There's a Ladybug in my Shower now

[sudsmaster]

And it's a good thing!

Seriously, I got a little device at OSH today... it's a temperature activated shut off valve, that you mount between your favorite shower head (or handheld shower wand) and the water supply pipe.

The idea is this: it allows you to run the hot water in the shower in the morning to purge the lines. When the water temp reaches 95F, it shuts off the flow to just a trickle. This means you don't have to monitor the flow and if you forget for a bit, you're not wasting a lot of hot water because you didn't jump in the shower quick enough.

Anyway, I installed it this afternoon and it's simple enough. Seems to work just fine, too.

Here's a link to their website. They have full shower heads and handheld shower wands with the device built-in, as well.

http://evolveshowerheads.com/ladybug_showerhead.html

 

[sudsmaster]

Forgot to add: after the water reaches the hot temp, you can just pull a little chain and the water flow goes to max. So you don't have to try to shower under a little trickle, lol...

 

[sudsmaster]

Hmmm

Maybe if I titled this

"There's a Misterbug in my shower now"

this thread would have gotten a response.

But the product name is "the Ladybug". Why, I don't know. It doesn't look like a ladybug.

Oh, and it's day 2 of using it. Seems to work like a charm. I like not having to worry about when the hot water hits the shower head.

 

[tristarcxl]

I guess I'm just that special!

I have a patented system for timing the hot water in my shower....

Step 1: Walk in bathroom.
Step 2: Turn shower on "Hot"
Step 3: Undress
Step 4: Use Facility
Step 5: Stick hand in shower to detect arriving hot water
Step 6: Wait for water to get all the way hot, then adjust and enter
Step 7: Vegetate for 15-20 minutes....

Works every time! Hot water heater is on a timer, so it never even cycles on until supper time anyway!

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, I shower every morning, and usually time is of the essence so I appreciate not having to hang by the shower checking the temp. And here in CA we're still in a drought situation, so I like to try to save water (and energy) but not over-running the hot tap for the shower.

The only thing I noticed this morning is that when I shut off the shower to lather up etc, I had to pull the chain again to get full flow. A minor quibble. I'll get used to it soon enough.

 

[mielabor]

Just out of curiousity: how long does it take for the hot water to reach the shower? I must say that I have never been in a place where I turned the shower on, then undress and do other things, and then still had to wait for the hot water.

 

[sudsmaster]

How long does it take? It depends. If I've used the hot water in the kitchen then it takes a bit less time. But in general without this device it generally starts running hot before I can get back to it in time to shut it off. This device avoids that problem.

 

[mielabor]

OK, but what I wanted to say is that I cannot think of a situation where I would need such a device as I have never encountered a shower where one can go away while waiting for the hot water. So: does it take minutes or seconds for the hot water to arrive? If it takes minutes a heater closer to the shower should be installed as a lot of (hot) water is wasted, even with the device.

 

[foraloysius]

Actually my water heater (combo with boiler for the central heating) is close to the shower but it takes ages before the system gets heated up. Probably because it's nineteen years old and the housing company refuses to replace it...

 

[mielabor]

Ah Louis, that is probably the same heater that my mother has. Well, then you don't need the device either as it is permanently in trickle mode!

 

[foraloysius]

Permanently trickle mode it is indeed, especially in the winter when the water is colder and the need for hot water is bigger. Here's a picture of my Vaillant.

 

[foraloysius]

And a picture of the innards.

 

[mielabor]

It's not the same. Is yours condensing?

 

[sudsmaster]

The water heater here is about 30 feet from the shower - except the piping takes a most circuitous route to get there (it goes halfway to the kitchen first, for example). I would estimate that it takes 2-3 minutes on a cold morning to get hot water in the shower and if the kitchen hot water hasn't been drawn to full heat yet.

It's not just the time - it's not having to worry about when the hot water will arrive, not having to wait around for it, and being able to send for it in advance and have it waiting later without wasting a lot of water.

