Does anyone know about plumbing? Since moving to our new place (1911 bungalow) I've noticed that the water takes an awfully long time to heat up. The pipes are new copper, according to the inspector. Once it gets hot, it's nice and hot. The water pressure is also not great, but I can live with that. <br> <br>However, waiting for the water to heat up is really irksome. Anyone know of common reasons this might happen?

How long are the pipe runs from the water heater to the faucet. If they are quite long, and not used very often, it can take a while to clear the water in the pipes and replace it with water from the heater. The water in the pipes will cool off pretty quickly. My bathroom is on the other side of the house from the water heater, and it takes a good 15-20 seconds with the tap wide open before it feels warm. If your water pressure is low, it will take longer for the water to move through the pipes. It doesn't sound like the problem is with you water heater as once the water starts to run hot it is the right temperature. I'm not sure if there is anything that can be done. I've heard of auxilliary water heaters placed near where the water is needed, but that sounds complcated and expensive.

Ahhhhh.. that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the information, Greg.

Wrap your hot water pipes with closed cell insulation ("pipe wrap"). I think it comes in 10 ft. lengths and is sized by the pipe size, if you have 1/2" pipes, buy 1/2" pipe wrap. It'll hold in the heat between uses so it won't take so long to warm back up. As a side benefit your water heater won't have to fire up as often so it saves energy, too. It's especially good if your water pipes run through an unheated basement from the water heater. Unwrapped copper transfers the heat from the water to the air very quickly.

fyi, if your water pressure is low and you have newer plumbing within the house, you might want to talk to someone about getting a new main water line into the house. when i replaced the pipe from the street to the house in a home i owned several years ago, it made a world of difference in water pressure.

I'm no expert when it comes to plumbing, but would a recirculation pump help with the temp problem? We just had all of our pipes replaced and our contractor installed one of these pumps at the same time. As I understand it, the pump keeps recirculating hot water through the pipes and back to the hot water heater. As a result, the water in the pipes is always kept hot. Seems to be working well for us...our second floor shower water runs hot after only about five seconds, even though our water heater is located in the basement. May want to talk to a local plumbing contractor to see if this will help you. I beleive it will also save on your water bills, because you only need to let the hot water run briefly before it actually gets hot. <br> <br>Good luck! <br> <br>JH

Joseph, we've done a similar thing with recirculating hot water, but it works without a pump, strictly with convection. Don't ask me to explain it, but it works great. We've had it in our last two houses. We not only did it our bathrooms, but also put it in the kitchen so that the first water that comes into the dishwasher is hot.