Project 1: Install tankless water heater.
Highlight: Recommended by a competitor.
We had four companies give us a quote for replacing our natural gas tank water heater with a tankless. One competitor told us that based on the complexity of the install, he would recommend Poole’s Plumbing. And that is who we used. The job consisted of removing the existing natural gas tank water heater, all of it’s venting and sealing all holes where the vent used to be (the old venting was no longer to code). Then installing a direct vent, condensing, non-recirculating new tankless water heater in a new location, installing a condensate pump, and rerouting the plumbing and gas lines to the new location. I would, and have, use them again.
Project2: Install hot water recirculation pump in home that does not have a dedicated return line.
Workmanship: “They do good work.” –City inspector.
Results: From 3 minutes to 3 seconds.
Previously, I had a traditional gas tank water heater in my basement. With it, it took 1 minute for hot water to show up at the furthest sink (laundry room) on the main floor and it took 1 minute for hot water to show up at the furthest sink on the top floor (master bath) of my three-story home.
When I went tankless I did not want built in recirculation because I was not sure I needed that feature and also because those worked on timers and I would want an on-demand type of recirculation system, i.e. water was not recirculated until a remote is pushed or a motion sensor was activated.
After my tankless was installed, the times went from 1 minute to 3 minutes. And these times were independent of each other. When I got hot water in the master bath and immediately went to the laundry room, it still took 3 minutes for hot water to show up there, and vice versa.
To make a very long story short, when I contacted the tankless manufacturer about an under sink recirc pump, they said the model tankless I purchased cannot support recirculation. I relayed this information to Poole’s who in turn, without me asking, contacted the tankless manufacturer and got a totally different answer. The manufacturer even recommended a brand of pump to use. Poole’s then contacted the pump manufacturer (again without me asking), reviewed my home’s layout with them and came up with a solution. It consists of a no-timer, remote activated stainless steel flanged pump installed at the water heater, a 2 gallon expansion tank, insulating the hot water pipes where possible, stainless and brass thermal bypass values installed at the laundry room sink and another installed in the master bath, a wireless receiver and two remotes.
The results? After pushing the remote button, letting the pump operate and opening the hot water on the faucet, I get hot water at both the laundry room and master bath in 3 seconds. Yes, 3 seconds.
Many thanks to Bill and Tim for working with the manufacturers to configure a solution and to Henry and crew for the installation.