Hot Water Recirculation Pump Questions

[jborchel]

I am considering installing a Laing ACT-E1 recirculation pump and have a few questions. The ACT-E1 works by pushing a small stream of hot water back through the cold water pipe at the farthest faucet on the pipe system on a continuing basis.

1. The farthest sink is a Hansgrohe single pole faucet with the hot/cold handle mounted on the pole. I read that this type of faucet might not work with this type of recirculation pump. Is this true?

2. My hot water is softened by a Culligan tank in the garage. Will the amount of hot water pushed into the cold water piping by the ACT-E1 be significant enough to have softened drinking water, a no-no I believe?

3. Is there a simple way to determine the last faucet in the system?

Any thoughts would be very appreciated.

[johnjh2o]

I have seen the system you are referring to but have no experience with it. The main reason being is that there are very few homes that have a electrical outlet under the sink. The system we use is made by Watts and the pump is located at the water heater were electrical power to run the pump is more accessible. There is a separate fitting that requires no power that is installed at the farthest fixture from the heater. The way to determine which fixture that would be is to see which fixture takes the longest to receive hot water.

http://www.watts.com/pages/whatsnew/IHWRS.asp

John

[LiQuId]

I too have no experience with this system But.

2. My hot water is softened by a Culligan tank in the garage. Will the amount of hot water pushed into the cold water piping by the ACT-E1 be significant enough to have softened drinking water, a no-no I believe?

I wouldnt think So, water is called the universal solvent and the reason its bad to drink softened water is that It has no mineras and thus leaches minerals from your body while pasing through it. since cold water is used more than Hot the hot water recirculating would pick up minerals from the cold. What My concern would be is that by doing this you are re-introducing the Very elements of the water you are trying to soften out downstream of the softener, So as Far as for the health of drinking softened water I'd say your good, But as far as Itchy hot water that doesnt lather soap well and wears on internal system components... Yes, Could be a problem though I would think it fairly minimal,

Anyways johns Pump +1

.. my 2c

[jborchel]

[QUOTE=johnjh2o;28326]I have seen the system you are referring to but have no experience with it. The main reason being is that there are very few homes that have a electrical outlet under the sink. The system we use is made by Watts and the pump is located at the water heater were electrical power to run the pump is more accessible. There is a separate fitting that requires no power that is installed at the farthest fixture from the heater. The way to determine which fixture that would be is to see which fixture takes the longest to receive hot water.

http://www.watts.com/pages/whatsnew/IHWRS.asp

Thanks for the reply John. I have electricity under the sink as we recently remodeled and I had a plug installed before the new cabinets were installed just for this purpose.

Do you have any thoughts or knowledge about my first question?

[johnjh2o]

The only difference, other then mounting location I see is the ACT turns off when the temp reaches 85 degrees were the Watts runs until it reaches 98 degrees. One other thing to be aware of is with any of these systems that use the cold water line instead of a dedicated recirculating line is you will see a slight difference in your cold water temperature while the unit is in operation. (it will be warmer)

John