Replacement Sensor Valve Kit

I purchased the pump and one sensor valve years ago and it has and still works flawlessly, my only complaint had to do with the old fashion timer which is pretty much useless since I never really need the hot water at the same time everyday and whenever there are power outages, the timer stops and it needs to be reset. My water heater being in the garage, I usually have to move several things out of the way to access the pump and having the timer set for several hours to make sure you cover the time range at which you usually take showers is a waste of power (personally I had it ran for 2 to 3 hours in the morning and also in the evening). To alleviate this problem, I plugged the pump in a cheap WiFi connected plug (doesn't really matter what brand you use as long as you don't mind adding another app on your phone for the initial setup), I set the pump on the constant ON mode, then I purchased a couple of Echo buttons available for $20 on Amazon, created a routine in my Alexa app to turn ON the pump (via the connected plug), wait 10 min and then turn it OFF. Lastly, I setup the echo buttons to trigger the routine when I press on either one of the buttons, placed one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen, et voilà! Each time I really need the hot water, I press on one of the buttons, get my water almost instantly and I don't have to worry about power consumption knowing that 10 min later the pump will be OFF. Getting instant hot water when you need it and saving water and power at the same time! I highly recommend this product to anyone having to wait a few minutes to get hot water in the right places.

We discovered the idea of water recirculation pumps in our prior house, and used it to cut the time needed to have hot water in our bathrooms located far away from our water heater. We moved that system to our new house, and it works well here too, except that now our kitchen water supply was also taking a long time to heat up. To fix that, I added this second valve kit, and all is now well in both our bathrooms and our kitchen. Note: for anyone unsure about installing this, we had a plumber do it for us in our previous house, and after watching how it was done figured I'd give it a try this time. The one gotcha is that it was not at all clear which end is which, so I managed to install this valve backwards initially, resulting in complete inability to ever get hot water in the kitchen. Once I reversed the direction of this valve, all was well again. (The basic idea is that this valve goes under the sink furthest from your water heater, and covers all the water outlets along the way. However, if you have a second main water path, as we did to our kitchen, you may need an extra of these valves.) One caution is that the threads on this valve are just plastic, so easy to mis-thread. Having been warned about that, I was careful and had no such problem. I've been told that these save energy by cutting wasted hot water. I can't confirm that, but can confirm they have not noticeably increased either our use of natural gas or of water, as our bills for both show very low usage. Definitely recommended!

I've had my Watts hot water recirculating pump for several years, 8 - 10 I guess. It really does a great job of getting the hot water to the far side of the house; I think that helps prevent the water lines from freezing. The only reason that I had to replace the original sensor was because I made the mistake of using plumbers putty on the sensor threads. When I changed the faucet and the lines, the connections seemed to be super glued, so I broke the sensor. As the instructions state, DO NOT USE PLUMBERS' PUTTY, etc., on the sensor threads. The metal fittings provided with the sensor were fine. There was a burr on one of the sensor threads. I was able to smooth it out with little a brass nut, and then used the provided hardware; no big deal. This sensor is apparently set to a higher temp than the previous sensor, but that's not a problem. The sensor is pricey, but it's worth it to me. When my original pump goes out, I'll get another pump, continue using the current sensor, and keep the sensor provided with the new pump as a spare.

I purchased this item to replace a sensor valve that had been in service for years. The old sensor valve stopped working and needed replaced. I ordered this kit because I wanted to install all new hardware along with the new sensor valve. The item arrived very quickly from the supplier and was in perfect new condition. I unpacked the new sensor valve, fittings, and hoses and dry fitted the fittings onto the sensor valve. One 1/2" to 3/8" adapter threaded on fine. The other adapter would not thread on without cross threading. I tried the good adapter on both sides of the sensor valve and it worked perfectly. Since I was replacing an existing sensor valve I just used one of the old adapters on the new valve. Installation was a breeze since I was just replacing an existing sensor valve. I am disappointed in the quality of the adapters supplied by Watts, but I guess you have to expect that when they are using low bid junk from China. If you are using this kit to install a new sensor valve at another location do yourself a favor and attempt to dry fit the adapters before you crawl under the sink and start tearing the plumbing apart. If the adapter starts to cross thread don't force it, just throw the hunk of junk away, go to your local plumbing/hardware store and buy another adapter. All in all the entire system with the pump works great to get hot water at the furthest fixture.

