eliminating unnecessary water line

[Jrider]

I have struggled with how much water needs to run until I get hot water from the bathroom faucet. The water heater is about 5' from the water heater to the faucet, but following the line from the water heater it travels to the front of the trailer behind the Nautilus panel (about 8-10 feet) where there is a T in the line. One leg of the T sends the water back (8 to 10 feet) to where is started by the water heater then splits to the bathroom sink, shower then on to the kitchen sink. The other part of the T services the faucet on the Nautilus panel. Is there any reason why I can't remove the loop in the hot water line (about 16-20 feet) of what I see as unnecessary line and just T into the fixture line by the water heater? It would shorten the supply lines to the bathroom sink, shower and kitchen sink considerably. It would not change the length to the faucet at the Nautilus panel. As I see it, it would not effect the function of the red lever when it is turned to send cold water or anti-freeze to the hot water taps.
Thank you for your time.

[howson]

I have struggled with how much water needs to run until I get hot water from the bathroom faucet. The water heater is about 5' from the water heater to the faucet, but following the line from the water heater it travels to the front of the trailer behind the Nautilus panel (about 8-10 feet) where there is a T in the line. One leg of the T sends the water back (8 to 10 feet) to where is started by the water heater then splits to the bathroom sink, shower then on to the kitchen sink. The other part of the T services the faucet on the Nautilus panel. Is there any reason why I can't remove the loop in the hot water line (about 16-20 feet) of what I see as unnecessary line and just T into the fixture line by the water heater? It would shorten the supply lines to the bathroom sink, shower and kitchen sink considerably. It would not change the length to the faucet at the Nautilus panel. As I see it, it would not effect the function of the red lever when it is turned to send cold water or anti-freeze to the hot water taps.
Thank you for your time.

Buried in a (very) long thread is a conversation where an owner did just what you suggest. Boucon did not include any pictures or diagrams, but if you start with where he joined the conversation (link to post 144! ) and follow the conversation through post 150 you should get an idea of what (and how) he accomplished what you're asking and the "gotcha" when it comes to winterization and sanitizing.

Please post any follow-up questions in this thread as the other one is way too long to reference your specific issue.

Also, welcome to the forum! Good job on the signature line.

Howard

[Jrider]

Thank you for the information. It helped. I did check that the line coming out of the water heater does have a check valve on it. You can see in the picture the line from the water heater after the check valve heads down to the underbelly. The line coming out of the underbelly, is the returning line that T's off to the shower, then T's again to feed the bathroom sink and the clothes washer. In the second picture, the red striped hose in the foreground is the line from the water heater. Then it T's. The red striped hose heading left is the return line heading back to the bathroom and kitchen fixtures. The other side of the T changes to a short pex tube then T's to the Nautilus hot water tap and to the red Nautilus handle. The only other fitting in the loop from the water heater, then back to the fixtures is a T for a low point drain. It appears to me, with the check valve in place, I should be fine eliminating the long leg to the front of the trailer and T into the return line to supply hot water to all fixtures. At least that's what I see.

Thanks again for your help.

[KamFlyer]

Our Solitude has about a 20' run from the HWT to the bathroom vanity. It would take about 20-30 seconds to get hot water to that faucet.
I chose to use a hot water circulation pump to solve the issue. As there is no or minimal pressure differential between the hot and cold lines, you can use the cold line as the return line.
I documented it here > https://rctravels.rmcd.ca/p/hot-wate...tion-pump.html
Now I hit the pump for 20 seconds or so and have hot water without wasting any more than a cup or so.
An alternate solution is if you mostly run off the fresh water tank as we do and if you have an easy path from the bathroom to the tank, you can install a 12V diverter valve in the hot side supply line at the sink and direct the resultant flow back to the fresh tank with a new line. We did this on our old Carriage Cameo which worked great with that rig.

Rob-

[Jrider]

Just a quick update. The weather finally became favorable to work on the trailers waterline and get a trip in as well. Rob, thank you for the info. I will keep it for future reference.
I was able to eliminate the long loop in the hot water line to the bathroom and kitchen taps. I was also able to add pipe insulation to the hot water line while I had the trailer belly open. I’m hoping it will help to hold the heat in the water line. During our trip, we noticed great improvement with the hot water.

Jim