with insulating your DHW lines, especially when recirculated.

DWH Trivia:
What is little understood but makes sense when you think of it:

"Is heat energy lost from under-insulated domestic hot water more severe in summer or in winter?"

Most folks say winter because it is colder and has greater temperature differences. Correct answer is summer, because in winter the heat at least does the home heating system some good and does not add discomfort however minor to a summer environment, AC or not.

Steamy potty?

Thats not good.Sounds like a real bad soup recipie:)The "comfort system" does allow a slight flow/drip through the cold water piping when the fitting is connected.

So I'm thinking,(uh-oh)......could that particular toilet have a mixing valve installed on it so it won't sweat in the summertime?If yes it could have a bad check thats allowing flow through.If thats the case then fix it.Or maybe the water supply for that toilet has always been plumbed wrong.It maybe filling from a hot water pipe when the house was roughed.If it's a bathroom group farthest away from the water heater it may have been doing it from jump street and never noticed.

It's gotta be something other than the Grundfos system:)I just returned from 3 days of training @ Grundfos and we spent some time looking at how the system works.

The engineers at Grundfos did a bit of a general study with water in households.This is what they discovered.

1. An average home over 2000 sq'has 125' of 3/4" pipe.

2. 125' of 3/4" type L CU pipe holds 3.14 gal of H2O.

3. 10 draws/day wastes 31.4 gal of water.

4. Over 1 year the use = 11,461 gallons

5. 25.2 million homes waste 288,817,200,000 gallons of water

That my friend is a whole lotta water.45 seconds is more than an inconvienance.States are now enforcing new homes with recirculating systems for DHW.This system makes sense!!No return lines.It also makes Bob Gagnons point of heat loss through piping uninsulated not much of an argument.Sell the HO some pipe insulation too:)And as far as asthetics with a pedestal sink........thats a hard one to make look good.But it can be done.The fitting is not very obtrusive and can be fastened up high.Neating the speedies is a challange but with the right tools you can do it!

cheese

Not approved in MA

Not yet anyway.