LaingLHB08100092 AutoCirc Recirculation Pump with Timer, 115 Volts

We had to wait several minutes for the water in kitchen sink to get warm, basically fill a two gallon bucket when I tested. This is very frustrating when you just want to wash your hands or rinse off a utensil. We explored cheaper options like putting a small hot water tank under the sink but even the smallest ones take up way too much room based on the measurements.We elected to go with this small pump unit because of the small size and because it would warm the water to other faucets in the house too. This pump does everything it was designed to do and works as expected. It is quiet and yes we can hear it running under the cupboard but it is not annoying at all. It was easy to plug in because we already had an outlet for a garbage disposal. We bought all new hoses and hooking these up was easy.When I first turned unit on I can hear it humming and working. It kept running and running for two to three times longer than if we were to run hot water out of the tap. It eventually shut off and I realized it just is not as much volume pushing through as if we turned on tap. No big deal at all and I was actually glad it isn’t pushing huge amounts of water through the line. I went to tap and it was immediately ready for use. No more waiting for water! I ran around and tested other sinks and they are all warm too!Now the water doesn’t come out piping hot after a cycle. Our water heater is set to a higher temp than the shut off setting on the pump. I understood this before purchase but the water is immediately usable. If you happen to catch it right after pump cycles it will be warmer. We don’t have a dedicated return line for the hot water so this was our best option and it performs as designed and the best it can do under the circumstances. Yes cold water is warmer now and we have to let it run for about two gallons to get back to normal cold temp. But we rarely go to sink wanting cold water. If we want cold water to drink we go to cold filtered water on refrigerator. So again without dedicated hot water return line there are sacrifices.There is a timer setting on the pump to tell it which hours of the day it will come on. There is a full on position to just run based on temperature of the water to tell it when to cycle and full off position. We leave it in full on.The other style pump from the manufacture has an adjustment to set the water temperature it comes on at. The instructions for this pump talk about that. The instructions say you can only set the on temperature and not the off temperature. So for that I am glad we didn’t spend the extra money on the other pump. This one works great!Edit: Added a smart plug to outlet so we could have more scheduling options between weekdays and weekends and night and day. Works great so far in not running when we are sleeping or letting run all day on weekends, but not weekdays. We can also ask Alexa to turn it on if we happen to be home during a workday and it is normally scheduled off. So there is some energy cost savings with this option.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about this device, but I've got a long run from the water heater to the bathroom sink. I thought about putting a little electric water heater tank under the sink, but then thought how it would do me no good for the shower, and for the other bathroom sink.I looked at a couple different devices. One was to be mounted by the hot water heater and involved a bit more plumbing than I'd prefer. It would certainly be easier to provide power to the unit in the unfinished area of the basement, so it's not a terrible idea. I believe that same unit or a similar one had a plastic housing - not among my preferred materials.The unit was REALLY easy to install under my bathroom sink. You will need to purchase at least two faucet supply lines. If your existing lines from shutoff valves to faucet are old, consider replacing them too. We ended up replacing old faucets at the same time. The new faucetsThe BIG lesson: I should have carefully figured which faucet is the last on the circuit. My logic told me the water would have come up from the finished basement directly to my spouse's sink, then over to mine and then to the shower. I should have taken a stopwatch to time hot water to each sink separately. As luck would have it, the water at my sink is nice and warm. Her sink is about 8 feet away and it takes another 15 seconds or so for the warm water to get to her once she turns her valve on. Same story with the shower. In both cases it's an improvement, but I clearly overcommitted to a solution that did not work as I imagined. Do your homework first!Second lesson: Sometimes an elegant solution can be better thought out.We're retired, so we don't have a real solid schedule for a morning or evening routine so I included a timer switch in the circuit. The timer switch allows me to immediately start the pump and let it run for a range of five minutes to four hours. I kind of like the approach and it works pretty well, with the exception of said spouse's access to hot water. The problem is that I decided (for some insane reason) to switch only the top outlet of the duplex pair. It resulted in too many wires in the box. Word to the wise - just switch the whole duplex or plan ahead for a deeper box.So, the routine is that the first one in the bath area in the morning or evening hits the switch to get the water circulating. Evening is easiest because we are more often in the bath area before bedtime. Hitting the 4 hour button works pretty good. The unit only consumes 13 watts, so it's not a big worry. I'm a bit more concerned about the radiator effect of the hot water circulating in the system. For those of you who are less obsessed with the absolute minimum pump time, just set the included timer for a reasonable time range in the morning and the evening. It will be just fine!One note: It takes somewhere around five minutes for the water to heat up at my sink. My assumption is the pump is not pushing a huge volume very quickly. The pump shuts off when the water reaches 91 degrees at my sink, so I assume the pump is coming on and off intermittently during my four hour evening window. Not a bad situation.In our area, sewer bills are directly related to water, so I expect we'll save on both bills. I doubt there will be a significant reduction, but feel conservation of water and reduction in sewer discharge is in all of our best interests.I have no qualms about recommending this Laing pump. The Laing web site will give you NO clues about where to purchase one. The big box stores don't stock them but you can order one from one of the big box stores. Amazon has the unit available and delivered in two days for the same price.I'd do this again if I need a retrofit unit in a house that does not have a dedicated return line to the water heater!