Hot Water Recirculation Systems for Slow Hot Water Problems

I discovered a hot water recirculation system I had not seen before while surfing the web today, it’s called the Astro Express Hot Water Re-circulation System and it’s made by Armstrong. The system seems to be very similar if not identical to the Grundfos Comfort system. It has a pump at the water heater and a temperature controlled valve under one or more sinks.

The pump is called the “ASTRO 20 BU-T CIRCULATOR”, and the valve is called the the “ASTRO EXPRESS VALVE”. Not much special about the pump, it’s a standard hot water circulating pump with very little power… with 1/25 of a horsepower. The valve takes four hoses and is both temperature controlled and apparently adjustable.

The pump is much too small to operate a tankless water heater, so if you don’t have a tank type water heater then this device will not work for you.

I just wrote a review of the system and published it as an article on my website. Astro Express Hot Water Recirculation System

It is a warm-water circulating system that will increase the energy used and eliminate the ability to obtain “cold” water from your fixture without first purging the warm water from the cold water line. It is in the same class as the Grundfos Comfort system, the Laing Autocirc1, the RedyTemp, and others.

The Astro express system allows you to place more than one valve in the system in case you have a branched plumbing layout that has separate long pipe runs.

The pump has a built in timer so you can reduce the energy wastage by leaving the pump off during periods that you would not expect to be using hot water like when you are asleep or when no one is home during the day.

Well that’s all I have for the Astro Express Hot Water Recirculation System.