Recirculation Pump for Tankless Water Heater

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Chainplate

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We did a major remodel about 15 years ago and the contractor installed a tankless water heater with a dedicated return line for a recirculation pump. The pump he installed was a Laing UCT-909 which is now 'obsolete' and I can't find it anywhere. My question is this: Since I have a bathroom on the second story, do I need to select a replacement pump that has a 'head' of about 12 feet? The pump is installed in the crawl space under the floor of the ground floor.

Also, pump prices are all over the place. Is it possible to get a reliable product for $100? Unfortunately, I'm not a plumber nor can I afford one so I'll have to make this repair myself. Thanks for the help.
 

Breplum

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Broadly speaking, because it is a closed loop hot water system, head should not be a factor.
Crap shoot on Chinese pumps.
I understand your dilemma, Grundfos, Taco and all good mfrs pump prices seem outrageous.
Save up and consider upgrading to a Navien NPE A series with built in pump, and smart systems options for remote triggering of the pump.
Built in aquastat too.
 

Tuttles Revenge

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Do you have a picture of the pump?

I had a Taco pump built into a unit that had gone bad.. supplier told me it was discontinued. But I found a similar taco pump and just wired it the same as the OEM model and worked fine. Might be able to find one on Ebay and swap it.
 

Tuttles Revenge

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Looked up your model.. never seen that one installed so following info is probably not going to work.

Near $300 and if its a similar model that threads onto the same housing, then you don't have to swap the body.

 

Jadnashua

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A circulator for potable water needs to be made out of non-ferrous metals, typically stainless steel, brass, or bronze, and those are much more expensive than a circulator used for hydronic heating purposes. Using a hydronic heating pump will cause it to quickly eat itself up.
 

John Gayewski

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That's not how a circulator works. The height isn't an issue and isn't used to figure the head. A ferris wheel doesn't lift anything and neither does a circulator. All of the water that goes up also comes back down.

Head calculation is based on linear feet of pipe. The pump must only over come the fiction inside of the pipe at speed.
 
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