Hot Water only available in one shower at a time. Any Ideas?

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mattvds

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Super glad I found this forum. I've been having this issue for about 6 months, and am totally stumped.

We have done extensive remodeling over the past 2 years and added 2 additional bathrooms. I have a AO Smith Vertex water heater, with a dedicated recirc line.

The issue I'm having is that although all bathrooms work fine by themselves. But, if I run the bath or shower in either of the 2 new bathrooms, then the water in the sinks or other showers is cold (after 1-2 minutes of use). The temperature remains constant on the shower/tub that does have hot water, and coming out of the other locations, is cold (not even warm). Thinking it was a hot water flow issue, when testing in a sink that is getting cold water, I turned off the cold water, and the problem still persisted.

The plumber suggested that it was potentially water in the recirculation line, which doesn't make sense, as I don't have any issues with the hot water unless there is another shower/tub in use.

One thing to note, is that I feel like the recirc was installed incorrectly, as they didn't use the recirc hook-ups on the water heater, and just fed it in a loop with the hot water line. Which I'm not sure is causing this issue, but might be causing the recirc water to not be of the proper temperature.

Any ideas about what might be causing this?

I have attached an image of the water heater/recirc hookup.

Thanks!
 

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Smooky

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The hot water return line should have gone to the cold water line or back to the drain on the heater or to the lower side connection, not back to the hot water line. My guess is something else is also crossed. Have you tried unplugging the pump and closing the valve for that hot water return line to see if that makes a difference? Do you know what the flow rate is on the recirculating pump? Does the pump run all the time or is there an aquastat or timer that shuts it off ?
 
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mattvds

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That's what I expected. I don't know the flow rate, but it does have a timer but I have it set to always circulate, so it never turns off.

I will attempt closing the return line valve and see if that makes a difference.
 

mattvds

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Sorry, realized I mistyped what the plumber thought the issue was:

"The plumber suggested that it was potentially air in the recirculation line, which doesn't make sense, as I don't have any issues with the hot water unless there is another shower/tub in use."
 

mattvds

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OK, turning off the valve and unplugging the recirc pump results in not being able to see the problem. All faucets receive hot water, although the amount is lessened with each thing I turn on, until I eventually run out of hot water, and the water heater can't keep up.

The weird thing is reopening the valve and using a hose attached to the line by the water heater also resulted in cold water coming out, much colder than what I was seeing in the faucets. So looks like somewhere along the recirc line after the bathrooms, cold water is being dumped into the return line? Or is there some other thing which would cause this?
 

Smooky

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It could be a bad shower valve. The problem is probably a worn cartridge at a single handle shower. ... Do you have any extra shut off valves on showers or any other hot and cold faucet?
 
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