Can I have help finding a Wi-Fi controlled ON/OFF Timer for my water heater's recirculator pump?

[JamieRI]

And then there is this:

IPC 607.2.1 Circulation Systems...
607.2.1 Circulation Systems and Heat Trace Systems for Maintaining Heated Water Temperature in Distribution Systems

For Group R2, R3 and R4 occupancies that are three stories or less in height above ggrade plane, the installation of heated water circulation and temperature maintenance systems shall be in accordance with Section R403.5.1 of the International Energy Conservation Code accordance with Section R403.5.1 of the International Energy Conservation Code. For other than Group R2, R3 and R4 occupancies that are three stories or less in heightabove grade plane, the installation of heated water circulation and heat trace systems shall be in accordance with Section C404.6 of the International Energy Conservation Code.

International Energy Conservation Code 2015
"R403.5.1.1 Circulation Systems

Heated water circulation systems shall be provided with a circulation pump. The system return pipe shall be a dedicated return pipe or a cold water supply pipe. Gravity and thermo-syphon circulation systems shall be prohibited. Controls for circulating hot water system pumps shall start the pump based on the identification of a demand for hot water within the occupancy. The controls shall automatically turn off the pump when the water in the circulation loop is at the desired temperature and when there is no demand for hot water."

 

[Jeff Davis]

NO! Basically just saying that you can't speculate on how the system may function when, like you say you have no clue as to how it's piped.
But you don't have to worry about any of that. You have a functioning system and you are happy about how it's doing.

You're right

 

[Jeff Davis]

And then there is this:

IPC 607.2.1 Circulation Systems...
607.2.1 Circulation Systems and Heat Trace Systems for Maintaining Heated Water Temperature in Distribution Systems

For Group R2, R3 and R4 occupancies that are three stories or less in height above ggrade plane, the installation of heated water circulation and temperature maintenance systems shall be in accordance with Section R403.5.1 of the International Energy Conservation Code accordance with Section R403.5.1 of the International Energy Conservation Code. For other than Group R2, R3 and R4 occupancies that are three stories or less in heightabove grade plane, the installation of heated water circulation and heat trace systems shall be in accordance with Section C404.6 of the International Energy Conservation Code.

International Energy Conservation Code 2015
"R403.5.1.1 Circulation Systems

Heated water circulation systems shall be provided with a circulation pump. The system return pipe shall be a dedicated return pipe or a cold water supply pipe. Gravity and thermo-syphon circulation systems shall be prohibited. Controls for circulating hot water system pumps shall start the pump based on the identification of a demand for hot water within the occupancy. The controls shall automatically turn off the pump when the water in the circulation loop is at the desired temperature and when there is no demand for hot water."

Thanks but that's all way over my head. I'm not a plumber so the regulations don't really matter to me.

 

[Diehard]

I'll bet a lot of the plumbers are not aware of it either.

 

[Mikey]

Big government at work.

 

[Jeff Davis]

I wanted to come back and thank you guys for your help. I love how this Aqua-Stat has made things work. I'm going to add this timer in the power cord when it gets here so I can let the recirculation pump rest every night while we're all asleep. I had to get this goofy shaped timer since the water heater is too close to the wall to use the normal kink of plug-in timer.

Everybody in my family thinks I'm a hero even though I've told them it was you guys on this forum.

Thanks

 

[havasu]

I installed a similar Grundfos recirc pump with the timer built into it, and have used it for the last 5 years. The bathrooms have instant hot and the only faucet which gets 5 seconds of lukewarm water is the one with the added hot water switch (the black doohickey below), which is mounted under the sink in the kitchen. Since we have an R/O system for cold water, we never need cold water at that sink to drink. By the way, as with the original poster, I too live in Southern California, about an hour N/E of Jeff Davis, and the price of water has climbed 60% in just the last 2 years, so reducing water consumption is paramount.

