Tell me if you've ever had this problem: You go to turn on a sink, bath, or shower, switch it to the 'hot' setting, and then you wait... and wait... and wait... until the water finally gets hot after what feels like an eternity. Well, you don't have to deal with that problem — or the feels-bad of needlessly wasting so much water — anymore once you've installed this hot water recirculating pump.

The main unit goes in at your home water heater tank on the hot water line (requires a ¾" connection) and then a special sensor valve goes under whichever sink faucet is furthest away from the water heater. If you've ever worked with minor plumbing stuff before, it should take less than hour total to do, barring any unforeseen complications.

Once installed, the system creates a pressure differential in your plumbing system that continually pumps hot water to every faucet in the home rather than letting it cool down between uses, so it's always accessible when you want it:

The pressure differential allows the cold and cool water in the hot water supply line to bypass into the cold water supply line at a low volume through the thermostatically controlled sensor valve, keeping the water in the hot water supply line at a "no-wait" temperature throughout the home.

[The] sensor valve opens when the water on the hot water side cools and pushes the cool water back to the water heater. As the temperature in the hot water line hits 98º, the valve closes.

Now, the first thing you might think is, “Doesn't this use up a ton of energy running all the time?” And if you left it always on, the answer would be “yes.” However, the pump does have a built-in programmable 24-hour timer so you can set it to run only at specific times during the day.

Alternatively, you can connect the pump's power cord to a Wi-Fi enabled smart plug and manage its activity and energy usage via your phone no matter where you are, which is a pretty neat solution.

Get this hot water pump system for $219 on Amazon.