Recirculation Pumps In Concord

Contact A Water Heater Expert 24/7 At 925-945-6619

The State of California appears to always be in a drought, and many Concord residents are wanting to know how they can save water by not waiting for the hot water to arrive before taking a shower. Of course, you can always use a couple of 5-gallon buckets to collect the unused water and use it for watering the garden. Although this is tedious and if you are not in the best physical shape, lifting the buckets and bringing them to the outside can be an issue. One bucketless way to save water is to install a recirculation pump, which can save some households around 31 gallons of water per day or more depending on usage. Plus, having instant hot water can make any bathroom feel like a trip to the spa.

When it comes to choosing the right recirculation pump in for your home and water heater in Concord, CA, it is important to have some knowledge of the type of plumbing you have in your house; for example whether or not you have a dedicated loop or an integrated loop plumbing system, because this will determine what type of recirculation pump we will be installing.

Generally, newer homes will have a dedicated loop, while older homes generally have an integrated loop. However, if you are unsure of what kind of plumbing you have in your home, you could always give us a call 24/7 at 925-945-6619 and we can schedule a time to have a water heater expert come to your home and help you choose what is best!

Here’s a quick breakdown of an integrated loop and a dedicated loop. 

Integrated Loop – This is the type of loop system that we most often come in contact with in the homes that we work in in Concord, CA. This is because there is not an existing return line plumbed into the home, during the initial construction. In this type of system, in order to install a recirculation pump, we will need to make use of the existing plumbing on the cold side. 

This option is popular because a dedicated return line is not needed. However, this type of system does not work the same or as well as a dedicated loop system, but it is frequently the only option unless one wants to completely retrofit their plumbing system.

Here the recirculation pump is generally installed at the furthest appliance away from the water heater that uses hot water and will use the existing cold side plumbing to “loop” the hot water back to the water heater. These models will generally have a timer or a switch that you can press to activate the pump, that will begin circulating the water; and thus these recirculation pumps are called on-demand pumps.

Once the recirculation pump has been activated, the cold water in your pipes will get sucked back to the water heater via the cold line and fresh hot water will be brought right to the front of all of your fixtures.

The recirculation pump knows when to stop pumping water back into the tank by a sensor valve that is installed underneath the sink and once the valve senses a certain temperature it will turn off and your sink or shower is ready for use.

Dedicated Loop – With this loop, hot water is routed directly to each appliance that requires hot water. Then the hot water that has then turned cold is then sent back to the water heater via a dedicated line from the furthest appliance away from the water heater and it is reintroduced to the water heater on either the cold side or the bottom drain inlet.

Installing this specialized dedicated loop is generally best done when the home is being built.  Choosing to go this route would require a plumber to come out to and evaluate if a return line can be added to your existing plumbing, then quote the cost to do so. If you have a crawl space below the home or attic space above the home, a return line can sometimes be added, however, this is more costly than if it had been installed during initial construction. A dedicated return line with a recirculation pump will always work better than an integrated loop-type system.

If you are interested in getting a recirculation pump installed in your home or have further questions about how it works, give us a call at 925-945-6619. Our Concord, CA, phone staff is available 24/7 to answer any and all of your water heater questions and schedule a technician to come out to your home and properly assess the situation. We look forward to hearing from you!

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