We're in our new build. I video'd how long it takes to get hot water at our kitchen tap. That is not the farthest fixture from our tanks but it's not the closest. About halfway. This morning the temp coming out of the hot tap was 67 then dropped as low as 57 at 17 seconds. At one minute it was at 65 and at 2 minutes it was at 107. We've been complaining about this so they replaced the recirculating pump and a couple of valves that were allowing cold water to return to the tanks (sorry, I don't know what they were called). After all that, these are the results we're getting.

Are we crazy? Isn't this unreasonable? What the heck could be the problem with the set-up?

Agree with Wes. We had recirculating at the last house. It was typically 1 to 5 seconds depending on location.

Yours sounds like the pump isn't even running. Once fixed definitely get a timer that allows 7 day programming. It's a small cost that adds significantly to the lifespan of the pump.

I'm dying to know who your builder was. Do you know who they used for their plumbing company? I've read several of your threads on this board and also work for a builder in the same area so I just always remember. However mentioning that- there is no reason you should be having another plumbing company out but sometimes that helps. Quality is all over the place with crews since Covid. Keep us updated on progress please

Plumbing company is IES.

Builder's initials are WD.

Feel free to email me at c hutch Texas @gmail

We've had electricians out several times

The temp sensor on one of the heat pumps failed just before the freeze so we were living off heat strips

We have a bad roof leak and currently have dehumidifiers in the house and will have Sheetrock ripped out soon

Our HVAc is totally out of balance. Our daughter's room is a furnace.

They put two pressure regulating valves on our line so we only had 26 psi to the house.

The list goes on and on. I work from home and am constantly juggling contractors and meetings. It's been so terribly stressful.

We'll love our house when this is settled. But this phase is brutal.

IES is **** unless you got the top crew. If you want to connect my email is my handle and yahoo. I can give you some helpful tips at least. And a better crew to inspect and tell you what's going on

I'll have someone get ahold of you

Do you by any chance have a manifold setup with a separate feed to the kitchen?

Like a PEX manifold? No.

Not to derail, but how complicated is it to add recirculating system to existing system?

I'm sure a wide arrange of factors

Our house is new, all pex and generally easily accessible from attic (whole home insulation so attic is easy to get around in)

Stupidly we had this at our last house and simply overlooked it. It was a custom build and by that point I think I was getting too busy with work and just forgot to mention it

It's one of about 3 things that I can think of I wish I could go back and change

I hear ya!

With easy access in the attic like you described, and already all pex piping, it's very easy to add.

Wherever the farthest point is the from the water heater, you connect on to the hot water piping there, then run a pipe all the way back to your water tester, and add an inline pump. Some water heaters have a recirc inlet you tie directly into, otherwise you just tee into the cold water supply right before it goes into the water heater (and add a check valve upstream). That's what creates the loop that hot water is then recirculated in.

There are lots of options for how the pump is controlled, depending on how fancy you want to get. Mine has a temp sensor strapped to a short section of copper pipe in the loop. When the temp sensor detects that the water in the loop has dropped below a certain threshold, it kicks the pump on and circulates fresh hot water into the loop.