Plumbing question (regarding hot water fed to toilet)

[Richard]

I had a thead a while back where some dufas (me) crossed a line and fed hot water to his new toilet. Kohler said that posed NO problem and in fact, was considered one of their fixes when someone calls in with a condensation problem with their tank.

Aside from all that, the wife doens't like it...seems it feels "weird". I think she likes hot & steamy just not THAT kind of hot & steamy!!

So, here's some pics of what I have.

My basic plan is:

I'm going to cut a 12" by maybe 36" (just guess on numbers right now) out of my drywall above the toilet and towards the sink, exposing the pipes.

I intend on T'ing off the cold water of the lavatory feed for the toilet.

This leaves me with an issue... what do I do with the hot feed that is currently going to toilet?

1. I've read here that a dead line is just asking for bacteria to grow and is otherwise considered a bad idea

2. I can NOT go into ceiling and cap this at it's original T off my 3/4" line.

3. I've wondered about just taking this hot feed and splicing it INTO the feed that goes to my faucet. This way, my faucet will have two hot feeds but more imporantly, my toilets hot feed will not be a dead end.

4. By splicing it into the faucets hot line, I will not be able to really shut the faucet off by way of shutoff valve. The shut off valve I have for the faucet is across the room in a closet with my pressure tank (the 2 shut off valves in this closet currently control all the water in this bathroom only except the toilet which has its own shutoff at the wall because it's fed from a different line)

So, now that I lose control of this second line that might get spliced into the faucet...does that create any OTHER issues that I might want to be aware of?

Once you see the faucets you will see why the wife does NOT want a shutoff valve on this wall so adding a shutoff is OUT of the question

This pic is of the finished part of the room

 

[Richard]

Here you can see the line behind the now finished wall where the feed (hot) comes down for the toilet. I'll have to cut the drywall above those cross braces that are there in case we ever install hand rails.

 

[Richard]

Here you can see where the pipes are for the faucet. I'll have to cut the drywall open, drill a couple holes and do some rework on the pipes.

I guess I'm just looking for "ok" that I can splice the two hot lines together without any issues and that this "fix" is a better fix than capping the hot line at the toilet and leaving about 10' of 1/2" copper tube in the wall with stagnent water in it.

Another thought I've had is to T off the COLD water and bring it over to the toilet and splice the COLD water into the HOT line thereby diluting the hot water into warm water instead of hot...

Just looking at different options. Since I don't like any of them, I thought I'd post it here & see what the forum wisdom says might be best.

 

[shaley]

Can't you go up in the attic and hook the supply line to the cold main in about the amount of time it takes to cut and patch drywall?
Nice bathroom BTW.

 

[Richard]

Can't you go up in the attic and hook the supply line to the cold main in about the amount of time it takes to cut and patch drywall?
Nice bathroom BTW.

Nope, this is in the basement and the dining room is above.

I'd love to just go into the ceiling and swap it out BUT I'd have to rip up the crown molding that the wife just last night, finished painting & caulking...

Thanks on compliment... kinda nice having done it all ourselves (shower isn't tiled yet, she's still searching)

More pics attached...wish my camera went wider angle...

 

[Richard]

btw, this is actually the laundry room that we're adding a full bathroom to (it was already plumbed for a full bath)

Behind the folding doors is the washer/dryer, behind the right door (right side of metal arch) is our water pressure tank and behind the left side door is just some storage. Oh, and there is a phone in here...I had to put my foot down on adding a satellite feed...

 

[tallyho8]

If you connect your cold water line to the hot water line leading to the toilet, then the hot and cold water pipes throughout the house will be literally connected together. Thus some warm water could come out of your sink also and the cold water faucet in your shower and some cold water would be coming out of your hot water faucets making them cooler. I would definitely avoid this fix.

I don't believe that stagnation by capping off a copper hot water pipe is nearly as bad an issue as capping a cold water pipe or an iron pipe.

 

[ByronBob]

Your going to destroy the wall and come up with a solution you don't really like because your wife has a "weird" feeling?

I'm all for keeping the Mrs happy and all but it seems your options are limited and the best solution is to do nothing.

"Nothing" by the way is always an option with everything in life as my professors told me.

 

[curly]

Wow, I've had the same problem since we moved into our house 2 years ago. Nobody has complained, we both think the warmth below is kinda cool. But I've been dying to fix it (or get it fixed) because I've seen it as money flushed down the toilet.

So, does using that extra hot water not end up costing? Or if it is, is it so negligible that it don't really matter?

Thanks,
Curly

 

[RonMar]

With a hot and cold line cross connected, you may also allow a thermosiphon to occur, continually pumping warm water from the tank out thru the pipes and back to the cold side of the tank. This increases heat loss that the heating source(gas or electric) will continually have to make up for.