 

[Jeff Davis]

I installed a similar Grundfos recirc pump with the timer built into it, and have used it for the last 5 years. The bathrooms have instant hot and the only faucet which gets 5 seconds of lukewarm water is the one with the added hot water switch (the black doohickey below), which is mounted under the sink in the kitchen. Since we have an R/O system for cold water, we never need cold water at that sink to drink. By the way, as with the original poster, I too live in Southern California, about an hour N/E of Jeff Davis, and the price of water has climbed 60% in just the last 2 years, so reducing water consumption is paramount.View attachment 24237

My Grundfos recirc pump without a built-in timer was installed in 1993 when this tract was being built by Standard Pacific and we have used it trouble-free for the last 27 years.
It had an external timer that had a battery backup in it, so that sounds good, right? Only this was some bogus old timer that lost all of its programming whenever you took out the battery every year or so to replace it. Reprogramming it wasn't easy. Stuff wasn't very user friendly back then.
You end up needing to look up how in some online Vintage Timer Manuals sites to figure it out (I finally made a Word doc).
Anyhow, I wasn't too unhappy to chuck that timer a few years ago when it finally stopped working.
Since you live in a warm area like I do, let me ask you this, is your water heater & Aqua-Stat in an area that's not air conditioned like mine is? If it's in an un-air conditioned garage, does the hot garage affect how well it works in the summer vs the winter? I can guess that in the summer the Aqua-Stat won't cool as quickly as the home's hot water pipes cool down since they are in walls and under counters that are partly cooled by the a/c, so it wouldn't start the recirculation pump often enough?

 

[Mikey]

Deleted.

 

[havasu]

My pump is in an outside water heater enclosure. The pump only activates until the doohickey reached I believe 105 degrees. If the water is hot, it will sense the heat, and shut down until the next timed demand.

 

[Jeff Davis]

My pump is in an outside water heater enclosure. The pump only activates until the doohickey reached I believe 105 degrees. If the water is hot, it will sense the heat, and shut down until the next timed demand.

My understanding is that these Grundfos Aqua-Stats keep the water pipe that it is sensing between 105° and 115° and that the timer only tells it whether or not you want it to do that based on the hours you have the timer set to turn it to ON, pretty much exactly like how a Christmas tree light timer works.
So, from what little I know and I'm pretty sure I'm right even though I'm just a homeowner, if the Aqua-Stat stops the recirculation pump, it won't wait until gets back around to ON again since it will still be at ON. So it will immediately start it recirculating again.
I'm positive that's how it works or at least that's how mine works since my timer has nothing to do with anything except for when the pump is fed power so that if the Aqua-Stat switch, which is just a switch that's turned ON & OFF by the temperature it senses, reaches its ON (connect) or OFF (disconnect) temperature.

 

[Mikey]

I use the under-sink doohickies everywhere and Alexa controls the pump on/off. Works great, no wiring required.

 

[Jeff Davis]

I'm so happy with how things work for us now. Thanks everyone for all the help on this long thread that started off with such an oddly worded Question. I might try to re-word it to make it more relevant but I don't know if this site will let me Delete any irrelevant Replies on the first 3 or 4 pages that aren't mine.
Anyhow, I got this special $12 corded timer on Amazon since my normal Christmas tree timer wouldn't fit back there. The water heater is too close to the wall for any timers that I could find to be put in without my first moving the water heater.
Now even my recirculation pump can sleep at night and take naps all day long. It's one well rested machine.
Here's a photo of that plus another of my Aqua-Stat that I so excellently installed with my wire nuts exposed.

 

[havasu]

So my Grundfos pump has a built in timer, with 15 minute increments, and does exactly what yours does. Seems 8 pages of dialog could have been resolved with just an upgraded pump?

