It takes a few minutes for my tankless water heater to warm up, so we end up wasting a lot of water in our shower. Is there a way to avoid this? A friend mentioned a “comfort valve” or something? What is it and how does it work? Or is there another solution? Thx!
If wiring and plumbing allow, install another tankless heater closer to the shower. I just put one into my one bedroom apartment and it was reasonably simple and small.
Unfortunately, the shower has no exposed plumbing and the gas line is back near the ground floor heater.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shower in the US (assuming you’re in the US) without access to the plumbing somewhere, I’m sure they probably exist somewhere, but it’s not common in my experience, usually there’s a little access panel on the other side of the wall somewhere, maybe hidden in a closet or behind a piece of furniture or something. If there’s not, I’d consider adding one anyway, at some point if you’re there long enough you’re probably going to want access to it for some issue or project that comes up down the line.
They make small tankless electric water heaters that run off of regular 110V outlets for heating a single sink or shower, if there’s convenient electrical nearby you may be able to just hook one of those up.
The house I purchased is the first time I’ve ever even seen access to shower pipes. I’ve got an access panel in my closet to a space above the garage that has access to the ones for the guest bath. I’m pretty sure it’s not intentional either since the space goes to the master bath as well yet the shower is set up in a way that doesn’t have access.
In my experience you usually have to tear out parts of a wall to access shower/tub plumbing. Definitely seems dumb now that someone pointed it out.
Cheapskate subdivision builders commonly build on concrete slabs anymore with no way to access plumbing.
You’ll have to relocate the heater closer to the shower. You can have someone run the gas line to the new location. That’s about all you can do.
You could insulate the hot water pipe, but that will only help when the water in the pipe is already hot, like if someone showered earlier. It only extends the time the water already in the pipe remains hot.