After purchasing the Watts hot water recirculating pump to deliver instant warm water to our master bathroom on the opposite side of our 1800 sqft home with a crawlspace in Georgia, I was instantly spoiled and looked into how I can have the same in our kitchen that was farther down our plumbing line path. After installing an aftermarket unit thinking that I can save 50$, I was instantly disappointed. The product was clearly subpar and did not deliver instant hot water. I immediately scheduled a refund from Amazon for this 30 dollar part, and ordered this OEM Watts bypass Sensor valve kit. Unless you are using an impact driver to install your fittings, I can't see how this would break. The fittings are sealed by a gasket and therefore only require a quarter turn past finger tight as per the manufacturer instruction. I ignored these instructions and turned about 3/8 of a turn and used a decent level of torque on "finger tight" and had no issue. This product compared to an aftermarket bypass valve was night and day. Instant hot water to the faucet, and despite the warm water in the cold water faucet (obvious hazard when installing a bypass valve) I am more than pleased. Don't waste your time installing a junk aftermarket brand. No leakage and even with the obstructions under my kitchen sink the level of difficulty of the install was intro level. Just make sure to turn off your water stops and tighten all your fittings before you turn them back on!

I have reasons other than cost savings to have a hot water recirc system. I have an older Rinnai tankless hot water heater and when I first installed it at my kitchen sink, the heater didn't always come on when the pump started because the flow was apparently right at the lower limit. I checked the flow through the Rinnai (Google it for a key combination to do that) and saw the flow. I then decided to try adding a second valve kit at a bathroom at the same end of the house as the kitchen.to see if that would increase the flow and together they worked perfectly. The flow increased about 75% and is now more than enough to make the system work. I put the pump on a smart plug and used a Homekit automation to turn the pump on at certain times of the day. I also created automations to turn the pump for 10 minutes whenever the outside temperature is below 34 degrees and do it once every two hours until it warms up which it always does here in the southeast.

What I liked is that this valve was a perfect replacement for a 12 year old predecessor that just stopped working. In my opinion any gadget that has been working 24/7 for 12 years has performed well. The replacement was EXACTLY the same as the original, making installation simple. Yes, the mechanism looks like a cheap plastic tube, but what that little gadget does is worth every penny.

This is the second valve I've installed in my house. The first came with the pump that I installed onto the hot water heater. I installed the first valve in our master bedroom, which is on the second floor and opposite end of the house. The hot water heater is in the basement, so it's about as far away as you can get and still be in the house. I liked it so much that I decided to put this one in the kitchen, because I was tired of waiting for hot water at the kitchen sink in the morning. My bathroom sink has two discreet on/off valves, and I was a little worried that some people have said that installing it in a sink where there is a single valve for hot and cold, which is how the kitchen faucet is, would cause an issue where it would take much longer to get cold water from the cold water side, but it hasn't been a problem for me. I'm in the northeast, so getting warm water quickly is a much bigger gain than the issue of having to wait a couple of seconds for colder water. BTW, I have my pump set on timer, with it pumping from 5am-10am, and then again from about 5pm-10pm. That covers our high-use time, and once the pipes are "primed" with hot water from using it, I don't need it pumping during the middle of the day, even on weekends when we're home more. I haven't tried to figure how much water it's saving me, but I can tell you its very nice to be able to turn on the shower in the morning and get warm water instantly.

Large water system so attachments re-rerouted hot water better

Fitted under sink in hot and cold water lines and cold water unable to travel thru unit. Tried second valve same result watts thermatic valves are rubbish.