WATTS BRASS & TUBULAR Whole House Hot Water Recirculating Pump

We have been in this house for 6 years and have been frustrated with how long it takes to get the hot water from the tank to the bathroom. We were always washing hands and brushing teeth with very cold water, and running the tub for a long time before any hot water got there. Finally I found out about this product. I wasn’t too enthusiastic about using the cold line as a return. I thought that would result in warm water when we wanted cold. Also I replaced my tank a couple of years ago and the new tank has a heat trap so I read that it would be a problem with the proper operation of this unit. But my research found that worst case was that I could remove the heat trap on the hot side and replace it with a plain nipple so I decided to purchase the unit and try it out. Installation was fairly straight forward although I had to remove a section of copper pipe and solder it back together, but that was a minor task for me. The hardest part of the installation was tightening the fitting onto the outlet side. There is nothing on the pump housing designed to put a wrench on to stop the pump from turning. I had to put a crescent wrench on the housing where it bolts together which had me a bit concerned about cracking the housing. It did turn out ok though. I got it all installed and fired it up. It is quiet, slight hum, but it is located in an unfinished b a segment (cellar really) so unless I go down there I can’t hear it. The great part is that the heat trap has not interfered with the operation at all. I get hot water at the bathroom sink and tub almost immediately. This makes me very happy every time I turn on the tap. I don’t use the timer at all. I installed a smart outlet linked to a phone app so I can shut off the pump whenever I need to (like if we are going away) but so far the pump runs 24/7 since we are home most of the time, and we want hot water at the bathroom even in the middle of the night. One bonus is that I also get hot water sooner at the kitchen which is on a different branch but it tees off about 10 feet after the tank, so its already about ⅓ of the way there. I may upgrade with an additional valve under the kitchen sink but I am thinking that I will be ok with it the way it is for now. It has been about 2 weeks since install and I am very happy with this pump system.

After years of waiting for water to reach the far areas of my house, I had finally had enough. This pump exceeded my expectations and works flawlessly. It sat on my counter for a few weeks until I finally decided to install it. Installation time was less than 30 min. It took me longer to get the junk out from beneath the far sink than it did to install. The instructions are straight forward and easy to understand. I did the under the sink valve first. They supply you with all the right hoses and connections. I did have to get long hoses, but that is not the fault of the mfg. My supply pipes are further apart. I bought longer hoses and everything was golden. Installing the pump was beyond easy. Yes I did have to buy the correct CPVC fittings with 3/4" threads to connect to the pump. Less than a dollar at the local hardware. Off the discharge pump I went with a flexible hose that connected to my system. You will have to buy a few extra pvc fittings if you need to make it work with your water heater system. It took less than 30 min to install in total and I plugged it in. I could tell it was working, but the pump is extremely quiet. We set the mode to timer, because we want it on from early morning to around 11 pm at night then the timer shuts off the pump. You will still have hot water, but just not as fast as when the pump is working. Even if you let it run all the time, it would cost around $20 a year, tops, but the timer is a nice feature. So far I am extremely happy with the product and it has hot water at our furthest sink within 5 seconds. Don't hesitate to buy this product.

