2023 Hot Water Recirculation / Kitchen and Shower

Our 2023 Grand Design Reflection 297RSTS came with the Furion Tankless Water Heater. We have also had the traditional Gas/Electric water heaters before.

After a few weeks playing with it we had two issues.

1. Wasted a lot of water into the holding tank to get hot water. Not hateful but more than we were used to.

2. The distance from the water heater to the kitchen island sink took almost 2 mins to get hot water suitable for doing dishes in cooler weather. The freshwater tank temperature affects the time to heat the water.

In our previous rig I had already researched adding hot water recirculation device, called the ShowerMiser. Thankfully the wife decided to sell it before I did this modification.

I contacted https://showermiser.com/ and they were great to work with.

I sent them photos of my fixtures in the shower and kitchen sink and they emailed me the best options.
Here are the models that work for that unit:

Shower choices

SMMM02

SMEBM01

SMM001

 

Sink choices (Looks like Chrome?)

SKC002

If Brushed Nickel

SKB002

 If you have any additional questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Gus Searcy

Aqua View Inc.

Office: 714-485-5904

www.Aquaviewinc.com

I purchased these based on the recommendation:

• SMMM02 SHOWERMI$ER Mushroom Matte Black

• SKB002* SINKMI$ER Brushed Nickel Unit for Home/Commercial

SHOWER Install

    For the shower, I was able to run the recirculation line to the underbelly from the rear of the shower using the closet that also can house a washer and dryer.

Turn the valve to recirculate and it will circulate water from the fresh tank through the water heater and back to the fresh tank until you change the control valve to send it to the fixture. - No Wasted water anywhere.

SINK Install

 I chose not to install the control valve on the countertop because I was uncomfortable with the clearance. So I made a bracket and installed it inside the cabinet.

Turn the valve to recirculate and it will circulate water from the fresh tank through the water heater and back to the fresh tank until you change the control valve to send it to the fixture. - No Wasted water anywhere.

The most difficult part of the installation was dropping the underbelly and running the additional pex lines from the shower valve and sink valve to the input side of the freshwater tank NOT the input to the water pump.

Current Observations:

• This is working well enough that would not want to be without it. It does what we want. The wife and I like different temperatures for a shower and we like 104 degrees Fahrenheit for dishes. So we leave the thermostat set at 104 and add cold as we desire to shower.

• Restroom Sink - I did not add a recirculation valve to the restroom sink because it is easy to just recirculate the shower and the sick is close enough to be effective. You will want to shut off the shower recirculation before opening the sick fixture because the factory pump is designed to supply only one fixture at a time and the recirculation valve is a fixture when on.

• You can also use the recirculation valve to fill your fresh tank if you want to.

• You will want to shut off the shower recirculation before opening the sick fixture because the factory pump is designed to supply only one fixture at a time and the recirculation valve is a fixture when on

• Using Water Pump - This is the way it is intended to work and work perfectly.
• Using City Water - It can be done, you have to understand that IF you recirculate while on City Water hookup it will still send water to the fresh tank because you are not drawing from the fresh tank when using City Water you WILL overflow your fresh water tank.

Other systems involve secondary pumps with timers and others with crossover mixer valves and "H" valves.

I chose to go with the www.Aquaviewinc.com  because:

1. It was within my skill set for the wife and I to install.
2. The product is used in many high end rigs.
3. The products are high quality and not plastic.
4. The company provided great pre-sale support.
5. The company also followed up with my to insure I had a great install.

The water heater sips propane and is used less than our traditional gas./ electric because it only heats when using it.

       

Changes for 2023

Forward-looking in our planning:

As we began thinking about the next phase of our lives heading into retirement, we decided to make a change with the rig. Several things created the reasons we chose to make a change, we will share a few of them here.

• Grandchildren. While we did not do a bunkhouse, we saw the opportunity to improve the time we spent away with the grandchildren with a larger floor plan.
• We decided that we were ready for storage facilities similar to a 5th Wheel, however, we did not want the steps that come with the traditional 5th wheel floor plans. We started seeing the flat deck 5th wheel floor plans and liked what we saw.
• Truck - it is important to us that we stay with our tow vehicle's capability with a safety margin that we set. Also keeping the bed of our truck available to us was another consideration. So the flat deck 5th wheel layout in the travel trailer form factor won us over.

We began as so many before us, from tents, and pop-ups to towables. We started our towable journey with a 2014 Crossroads Z1 then moved to the 2016 Jayco White Hawk 27DSRL and now the 2023 Grand Design Reflection 297RSTS.

This blog and its related social media are meant as a place to share with others like-minded. We have been active in manufacturing forums and users groups both learning from others and sharing our modifications and experiences to return the help we receive from others doing the same

We will keep the history available on our website www.stormpod.org, this blog, and the social media sites. This is a primary hobby for us and we are not full time nor do we plan to be.

We will keep updating as we feel the desire to share or answer questions. 

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