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If you are doing plumbing and your bathroom is FAR from the water heater, now might be a good time to run a return line for a circ pump. We had our plumber do this for our far far bathroom. Hot water right away instead of waiting/running the hot until it starts flowing.

Excellent suggestion Russ!

We have our pump on a timer so we aren’t keeping the loop hot 24/7. Even though my hot water piping is insulated, there are still heat losses, so I chose to reduce my pump run time. The master bath and bath 2 are right beside the water heater. Bath 3, (future bath 4), kitchen, and laundry are on the dark side of the moon, though. In those rooms, recirculating makes a huge difference!

If an instantaneous heater is used, things can be a bit tricky, but it can be worth it - depending on how far your heater is from various points of use.

Hi All!

Yeah HW circulators are nice for those far bath runs!
Even nicer if you can have a programmable circulator pump timer..some are even ‘smart’ enough to learn your patterns of use!

An upside advantage of recirculating systems is they keep the hot water tank stirred which avoids thermal stratification in the hot water tank which translates into more hot water for use.

I did that for my hydronic heating system design up in New Hampshire. It’s been working like a charm and actually lowers my propane consumption. I chose to have an always on circulation pump in combination with the tank recirculating. Minimizing the start/stop cycles increases the operational life of pumps as well.

Pulled in the 6/3 w/ ground wire for the cooktop. Was gonna do a 210 wall outlet but finally decided I’d rather do metal clad behind the peninsula base cabinets. While a plug cord would be acceptable I feel better about the physical protection the metal clad will offer.

Also pulled in the 20 amp 12/2 w/ ground for the peninsula work surface outlets and a hideaway outlet for phone/computer chargers to neaten things up some for the everyday uses.

Things are inching along….

Best Regards,
Over Easy

Jimmyt wrote: ↑Wed Mar 12, 2025 9:48 am Excellent suggestion Russ!

We have our pump on a timer so we aren’t keeping the loop hot 24/7. Even though my hot water piping is insulated, there are still heat losses, so I chose to reduce my pump run time. The master bath and bath 2 are right beside the water heater. Bath 3, (future bath 4), kitchen, and laundry are on the dark side of the moon, though. In those rooms, recirculating makes a huge difference!

If an instantaneous heater is used, things can be a bit tricky, but it can be worth it - depending on how far your heater is from various points of use.

We have one bathroom on the far side of the moon. The circ pump the plumber installed "learns" your usage with a thermal sensor that detects usage and runs the pump only during those times.

What I found was my power bill went way up. A trip into the crawl space found it was "heating" that space nicely with the hot water runs to that side of the house. Installing foam pipe insulation solved that.

Another method is to use the COLD water as a return with a crossover at the far bathroom. This solves the latency for hot water, but then causes the cold water to be excessively warm with the reverse problem of waiting for cold to come to the tap.

This solves the latency for hot water, but then causes the cold water to be excessively warm with the reverse problem of waiting for cold to come to the tap.

Hi Russ!

One of the fanciest kitchens I ever saw on one of those builders McMansion tours had individual instant hot (almost scalding) and ice water (nearly frozen) taps at the kitchen sink and bar sink. The this house also had an in-counter self filling ice bucket for the dual chilled beer taps and dual in wall wine cellars to keep one’s reds and whites at the optimal temperatures and position.
Meanwhile the whole house was on a hot water recirculating system along with a five canister automatic self cleaning incoming water filtration assembly.

It was brilliantly and tastefully done…. I could get used to that!…

So back to reality… finally got all the electrical rough-in accomplished! Yippie!
(Yeah, I know I’ve been slower than molasses in winter ).

Now I start plastering back all the cutouts I made……





Boy time is flying by!!!
On the upcoming ICW cruise front we’ve been looking at Bob423 Tracks and some excepts on his ICW guidebook. This tracks thingy can overlay on Navionics and Aquamaps. (Note to self: Renew Navionics subscription!) I’ve heard that this tracks thingy is the thing to use when traveling the ICW as it apparently stays reasonably updated with current conditions and shoaling.

Now as far as a guidebook goes there seem to be several good ones out there… I’m wondering if anyone on the forum has any experience and recommendations on them.

Our planned route will be north bound out of the Beaufort SC area in late April into May of this year.
Again, if there are any suggestions/cautions/ things-to-see we’re all ears!

Inch by inch…..

Best Regards
Over Easy

Kitchens can get pretty crazy. Then again, people spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

I installed a R/O filter for drinking water. Also plumbed it to the fridge so the ice maker gets clean water. I read the biggest reason for ice makers failures is minerals in the water.

Then, because I love gadgets, we installed a motion detected sink faucet. Love that thing. Never have to touch the handle and get it dirty. Spendy yes, but I enjoy it every day. Had a friend so impressed they bought one too.