Perhaps you're unfamiliar with American style tank water heaters. These are quite bulky, and in this are, they have to be secured to the frame of the building so they don't fall over in an earthquake. There isn't a convenient way to relocate the current water heater closer to the shower - although the older shower in the original part of the house is much closer to the water heater so no device is needed there (and I rarely use that bathroom anyway). An on-demand water heater could work but I'm not prepared for that expense at present.

Instead I've insulated the heck out of the water tank and the pipes that meander under the house. I actually have a stack of new copper pipe to upgrade the plumbing... make it more straightforward at the same time. That might help get hot water to the shower faster, but I'll probably still keep the Ladybug anyway.

Plus the Ladybug cost all of $30. A new water heater and the associated installation/plumbing cost might cost anywhere from $600 to $3000.

 

[brisnat81]

I've got another solution to this problem.

In the mornings I brush my teeth from the hot tap, Wet the brush, put toothpaste on, wet again, turn tap off. Brush, turn tap on, spit and rinse.

Usually by the time I've finished rinsing, the water is hot at the tap and I then fill the basin for Shaving. Then the water is hot in the shower as soon as I turn the tap on.

 

[sudsmaster]

I don't drink water from the hot tap. Not even just to wet the toothbrush. Not safe.

Plus I'd have to run the hot tap at the basin for 2-3 minutes full blast to warm it up. I'd have to offer to wet the toothbrushes of the entire neighborhood, and that would get needlessly complicated.

 

[brisnat81]

Are they Half or 3/4" pipes?

Most Hotwater pipes here are 1/4" or 1/2" to reduce the amount of hot water that cools in the pipes.

Our hot water rises 3 stories up and 15 feet across to reach my bathroom and even with a 4L/min aerator, it takes about 60-90seconds to be hot.

 

[favorit]

Vaillant

Louis, I had a new Vaillant installed last october ... it really has no more such problems

Mielelabor, why do you have an electric water heater (as you said in the hand-dishwashing thread ? Wouldn't be cheaper running a combo (water/radiators) condensation gas heater ?

 

[sudsmaster]

The pipes are all 1/2", a combination of steel and copper.

The route they take is quite circuitous, so it's probably more like 60 feet of water travel between the heater and the shower.

When I replumb the house, I'll shorten the runs considerably by making them more direct. But I'm also planning on running 3/4" copper main lines for both hot and cold water along the "backbone". From there, 1/2" lines to the various facilities will be branched. I'm doing this in part to address the drop in flow when a toilet is flushed or a clothes washer is run. I'll put extra insulation on all the pipes so once the water is up to temp it should stay that way for a while (it's not bad now, however, since all the lines are already insulated, just not as thick as I'm planning for the future).

I'm also planning on adding more water service to various areas around the house that could accomodate a washer - such as in the enclosed patio, on the covered outdoor patio, even on the side of the house with a large paved parking area (for testing washers, of coure. Both hot and cold!

Eventually I may get an on-demand gas water heater, but it will be about 150 feet from the main house in a separate building that houses the workshop. Right now there's gas and cold water service out there, as well as 220 electric. So I only run washers that have robust internal heaters (Miele) out there now. A smallish on-demand water heater would probably do just fine.

 

[mielabor]

@ favorit...

Hot water from a condensing combo gas heater would certainly be cheaper, but I don't have central heating! For some years now the owner of the building that I live in has the policy of installing a combo heater with central heating in apartments that become vacant. As it happens a few weeks ago such a system was installed in the apartment just under mine. I have seen it and I must say that I was not happy to see all those steel pipes running everywhere: over the ceilings, along the walls. And the heater itself was installed in the kitchen, taking up valuable space in that already tiny area. My new neighbours said that they intend to use the pipes as rails for mounting spotlights!

 

[rp2813]

The shower at the rear of our house is the one I use. It's quite a distance from the tank style water heater and takes forever to get hot water out of it. It's a stall shower with a low flow head so there is no option to run a full flow tub spout to speed things up. I run the tap at the sink to help get the cold water purged from the pipes faster. Ideally, I'd like to install an on-demand type of heater at that end of the house. With the Affinity pair in that same area, and considering how little water the washer uses (too little in my opinion), if one didn't run the hot water at the laundry sink first, selecting "hot" or "warm" on the washer settings would result in a cold water wash. I don't think the Affinity's on board heater kicks in except on the "Sanitary" cycle but I may be wrong about that. Regardless, an on-demand heater would resolve this issue for both the washer and the shower. Just too expensive to consider currently.

