Waiting for hot water is painful no matter how efficiently it was heated.
Water is quickly heated by an on-demand water heater when a hot water faucet is turned on but it can still take "forever" to get hot water at your sink or shower.
Home owners that have recently purchased a tankless water heater are surprised that it actually takes longer for the water to reach the faucet than it did with a traditional tank style water heater.
Why it takes longer to get hot water from a tankless water heater:
On-demand water heaters turn on when a hot water faucet is turned on. But before it starts heating the water it must make sure that the water is flowing.
It takes a lot of energy to heat water instantly and it would not be good to apply that concentrated energy if the water is not moving.
Of course water heaters have safety mechanisms built in to prevent this from happening.
One safety feature is to delay turning on the heat until the water has been moving for a few seconds. This adds to the time that hot water takes to get to your faucet.
You are heating the water quickly but wasting more water down the drain and waiting longer for hot water.
We love tankless water heaters because they are more energy efficient, you will never run out of hot water (when properly sized) and they take up less space.
But in order to get hot water faster without wasting water down the drain you need a circulation system. One that returns the cold water in the hot water line to the water heater and one that has a high speed pump to move the water faster than just water pressure alone can.
And it needs to be a system that does not operate continuously (continuous operation voids the water heater's warranty) and that does not keep your water lines hot unless there is a demand for hot water (wastes energy and promotes pinhole leaks).
The system you need is the only hot water circulation system specifically designed for tankless water heaters:
Continuously running hot water through an on-demand water heater will void the warranty and quickly wear out the equipment.
Here are some of the benefits of using a system that was designed to work with tankless water heaters:
The following table compares a tankless water heater without a hot water circulation system (column A) to one with
WaterQuick Tankless (column B).
Products are listed by the style of your water heater (traditional tanks style water heater or energy efficient tankless water heaters) and by your plumbing layout (dedicated return line or dead end lines).
If you are like most of us and are not sure how your plumbing is laid out you can take a look at our plumbing diagrams or you can give us a call at (619) 665-2077 and we will help you out.