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Ryland · 10-01-12, 08:19 AM

I had the same problem of waiting a long time for hot water in my up stairs, I fixed it by running new hot water pipe using PEX pipe, 1/2" PEX has a high enough flow rate for the bath tub but the pipe it's self is smaller inside the 1/2" copper, part of the increased flow rate is because it doesn't have any elbows, burs, or any other restrictions, it's a single straight smooth run, the PEX is also less conductive so it pulls heat out of the water much slower so hot water in the pipe stays hot longer!
When I replaced my hot water lines I was also able to run the water lines in a more direct route, going from over 80 feet of 3/4" iron pipe to 25 feet of 1/2" PEX, cutting the wait for hot water down from over a minute (over 3 gallons of water) to less then 20 seconds.

At my brothers house we just installed a 29 gallon Richmond water heater a Richmond/Rheem XR90, it's power vented (needs class b double wall 3" steel chimney to vent out a wall) but it was the only water heater we could find that had an energy factor of .7 and yet it can reheat water very quickly of 60 gallons per hour, it is being marketed as a replacement for a standard 50 gallon water heater, they claim that it can replace a 90 gallon water heater.

If you can't fix your water issue with better plumbing then a small 2.5 gallon point of use water heater sounds like a great idea, there are plenty to choose from that only require 120v 12amps to run, so you can plug them in to a regular outlet that doesn't have any other high loads on it and by the time you've used up the hot water in the small tank it should be getting more hot water to make it up.

10-01-12, 08:19 AM	#2
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	I had the same problem of waiting a long time for hot water in my up stairs, I fixed it by running new hot water pipe using PEX pipe, 1/2" PEX has a high enough flow rate for the bath tub but the pipe it's self is smaller inside the 1/2" copper, part of the increased flow rate is because it doesn't have any elbows, burs, or any other restrictions, it's a single straight smooth run, the PEX is also less conductive so it pulls heat out of the water much slower so hot water in the pipe stays hot longer! When I replaced my hot water lines I was also able to run the water lines in a more direct route, going from over 80 feet of 3/4" iron pipe to 25 feet of 1/2" PEX, cutting the wait for hot water down from over a minute (over 3 gallons of water) to less then 20 seconds. At my brothers house we just installed a 29 gallon Richmond water heater a Richmond/Rheem XR90, it's power vented (needs class b double wall 3" steel chimney to vent out a wall) but it was the only water heater we could find that had an energy factor of .7 and yet it can reheat water very quickly of 60 gallons per hour, it is being marketed as a replacement for a standard 50 gallon water heater, they claim that it can replace a 90 gallon water heater. If you can't fix your water issue with better plumbing then a small 2.5 gallon point of use water heater sounds like a great idea, there are plenty to choose from that only require 120v 12amps to run, so you can plug them in to a regular outlet that doesn't have any other high loads on it and by the time you've used up the hot water in the small tank it should be getting more hot water to make it up.