Why does my hot water take so long to reach the tap?

[@cowboycrunchies]

Great video Al. The run off water doesn’t need to be wasted. It can be collected and used to flush the toilet when needed. Works a charm, and keeps the water bills down.

[@dereton33]

Good tip thanks.

[@lynettecockburn332]

Really informative and useful video. Beautiful garden too! Thanks

[@dereton33]

So nice of you. Thanks Lynette.

[@JackieKay11]

Yes, lovely garden 👍😃

[@JackieKay11]

When I had a place in Spain, to save using so much water, I’d catch the cold shower water (before it ran hot) in a plastic bathroom waste bin and kept it for flushing the toilet. I continued to use the same trick when home too and it saves on the water use. Like you Al, I just wash hands in cold water as it takes far too long to get it hot all the way from the garage to the house. For the same reason when washing up, I just boil the small amount needed in the kettle. When first married early 70’s, my late husband installed a Main Severn (or 7 can’t exactly remember name) instant hot water heater, beside the kitchen sink. Remember them? It worked a treat 👍 As a child I recall the old Ascot gas heater in the kitchen as had no central heating back then 😬 Thanks for the video 😊

[@dereton33]

Hi Jackie, we had an ascot by the kitchen sink back in the day. Just superb.

[@JackieKay11]

@ They really were 😃

[@jayseabie215]

If you're extending and adding another bathroom, a combi is just not gonna cut it. You really need to swap it out for a system boiler and cylinder combo. Redesign your house = redesign your plumbing to match.

[@andrewferguson7762]

Always informative and interesting and the frequency of videos is fab

[@dereton33]

Glad you like them! Thanks Andrew.

[@surfwidow]

I think part of he problem is people tend to run their hands under there tap rather than fill the basin! If you filled the basin to have a wash say? The fact runs cold doesnt matter as the end result is a nice warm basin of water. The cold already in it effectively creates a mixer tap in a way. However, when you wash you hands under running water I always use cold... No point to run hot as its no only a waste of water its a wast of gas! In fact I boil a kettle of water for the washing up bowl make a cuppa tea with some of it and pour the rest in the dishes bowl! Running the hot tap is again pointless as it never gets that hot (as a kettle) and cannot make a cuppa (brew) tea with tap water! :P Nice experiment though maybe it will remind people not to waste water especially if they are on a meter and the whole family is doing it!!! :PPP 👍👍👍👍

[@Hammerman48]

If you have a combi boiler there will always be one sink that gets the hot water last……the longest run. Sadly mine is the kitchen sink……the first is the downstairs toilet.

[@johnsaunders1945]

Fascinating, thank you. I have a new boiler but I decided to keep the hot water tank because it has an immersion heater so that I can still have hot water if the boiler fails for some reason. I also have a power shower and read that a combi boiler may not keep up with it. I suppose that there's pluses and minuses with the two systems.

[@dereton33]

Seems with just about everything John.

[@gmo4250]

Power showers are only recommended for gravity fed systems and they are not compatible with combi boilers. They should not be recommended. Combi boilers operate at mains pressure and they should always provide a decent pressure for a shower and will be superior to a gravity fed system. Obviously a power shower will match or better a combi, it will depend on the equipment, tank, pressure etc.

[@johnsaunders1945]

@gmo4250 That's one reason why I didn't go for a combi boiler.

[@gmo4250]

@@johnsaunders1945 Fair enough, I incorrectly assumed you fitted a combi boiler, probably because the combi boiler was in the video. My parents recently upgraded their boiler and fitted a combi boiler and like you they kept a hot water tank with immersion for back up.

[@johnsaunders1945]

@gmo4250 That is a very interesting combination. Possibly the best of both worlds.

[@Autonomous1969]

I fitted two under sink 10 Litre water heaters in my kitchen and bathroom. Almost instant hot water and saves a small fortune in electric costs.

[@gmo4250]

@@Autonomous1969 Saves money compared to what? I don't see how this can be cheaper than a combi. Are you comparing the cost saving to an electric immersion?

[@Hammerman48]

Preheat is ok…..but it will wake you up in the night if you are a light sleeper…..it usually fires up the boiler for a minute every so often.