 

[Jeff Davis]

Just an update for some dumb reason. The little tube of flexible corrugated copper tubing, that leads from the recirculating pump over to the base of the hot water heater, sprung a leak in it so I fixed it myself.
For some unknown reason, the place that put this water heater in to replace the home’s original one had used a 24” long line and had just bent it crazy to make it fit. I can’t imagine what was going on in their mind when they did that. Maybe it was the only part he had in his truck? It did last 10+ years but it finally sprung a leak right on the outside at the sharpest kink. Luckily my wife saw water on the floor so it didn’t spray for too long and soak the bottom of every box on the garage floor.
That’s the old line in the photo, sitting in front of the whole assembly, after I replaced it.
Since I’m not a plumber, I had to figure out what valves to turn OFF and how to empty the recirculating line so that I could pull that pipe off and water wouldn’t dump out everywhere. But I got it done.
I didn’t want to drain the whole water heater or need to turn OFF and then re-light the gas.
I just turned OFF the cold water inlet line at the top of the water heater & I turned OFF the valve at the bottom so that the recirculating line wasn’t connected to the base of the wire either. Then I connected a hose and I opened the valve to drain the recirculating line after I turned ON a hot water faucet upstairs to let air suck in so that the designated recirculation line & pump could drain quickly.
Luckily, I found what I needed over at a nearby McFadden-Dale Hardware for only $3 more than it was on Amazon. And I got it SAME DAY at no additional charge.
Part: Eastman 48250 Braided Steel Flexible Water Heater Connector 3/4"FIP, 12" Length
Here’s the old & the new:

 

[Jeff Davis]

Homeowner update: had to have a new water heater installed and I had them use my Auqa-stat. Man do I love that thing.
BTW, the guy wasn't too impressed with my having used that braided line down there. He said those are only to be used up at the top of the water heater. So, I have one that's "NEXT-TO-NEW" if anyone could use one.
Thanks for leading me to it even though I made it tough enough on you to figure me out by asking such a screwy question.
Now I've got another question but I'll start fresh rather than tacking it on here.

 

[Jeff Davis]

So my Grundfos pump has a built in timer, with 15 minute increments, and does exactly what yours does. Seems 8 pages of dialog could have been resolved with just an upgraded pump?

Please be nice, dude. I'd never heard of these Aqua-stat things and my pump still had life left in it.

 

[Jeff Davis]

Did anyone else just get an email saying that akkeosflomdis had just replied to this question? I sure can't find a reply from anyone with that name here.
What's totally weird is after many months of no problems, we just had a pinhole leak happen yesterday a few inches away from the recirculation pump and it was just spraying a straight stream of water right at the water heater so it ran down the water heater into the pan below it. Luckily we caught it before it flooded our whole garage. We got it repaired by a plumber who charged of something that I consider unreasonable $350 to solder a 1" piece of copper line. I'd already done all the preliminary stuff like turn off the water to the water heater put it in Pilot mode, Close the valve to the recirculation pump, drain the water in the recirculating lines in the house. And he had no water in the drain pan to clean up since I took care of that a little siphoning hose that I had built into the drain plug PVC in the pan months ago.
Oh well, I might shop around next time. I think the price goes up for this neighborhood since it's a tract of 3,100+ SF homes in southern California.

 

[Jeff Handy]

I think that akkeos whatever was a spammer.
I got about 7 emails showing his posts, all very close together.
I read most of his responses, all total foolish nonsense.
So I assume he was kicked out.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Did anyone else just get an email saying that akkeosflomdis had just replied to this question? I sure can't find a reply from anyone with that name here.
What's totally weird is after many months of no problems, we just had a pinhole leak happen yesterday a few inches away from the recirculation pump and it was just spraying a straight stream of water right at the water heater so it ran down the water heater into the pan below it. Luckily we caught it before it flooded our whole garage. We got it repaired by a plumber who charged of something that I consider unreasonable $350 to solder a 1" piece of copper line. I'd already done all the preliminary stuff like turn off the water to the water heater put it in Pilot mode, Close the valve to the recirculation pump, drain the water in the recirculating lines in the house. And he had no water in the drain pan to clean up since I took care of that a little siphoning hose that I had built into the drain plug PVC in the pan months ago.
Oh well, I might shop around next time. I think the price goes up for this neighborhood since it's a tract of 3,100+ SF homes in southern California.
View attachment 32617

yeah, I heard plumbers work for reasonable wages in Southern California, cheap even. I’d shop around.

Or buy a torch and do a little reading on how to use it