Watts Premier WP596816 Replacement Sensor Valve Kit for for Watts Hot Water Recirculating Pump, Silver

Large water system so attachments re-rerouted hot water better

I purchased the pump and one sensor valve years ago and it has and still works flawlessly, my only complaint had to do with the old fashion timer which is pretty much useless since I never really need the hot water at the same time everyday and whenever there are power outages, the timer stops and it needs to be reset. My water heater being in the garage, I usually have to move several things out of the way to access the pump and having the timer set for several hours to make sure you cover the time range at which you usually take showers is a waste of power (personally I had it ran for 2 to 3 hours in the morning and also in the evening). To alleviate this problem, I plugged the pump in a cheap WiFi connected plug (doesn't really matter what brand you use as long as you don't mind adding another app on your phone for the initial setup), I set the pump on the constant ON mode, then I purchased a couple of Echo buttons available for $20 on Amazon, created a routine in my Alexa app to turn ON the pump (via the connected plug), wait 10 min and then turn it OFF. Lastly, I setup the echo buttons to trigger the routine when I press on either one of the buttons, placed one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen, et voilà! Each time I really need the hot water, I press on one of the buttons, get my water almost instantly and I don't have to worry about power consumption knowing that 10 min later the pump will be OFF. Getting instant hot water when you need it and saving water and power at the same time! I highly recommend this product to anyone having to wait a few minutes to get hot water in the right places.

Fitted under sink in hot and cold water lines and cold water unable to travel thru unit. Tried second valve same result watts thermatic valves are rubbish.

We discovered the idea of water recirculation pumps in our prior house, and used it to cut the time needed to have hot water in our bathrooms located far away from our water heater. We moved that system to our new house, and it works well here too, except that now our kitchen water supply was also taking a long time to heat up. To fix that, I added this second valve kit, and all is now well in both our bathrooms and our kitchen. Note: for anyone unsure about installing this, we had a plumber do it for us in our previous house, and after watching how it was done figured I'd give it a try this time. The one gotcha is that it was not at all clear which end is which, so I managed to install this valve backwards initially, resulting in complete inability to ever get hot water in the kitchen. Once I reversed the direction of this valve, all was well again. (The basic idea is that this valve goes under the sink furthest from your water heater, and covers all the water outlets along the way. However, if you have a second main water path, as we did to our kitchen, you may need an extra of these valves.) One caution is that the threads on this valve are just plastic, so easy to mis-thread. Having been warned about that, I was careful and had no such problem. I've been told that these save energy by cutting wasted hot water. I can't confirm that, but can confirm they have not noticeably increased either our use of natural gas or of water, as our bills for both show very low usage. Definitely recommended!

I've had my Watts hot water recirculating pump for several years, 8 - 10 I guess. It really does a great job of getting the hot water to the far side of the house; I think that helps prevent the water lines from freezing. The only reason that I had to replace the original sensor was because I made the mistake of using plumbers putty on the sensor threads. When I changed the faucet and the lines, the connections seemed to be super glued, so I broke the sensor. As the instructions state, DO NOT USE PLUMBERS' PUTTY, etc., on the sensor threads. The metal fittings provided with the sensor were fine. There was a burr on one of the sensor threads. I was able to smooth it out with little a brass nut, and then used the provided hardware; no big deal. This sensor is apparently set to a higher temp than the previous sensor, but that's not a problem. The sensor is pricey, but it's worth it to me. When my original pump goes out, I'll get another pump, continue using the current sensor, and keep the sensor provided with the new pump as a spare.

I have reasons other than cost savings to have a hot water recirc system. I have an older Rinnai tankless hot water heater and when I first installed it at my kitchen sink, the heater didn't always come on when the pump started because the flow was apparently right at the lower limit. I checked the flow through the Rinnai (Google it for a key combination to do that) and saw the flow. I then decided to try adding a second valve kit at a bathroom at the same end of the house as the kitchen.to see if that would increase the flow and together they worked perfectly. The flow increased about 75% and is now more than enough to make the system work. I put the pump on a smart plug and used a Homekit automation to turn the pump on at certain times of the day. I also created automations to turn the pump for 10 minutes whenever the outside temperature is below 34 degrees and do it once every two hours until it warms up which it always does here in the southeast.