recirculating system issues..

[d simmermon]

I am following up on a job for my company that was roughed in by others .The recirculating system is not working well at all ..The way the system was ran origionally was having one 75 gln gas fired water heater looping to a 65 gln electric water heater used as a storage tank .Cold feed to gas water heater ,hot from gas fired heater feeding into the cold on the storage tank and the hot side feeding the house..First problem was the recirc pump for the storage tank was pushing into the boiler drain of the storage tank and the recirc pump line for the house was also pumping away from the gas fired unit..OK now I switched the pumps both pushing toward the gas fired unit and also on the storage tank I cut in a tee on the hot and piped it back to the pump pushing back into the gas fired unit..A little confusing and hope I havent lost anyone yet.. But the system is still struggling for hot water..I am thinking that too much hot water is leaching back into the cold and mixing with the cold supply..Now I am thinking of adding a check valve on the cold inlet and an expassion tank below it for thermal expansion because now I am creating a closed system..I am sure there are a thousand ways to do this system but only a couple of ways to do it right..Any help grately appreciated,,thanks

[Retired plbg1Participant]

Try connecting the two tanks in a series and it might work. If you need drwing let me know.

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Art retired plbg

[Retired plbg1Participant]

I though it over a little better and I think it will work, Conect GWH & EWH in a series tie 2 HWR together with Bal. Valves and Aquistact try running return into el. WH and if it dont work run one to each heater. Thats about all I can say, maybe ask an Eng. are call heater co. they might tell you better. Let me know

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Art retired plbg

[BenderParticipant]

Thanks retired one, yes they are hooked together in a series..cold feed into cold on gas water heater, hot feed to cold inlet on elec. water heater .hot feed off storage to house piping..I think I am going to put an expansion tank on the cold inlet with a check valve ..I am thinking too much hot water is being pushed back through the cold inlet mixing with the cold water .recirc pump from elec.storage hot side to boiler drain on gas fired unit .main recirc line is also pushing back to first gas fired heater.I have looked at the piping diagram from the manufacturer and it just doesn’t work.I am still going to try a couple more things and see what happens..Thanks

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[mikeinpaParticipant]

Are you able to post a pic of the system ,or email me a pic

[Retired plbg1Participant]

I dont think you have them in aseries, send me your E-Mail add. and i will send you a drawing.

[BenderParticipant]

Well I think I got it..I did end up installing a check valve on the cold feed with an expansion tank..Then found another problem .On the end of one of the recirc runs I found that a tempering valve under the whirlpool had a stuck piston and was allowing warm water to mix with the cold.Bingo! that might have fixed the problem without me doing the additional work that I did.But now I am confident that the system is working very effeciently and there will be no shortage of how water..I did not think of taking any pictures but probably should have.I still might when I get back to the job and I will email you guys with them ..Feelfree to email me with any diagram that you think will help..But for right now it looks bulletproof..Thanks again [email protected] [img]null[/img]

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There are a million ways to do something wrong but only one way to do it right!

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