Hansgrohe Thermostatic Valve (Pipe) Croma 220 Behavior At Startup - Sorry Duplicate Post

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JustNeedHot

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I am remodeling a bathroom in my 44 year old house. Out came a fiberglass tub shower with its old mixing valve (pre pressure balancing/thermostatic requirements). I am remodeling to install a corner neo shower with a Hansgrohe Croma 220 shower system, which has an external valve (Pipe) with separate temperature and volume controls at either end, and an integrated diverter valve. 2.5 gpm flow to either the shower head or handheld but not both. I have a couple of simple questions related to the behavior of the valve when the shower is first turned on.

I want to know whether I'm going to wait longer for the shower to get hot than with the old shower way of doing things.
At this point the shower is fed by a 3/4" main line from a 50 gallon tank to 1/2" supply line at the shower.

Old Shower Startup:
The shower is upstairs at the opposite end of the house causing the hot water line to require flushing of cold water before the shower gets hot. For this discussion assume I keep the same plumbing in place using Hansgrohe's rough in kit which is 1/2" id. I want to keep recirculation and pipe/copper/Pex sizes/flow rates out of the discussion. That's for another post.

1. Rotate the handle clockwise on the valve to maximum hot and wait for the water to get hot. Approximately 55 second wait. +/- 60 foot of cold water in the hot water line to flush before hot water flows.
2. Rotate the handle anti clockwise to let in cold water to get the appropriate temperature mix.
3. Get in the shower.

New Shower Startup Question:
The temperature will be left set at say 100 deg. Just turn on the shower, adjust the volume control and wait.

Questions:
1. Will the thermostatic valve pull in both hot and cold water till it gets to 100 degrees? If so that suggests it will take even longer to get up to temperature than it did will my old shower setup as it will take longer to flush out the cold water from the hot water line. If the cold and hot are let in equally would it take up to twice as long for the hot water to arrive? Or will the valve only allow hot water in to begin with until it reaches 100F and then open up cold to maintain 100F?

I've spoken with tech support and they don't seem to grasp my question. They say it won't take longer but it is pulling in cold and hot. That doesn't make sense. I was hoping the valve would delay letting cold water in entirely until the hot water got up to temperature.

The answer to this question will help me to asses the changes I plan on making to the hot water supply side - recirculation/pipe size etc. - but I want to understand the valve's behavior at startup first.

2. Will the shower allow cold water only in the event that the hot water supply goes out? .i.e. turn the valve temperature to cold.

Perhaps some Hansgrohe users of the external "Pipe" varieties, or plumbers with knowledge, can help me out?

External Pipe Valve.jpg
 

Breplum

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The valve will not be smart, so it will mix hot and cold until you reach the "set" temp. You can turn to hotter first, like you did before.
If the hot supply goes out and it is a pressure balancing valve (as code requires) you will get zero flow from cold side.
I recommend installing a dedicated recirculation return line and a recirc. pump system to allow readily/near-instantly available hot water.
 
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