I can honestly say this is probably the most cost effective way of getting hot water to far places in a home, Our home 12 years old is roughly 3000 sq ft 2 story with 4 full baths with the master being at the most furthest point of the home upstairs roughly 100+ feet away from the hot water tank in the garage between the master bath sinks, jetted tub and shower I would have to wait almost 4 minutes of water running before it got warm then cold. The water lines used throughout the home are PEX non metallic plumbing. The pump and sensor unit are very easy to install on your own with a bit of common sense and took me about 40 minutes to install. I let the pump do it's thing for about 30 minutes went up to the 2nd sink in the master bath, which is the last and furthest in the home only 3 feet further than the 2nd sink, within approx 3 secs the water was warm to the touch followed by hotter water very shortly thereafter. I had my wife verify this later that evening, we would usually waste a bunch of water filling up the jetted tub or turning on the shower waiting on hot water, again within seconds the water was warm then hot! I was very amazed as I was getting prepared to drop a few thousand $$$ to have a Tankless installed just for the upstairs master bath I am very pleased with this system. Now I have seen where some people are concerned about cost to run this etc. first it waste no water so right there whatever the cost should be outweighed in water savings. Second I have seen people mock those about putting this on a smart timer since it already comes with a built in timer, what those doing the mocking are not realizing is that if the power goes out then the built in timer does not keep its correct time once power is restored, Yes I'm sure for many this is probably a very rare thing, but I can tell u you here in Northern CA the power especially in the summer is 50/50 at best! So yes I would highly suggest the use of a smart plug for one of these, I already have dozens of smart plugs/lights & switches in use at my home so I did not need to purchase one but they can be purchased for less than $25 I recommend Tp-link by Kasa! The other nice thing about the smart plug especially if it has the energy monitoring option (Not all do get one with the monitoring) is that you can get a real time look at what the power consumption is daily, weekly and yearly to kind of give you a idea of the Electric use which is not bad. The pump averages right around 22 watts +/- while running the company states is should be less than a nickle a day or so to run 24 hours. I may set up a schedule or Alexa routine but currently I have not having 48 345 watt solar panels and Battery I am not to concerned about 22 watts running. On to the gas usage, given we have a large home along with large heated pool/Jacuzzi and outdoor gas fireplace etc. we have a very large diameter gas line with a smart meter. I can always here the meter gurgling so to speak when any of the large items are being uses including the hot water tank, to date after checking numerous times I have yet to hear the gas meter or the actual hot water tank firing constantly, not saying it does not fire up once enough coldwater gets pushed back into it I am just not hearing it like a normal tank being heated up! So again I do not believe that the complaint of this using mass amount of utility to use 24/7 again as compared to dupping 100s of gallons a day down the drain I fully believe at best it is a gain in savings at worse it is a break even! I did have to purchase a second sensor kit to place in the kitchen downstairs as our home has a branched Hot water line since doing so even our kitchen sink water is now warm to hot within seconds. I have yet to experience the so called major bleedback into the cold water line that some have stated happens that when they turn on the cold water it is warm to hot for a brief moment, either way even if I did it is still worth every penny for this setup!

I really like this product,it definitely does what it’s supposed to.I used to have to wait approximately 60 seconds before getting hot water to my upstairs bathroom.Since installing the watts 500800 the hot water is instant. I decided I would set the timer for a couple of hours in the morning,and then another couple of hours in the evening.To my surprise I had hot water upstairs all the time. The only problem is that the hot water was creeping 24/7 .Where I live we heat our water with furnace oil which doubled in price this past year.Because of this I really didn’t want my hot water heater coming on way more keeping the lines warm 24/7. I unplugged the pump for a couple of days just to see if it was actually creeping for sure .In my case the sensor valve was keeping the hot water moving/creeping even when the pump was shut off. To fix this I installed a check valve on the cold line going to the upstairs,now the creeping has stopped. Now it only works when the timer tells it to which is perfect.To summarize I am happy with the pump but would recommend installing a check valve on the cold to eliminate any possible creeping

Pump is great at circulating the water during the hours you set it to. It's nice to wake up to having instant hot water, especially in the winter when it would take literally minutes to get hot water to the master bath, which is at the opposite side of the house that the hot water heater resides. However, there are some quirks that people should know about. Pros: Small unit, affordable, does the job as described. Timer is nice, it's analog with pull out tabs/switches, but easy enough to setup. Cons: 1. Most people won't be able to install this themselves. This should go on the hot water heater, and if you have copper pipes that you'll need to cut, and sweat new pipes onto, most people will need a pro. I used shark fittings, but still had to cut, measure, cut to get it right. If you have flexible hoses on top of your hot water heater, then it would be an easy install for you. Under sink install is very straightforward. 2. If you have sensitive hearing, you may hear humming in your walls/pipes as this is running during the set times. I can hear it when I walk by walls that have pipes in them, and it irritates me. So, I don't run it all night. 3. When it runs, some pipes in walls get a "drip" sound. No idea what is causing it, I'm still chasing it down. 4. This is a very minute con: Since it recirculates the water into the cold water pipes, when you initially open your cold spout you might get luke warm water for a few second. Not really a big deal. Overall happy with it as it functions well.