I just did a shower remodel and it’s extremely difficult to get the flow rates for these things. Even just with a normal shower head, plus rain head, and a single wand, I can empty the 50 gallon hot water tank in about 10 minutes. These crazy drowner showers practically require parallel tankless heaters to supply 10+ gpm.
They have a thing I think is called a water mixing valve. You crank your tank way up. The valve mixes cold and super hot water to what would be normal hot water. This makes the hot water tank last a lot longer. We have one, and both kids can take showers/baths at the same time. And I can shower after and still have hot water.
The overall flow and pressure of course is still not enough to run more than two shower heads at the same time without noticing. But that’s a different issue.
You need to be really careful turning up your heater unless you’ve got safety mechanisms on every faucet. Even just 140F will scald a stupid kid/adult/worker in seconds. Many people get disfigured and sued every year over this. 125-130F is about as high as you should go unless you have protection everywhere.
The mixing valve mixs in cold water to the hot water coming out to bring the temp down to where you choose. 140 water never leaves the valve, which is mounted on the exit from the hot water heater. The design is super simple, so failure is very unlikely. But it is designed to fail to full cold.
The part on the left is the mixing valve, you attach it to the output of your hot water heater. The part on the right is just a basic T junction you out on the inlet to the hot water heater so you have a source of cold water for the mixing valve.
I just did a shower remodel and it’s extremely difficult to get the flow rates for these things. Even just with a normal shower head, plus rain head, and a single wand, I can empty the 50 gallon hot water tank in about 10 minutes. These crazy drowner showers practically require parallel tankless heaters to supply 10+ gpm.
They have a thing I think is called a water mixing valve. You crank your tank way up. The valve mixes cold and super hot water to what would be normal hot water. This makes the hot water tank last a lot longer. We have one, and both kids can take showers/baths at the same time. And I can shower after and still have hot water. The overall flow and pressure of course is still not enough to run more than two shower heads at the same time without noticing. But that’s a different issue.
You need to be really careful turning up your heater unless you’ve got safety mechanisms on every faucet. Even just 140F will scald a stupid kid/adult/worker in seconds. Many people get disfigured and sued every year over this. 125-130F is about as high as you should go unless you have protection everywhere.
The mixing valve mixs in cold water to the hot water coming out to bring the temp down to where you choose. 140 water never leaves the valve, which is mounted on the exit from the hot water heater. The design is super simple, so failure is very unlikely. But it is designed to fail to full cold.
I have never heard of a whole home mixing valve. That sounds like it would be a pretty complicated retrofit.
Nope, super simple. I could theoretically even do it myself. I didn’t but it is that simple. This looks a lot like the one I have. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Honeywell-Home-AMX300TLF-DirectConnect-Water-Heater-Kit/5018636545?user=shopping&feed=yes
The part on the left is the mixing valve, you attach it to the output of your hot water heater. The part on the right is just a basic T junction you out on the inlet to the hot water heater so you have a source of cold water for the mixing valve.
Ah but the super hot water heaters are also the bomb!
I honestly had never considered this…
Does anybody make a good recirculation system? Basically take the guts of a jet tub and put the jets on the wall.
The noise from the pump alone… Great idea tho lol
Wouldn’t be able to hear the pump over the sound of water blasting my ear canals from three different angles