Watts Premier Instant Hot Water Recirculating Pump System with Built-In Timer - 6"x6" Compact Size for Fast Hot Water Delivery in Homes, Kitchens & Bathrooms

The guest bathroom is about 25' from the hot water heater and my wife would get so frustrated at wasting so much water just to get some hot water to wash her hands or take a shower. Now: "happy wife, happy life!" I plugged the pump into a remote controlled AC plug, so I turn on the plug before I want the hot water in the bathroom or kitchen and then I turn the plug off when I don't need the hot water any longer.The pump does make a low hum when it's running but if I'm not within 10 feet of it I don't hear it, and the sound doesn't resonate through the water pipes.I can't speak to the ease of installation because I had a plumber install it. All the water fittings on my water heater are soldered and not being proficient in that process, and not wanting any water leaks in my house, I opted to have a professional do it for me. It cost me about as much in labor as it did to purchase the pump but it was worth it to me to get it done right the first time. And in the long term I'll probably recoup my expense in savings on my water bill by not running good water down the drain just because it's not hot.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!This is just what we needed! I read many reviews on this pump and others. It was easy to install in my case as my hot water heater was in the garage. It took me less than an hour to install. I can't hear the noise of the pump. Had my hand on the pump to feel that it was actually working. It has cut down the time to get hot water to specific points in our house to seconds. If this saves gallons of prescious water and high prices where we live then the cost was totally worth it! I have read some articles on electricity costs of the pump vs. water savings etc.. The pump doesn't take much electricity to run for short bursts periodically through out the day. The water savings I suspect will be big. My house is in a vacation rental program and I suspect people run 5 gallons of water just getting hot water before they shower.. In my opinion, worth the money, easy to install. If you are on the fence about it.. Just do it. I don't think you will regret it.We used to wait 4-5 mins for hot water. Using the timer for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night, we now have hot water within 20 seconds. Warm water immediately. The pump is metal and silent, it's so silent and well made you can hardly tell it's running when you put your hand on it. Great productThe pump is very quiet. When the pump is on hot water comes out of the taps and shower within a minute. In the furthest bathroom, hot water took about 10 minutes to become fully hot. The valve makes a low humming noise when the pump is on. But it is hardly noticeable. You would have to strain a little to hear it. The pump was easy to install. If installing on an old hot water heater you may wish to have a spare supply line or new gaskets on hand just in case. My HVAC unit is close to the water heater so an electrical outlet was easily within reach of the 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.We've only had the pump for about a month but it is working as expected so far. Too soon to know about durability. It replaced a Grundfos pump that only lasted about a year. The previous Grundfos pump ran for 6 years. That model is no longer available so we needed something different and the Watts pump was a lot less money.I had to reroute some plumbing and change some fixtures but I'm handy enough with copper-and-solder DIY plumbing that it was a fairly easy job. We don't use the pump the way most customers will, though, so I can't say how well it works in that specific application. When we built the house we had a loop of pex installed in the floor joists, that runs around the perimeter of the house, with all hot water taps and appliances feeding off that loop. The pump circulates hot water continuously through the loop and we have hot water at all outlets within about 6 seconds. Without the pump, the kitchen sink faucet takes at least 2 minutes to come up to full temperature, so we're happy with our setup.The pump is mounted just above the hot water heater. Future replacement with a pump of the same design will be easy, as I have shut-off valves installed before and after the pump to isolate the pump from the system - no need to turn off water to the rest of the house during replacement - and fittings that I can simply unscrew with a pipe wrench to remove the old pump and tighten back up the same way to install a replacement. I may buy another one or two of these pumps to have on hand for when replacement is needed. Being mechanical devices, they don't last forever, so the day will come.I was tired of always having cold water for washing my hands because the hot water tank is so far away. Was really hoping this would work and it did, somewhat. Instead of cold, the water is tepid and I also have tepid water in the cold water line. The faucet is about 75 feet away from the tank. Instructions said that on really long runs another valve should be installed on the same branch. I did that at about 50 feet in the other bathroom. And I also insulated as much of the hot water pipe as I could. It did help with water now lukewarm in the furthest bathroom however it is hot at the first bathroom.For the total cost of the first kit with the pump and the additional valve kit, I am disappointed that it didn't quite work as promised but I will keep it anyway as it's better than nothing. Description doesn't mention that it may not work on long runs.My furthest tap (kitchen) would require waiting for 80 seconds for warm water to start. Waste of water and waste of heating the water as well because once you've finished using hot water, the water in the line will slowly cool if not used.TImer on unit can be set pretty granular, but I added a smart plug on mine to have easier control/use, plus gives one the ability to "demand" hot water at any time (my house, takes about 1 minute for pump (depending on last usage) to get hot water). I have pump set to run for an hour in morning, lunchtime, dinner and just prior to bedtime (for shower !).The only negative is that once the pump has run, the cold water is no luke warm (as the luke warm water is pumped back down the cold line). We drink out of the fridge anyway, dogs don't care if their water is a bit warm and for those times you REALLY need cold water you can simply go to a faucet further "downstream" from your far point (kitchen in my case). We've yet to do that, because, we haven't run into a case (after a month) of "needing" cold water that badly.You do have to remove the heat nipples from the hot water tank for the unit to function, I could have done it myself but I had a plumber do it for negligible cost.So after a month, I'm happy. Pump runs a maximum of 3 hours a day so electricity costs are minimal when compared to additional heating costs and water wastage by not having it there. Noise of the pump is irrelevant as it sits on the hot water tank beside my furnace, which is louder than the pump.The plastic bit for this broke during installation - It didn't just break, it the material just dissolved as though it was made of pastry as soon as I put a wrench anywhere near it.I didn't install it until a few months after I got it from Amazon and it's out of the Amazon return window; so I will have to see if they will send me another one that won't just dissolve. I haven't seen anyone else complaining about this in the comments, so hopefully it's just a one-off.Hopefully, you find this review helpful.