Ralph

 

[yogitunes]

I have the same problem....hot water heater is on opposite side of the house...so that would be about 60 feet of 3/4 pipe to get the hot water to the master bath....now the plumber has given me options, a re-circulation pump and another pipe to keep hot water at the tpas at all time, suposed to operate at very low wattage, second was an on-demand heater, works really good for a shower or kitchen sink and dishwasher, but you can't run all at the same time, shower heads and faucets run a 2.5 gallons per minute this allows time for the water to hat up, but this would not work to fill the jacuzzi at full force, third is to install another hot water heater at the other end of the house to operate the master bath and the kitchen and the first one will take care of the 2 baths and 3 washers...we have a 50 gal gas fired unit now, never ran out of hot water, just hate the thought of wasting water waiting for it to get hot!

RP2813....for the frigidaire washer, we can't tweek the water level the way we want...but a thought, would putting a longer hose for the pressure switch make it add more water cause the pressure in the hose would take a little longer to reach max....say about 5 or 10 feet of coiled hose laying on the bottom of the machine? I was wondering about this....

 

[yogitunes]

I have the same problem....hot water heater is on opposite side of the house...so that would be about 60 feet of 3/4 pipe to get the hot water to the master bath....now the plumber has given me options, a re-circulation pump and another pipe to keep hot water at the tpas at all time, suposed to operate at very low wattage, second was an on-demand heater, works really good for a shower or kitchen sink and dishwasher, but you can't run all at the same time, shower heads and faucets run a 2.5 gallons per minute this allows time for the water to hat up, but this would not work to fill the jacuzzi at full force, third is to install another hot water heater at the other end of the house to operate the master bath and the kitchen and the first one will take care of the 2 baths and 3 washers...we have a 50 gal gas fired unit now, never ran out of hot water, just hate the thought of wasting water waiting for it to get hot!

RP2813....for the frigidaire washer, we can't tweek the water level the way we want...but a thought, would putting a longer hose for the pressure switch make it add more water cause the pressure in the hose would take a little longer to reach max....say about 5 or 10 feet of coiled hose laying on the bottom of the machine? I was wondering about this.... the hose would have to be shortened/lenghtened to adjust level?

 

[sudsmaster]

I timed how long the shower takes to get hot water this morning... it's about 1-1/2 minutes. Too long, IMHO, to stand there waiting with my hand in the shower for the temp to come up. Also, it's a shower stall with a low threshold, so I prefer to run it with the door closed. Otherwise it tends to splash on the floor outside the shower if I have to stand there with the door open and my hand in the stream to detect when the hot water arrives.

Anyway, the Ladybug shower water temperature sensor shut off valve is a keeper in my home.

Your flow may vary.

 

[rp2813]

Yogi I haven't tried anything with my Affinity to get more water in, other than adding it manually through the detergent dispenser from a large spouted mixing bowl. The hose for the spray attachment on the laundry sink next to it is too short to reach, or that would be convenient. Basically, if I can hear water sloshing I figure there's enough in there, even though I see very little suds developing. When I don't hear the sloshing, that's when I add more water myself. I've been told there's an adjustment somewhere that will allow it to fill more, but I don't know where that would be.

Should the time come to re-work the laundry area, I'm going to make it so it will accomodate a Duet pair. Those washers are far superior to the Affinities with options and with their rinsing action. I've owned both types and there is no contest, really. Our current laundry room situation required a pair with a standard footprint so we had to go with Affinities. I'm tolerating it but wish our Duets would have fit in there instead.

Ralph

 

[sudsmaster]

I did some googling of adjusting the water level in a front loader... and came up with some discussions about the Duet/HE# series, but nothing on the Affinity so far. But I figure there must be a pressure dome type of sensor somewhere in the Affinity, and that it must be adjustable, either by a screw like on the Duet or by height of a pressure tube, like in older top loaders.

Probably would have to take apart an Affinity to see if it could be done.