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# I'm standing here in a towel waiting for the shower to warm up
- URL: https://www.thefrictionlog.com/05400/
- Published: 2026-10-02T20:04:48.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T15:15:49.000Z
- Description: Filed: 1889 · Patched · a pump that circulates hot water
- Author: The Clerk
- Tags: Patched

*Hand under the water, still cold. I've read the whole shampoo bottle.* — Teenager, 1994

Here's what you're waiting on. The water left the heater hot last night, then sat in the pipe and went cold, and every drop of it has to go down the drain before the hot water can reach you. The EPA figures the average home pours out more than 3,650 gallons a year that way. There's a fix: a small pump that sends the cold water in that pipe back to the heater instead of down the drain, so the hot water is already at the tap when you get there. No pump, and you stand there in the towel.

**For now**: if you get one of those pumps, get the kind that runs when you push a button or walk in, not the kind that runs all day.