Water Line

[Gatores]

I just bought a house and there is a few puzzling things that I am looking for some insight. The cold water line right above where it goes into the water heater is a T in the line. The line has a circulation pump and it appears to be an inline heater. That line best I can tell goes to the hot water line for the washing machine. Is there a reason that they would heat the water for the washing machine with this or is it for some other reason. Any ideas.

Thanks

[heavyduty]

sounds like it might be a circulating pump that circulates hot water through out the house so you always have hot water at the faucet.

[Archerysniper]

A picture could really help. If it's in North Dakota who knows what they were thinking just saying.

[Gatores]

[Gatores]

When taking the pictures I looked on the backside of the red pump and the flow arrow pointed back towards the water heater. So what is the point of the circulation pump? Then the grey rectangle thing that has a temp guage on it?

[Archerysniper]

The gray box on the wall is called a aquastas this will turn on or off the pump at a certain temp. It appears to be done correctly. What we do is run a copper line back from the farthest hot water fixture into a pump and push it into the cold inlet of the heater,what this does is keep circulating the water in the heater and lines so you don't have to open up a faucet and let the water run for 5 mins till it gets hot.

[CAMAN]

I'm more curious what that capped black PVC was for?

[WallEYES]

probably a future vent for a bathroom group or maybe a kitchen

[Gatores]

Thanks for the info archerysniper. They used to have a propane water heater instead of the electric one. Not sure if a propane water heater has to have a vent but could the black capped pvc be for that?

[Archerysniper]

probably a future vent for a bathroom group or maybe a kitchen

My same guess.

[CAMAN]

Hmmmm... but if it's a drain vent that means water can get into it and just sit there, talk about YUCK when opening it up to connect it!!

If it's a vent for the old LP water heater, is PVC even legal for an H2O heater vent?

Just curious, and sorry for the hijack.

[Lindy Lee]

ABS is ok for most venting on water heaters

[Eelpout08]

Pardon my confusion, but shouldn't there be another backflow preventer on the other side of the pump, to keep the hot water from going into the cold side piping? Maybe i am just not seeing the whole picture