[@foxy1960]

Do you think a good idea would be to insulate the copper pipe from the boiler to the taps as much as possible as I am sure the cold pipe takes some of the heat from the water at first

[@dereton33]

Yes it is a good idea to do that.

[@gmo4250]

Yes, definitely do that, especially if it's a long run. It's relatively cheap and you will notice that when you expect the water to be cold, it might be at least luke warm. The insulation slows down the heat loss and also prevents heat loss while the water is flowing.

[@foxy1960]

@ I turned the hot water off in the downstairs toilet at the end of the house, I found people would turn the hot water tap on but got impatient and could not wait for the water to get hot on the long pipe run.

[@steveradford5460]

Another alternative is electric water heater. After extension en-suite would be 20m from hot water cylinder. En-suite over garage where mains water entered property. Installed Redring 12kW heater in garage (close to electricity consumer unit) to shower and sink in en-suite above.

[@dereton33]

12 KW that is certainly going to cost a lot to run.

[@steveradford5460]

@@dereton33 Current Economy 7 at night rate 00.30 - 07.30am @11.22/kWh. Occasional guest showers around 7am, 15min maximum, so 33p !

[@gmo4250]

@steveradford5460 Yes and fitting one and it's still more expensive than gas. If it works for you, fair enough. A few showers and hair washes outside economy 7 is going to start costing. I'm not saying you're wrong, just saying that it really depends on your needs and the amount of use it will get.

[@mossmm73]

Thought of insulation covering pipes from boiler to each hot water tap

[@dereton33]

You can but what a job.

[@jamesknightreading]

My combi has no pre-heat at all, and it takes about ten secs of water flow to even kick on. GF turns the hot tap on when she sits down to pee, and it's hot by the time she gets up. I use the waste water in the small bowl to rinse the pots.

[@dereton33]

Great idea James.

[@stevelake3541]

Several years ago I had an oil fired Halstead boiler in my property basically it was hot air vented into the living room and bedrooms the boiler was in the kitchen in a brick built cupboard ,it ran a radiator in the bathroom and a cylinder for hot water.The boiler was cripplingly expensive to run as it was on a communal oil tank with a metered supply ,a sharp business move by the developer, there was a covenant on the property that lasted 10 years so you had to have the metered oil supply.I ripped the boiler out and changed to Wibo electric heaters ,a cross between a storage and convector heater digitally controlled thermostat and timers ,not economy 7 ,the bonus of these heaters was you could have one heater on so heat one room to whatever temp you set on the stat, this meant I had no hot water I looked at many point of use hot water heating systems mostly electric but a couple of lpg ones similar to the old Ascot heaters we had when I was an ankle biter,sadly we were not on the main gas supply. But point of use water heating has got to be the answer electric shower electric over basin as in portacabin toilets ,and small Emerson heater for kitchen and bathrooms .this was in a bungalow and only two of us living in it .may not work for families ?

[@dereton33]

Thanks for the info Steve.

[@Howie57]

How do you get to the bathtap if any maintenance is needed?

[@dereton33]

Thake the bath panel off.

[@stewartj00701]

My hot taps in bathrooms and kitchen I changed from 15mm to 10mm hep, made a huge difference in speed, waste a lot less energy as well since there's less volume of hot water going to waste, if was building my house over again I would pipe the hot in 10mm inside insulated fabric of the house, and put a 10mm hep manifold right at the cylinder outlet. I'd leave the bath piped in 22, not sure about shower, mines still in 15, might try in 10 see if the flow is enough

[@andrewferguson7762]

Assume it's a lengthy if not expensive job changing the diameter of pipe ?, the idea sounds excellent though

[@stewartj00701]

@andrewferguson7762 it's a new build bungalow I built myself, so have plenty of room under the floor to make changes

[@pgfarnham]

Just don’t open the tap fully, this will have the same effect as reducing the pipe size. I just fill my kettle and coffeemaker while the hot water is on its way.

[@dereton33]

Thanks for the great info guys.

[@ojmbvids]

@@pgfarnham That's not quite right. The problem is that the water sitting in the pipe between the boiler/cylinder and the tap is cold and needs to be flushed out before the hot will come through. By going for the smallest diameter pipe you can, you minimise the volume of water you need to flush through. Not opening the tap fully just means it takes longer for that volume of cold water to clear.