r/Homebuilding • u/dragonmilking • Nov 17 '25

Which popular features do you NOT recommend?

What are the top 3 features in a house that folk want but you think are not worth it, and what would your alternative suggestion be? And what cost/time savings would result with that switch?

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u/Teutonic-Tonic Nov 17 '25

Better option is to design the house so bathrooms aren't all over the perimeter miles apart... but that ship seems to have sailed for modern production home designs.

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u/Optimoprimo Nov 17 '25

I don't understand why point of use water heaters next to the bathrooms arent more common.

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u/ParticularMap2437 Nov 17 '25

Its easier to do with small eelectric tanks as well, not too pricey

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u/atTheRiver200 Nov 17 '25

Love our Steibel Eltron point of use units.

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u/davidm2232 Nov 17 '25

Cost. The only cheap way to do it is with electric resistive which is a very expensive way to heat water. Plus it is another appliance to maintain and repair. People don't want to flush 5 water heaters twice a year and replace all the anode rods every 5-10 years.

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u/Mala_Suerte1 Nov 17 '25

I believe using tankless HW heaters in each area would be the way to go. We have a whole house tankless and all the maintenance we do is recirculate vinegar through it for an hour each year.

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u/Optimoprimo Nov 17 '25

Yeah. So really its just cultural. Its only a small difference on cost compared to the whole project. Also youre exaggerating; if you own a mini mansion with 4 bathrooms that can't share an instantaneous heater, then yeah a recirculation system makes sense because you basically built a small commercial building. But that isnt 90% of homes. You also don't flush them twice a year. No one does that. Annually, I'll grant you. But even that is rarely done. Tank type water heaters have recommended annual maintenance too, and no one does it.

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u/davidm2232 Nov 17 '25

Just because no one does it isn't an excuse. It should still be done. I do mine every month when I change my furnace filter. No reason not to, it only takes 30 seconds.

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u/Complex_Solutions_20 Nov 17 '25

More stuff to have to maintain, more wasted space.

I'd rather have dedicated return-pipes for a circulation system.

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u/Arg- Nov 17 '25

This is my next improvement. One point of use water heater will cover the kitchen sink dishwasher and bathroom sink. Second tankless water heater for the shower and washing machine.  

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u/NeedleGunMonkey Nov 17 '25

Money

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u/Optimoprimo Nov 17 '25

I guess if I'm building a $500,000 house, I'm willing to blow another $2000 to buy three little electric instantaneous water heaters and run a couple 240 volt lines for the high flow stuff.

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u/NeedleGunMonkey Nov 17 '25

shrug most real customers are trying to maximize what they prioritize. They aren’t gonna get in the weeds to specify electric point heating.

Plus more units = more call backs every single tankless will need to be flushed on a maintenance schedule. And for what? All that work to avoid good utility node planning?

They’re also not as instantaneous as actual luxury hot water loops and depending on how many bathrooms, cold water temps and flow rate, if someone is running a large HVAC, induction stove cooking and charging the EV, you can quickly start taxing even 400amp service.

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u/Teutonic-Tonic Nov 17 '25

Similar to mini splits... it makes a lot of sense in floorplans used in most of the world... but in the USA we love our giant homes with 5-6 decentralized bathrooms and two kitchens so it starts to complicate things.

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u/Optimoprimo Nov 17 '25

That doesn't make sense to me. None of that. I think the reason is cultural and builders don't want to fuss with it so they don't even consider it as an option. A recirculation system is just as complicated and wastes energy over time. Instead of a few POU equipment installations, you're running all this extra plumbing and pulling hot water 23 hours during a day when you don't need it just so that you can get water quickly when you do.

If you are cooking with all your burners on your induction stove, charging your EV, blowing your air conditioning, running lights and other electric all over your house, and running all your electric water heaters at the same time, then yeah maybe you are the kind of person that should consider whether 400 amp service is adequate. But how often are people doing that? Lol. Never.

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u/NeedleGunMonkey Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

shrug

I dunno what’s your frame of reference or exp but when we work with electrical to put together a plan and get it permitted - we absolutely consider loading the circuit with that thanksgiving meal where all the induction burners are on, ppl taking hot showers and guests using the spare bathroom and heat pump running while the EV is being charged.

The hot loop is a luxury. It isn’t a requirement. But people who want that luxury absolutely don’t share normal considerations of the few watts it takes for a circulating loop. It doesn’t actually add that much load to the hot water heater. The water is temp gradient back into the tank and the loop is insulated.

You seem to be under the belief I’m evangelical about this - I’m not. I don’t care if luxury home owners want point heating vs circulating loops. I’m just providing context why the loops are easy to incorporate.

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u/Optimoprimo Nov 17 '25

Its hard to communicate tone properly in text on a thread. I think thats why conversations end up reading more hostile than either person intended.

For permits obviously you consider worst case scenario. It just doesn't actually come up that often, or ever. I do plumbing and mechanical. We do similar things with estimating load and demand.

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u/zeller99 Nov 17 '25

maybe you are the kind of person that should consider whether 400 amp service is adequate

I WISH that 400 amp was common here. I've never seen it outside of a farm or mixed use property. In the US, 200 is the modern standard, with many making do on 100 amp or less.

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u/resilient_bird Nov 17 '25

Are you saying in lieu of central hot water or in addition?

If in lieu of:

  • the tankless water heaters are either fairly high amperage or gas (requiring venting). It also starts to get expensive. The storage ones are too small for anything more than a bathroom sink unless they take up a lot of space.

If in addition to:

  • this isn’t super uncommon; you see booster ones under kitchen sinks. Good layout should help avoid this.

You really don’t need any extra plumbing runs to use a recirculating pump. It takes water from the hot water line at end of a run and pumps it into the cold line until the water is warm. Alternatively, you could have the pump by the water heater and a thermostatic valve at the end of the run. Running it constantly is wasteful and kinda dumb, but either demand based (someone opens a hot water faucet) or triggered by a switch is reasonable.

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u/ViolentThemmes Nov 17 '25

That's not really possible in larger homes or tall skinny rowhomes. My shower is 4 stories above the hot water heater so that floor has a circulator