An absolute paragon.That's what we're calling the Grundfos Comfort System Hot Water Recirculation System in my household.  It's hard to imagine, but this simple, low-tech, and well engineered machine just reinvented my daily routine adding more joy to my life than an Apple iPhone.



What is it? In short, it's an efficient little pump that attaches to your water heater, priming the pipe with hot water at times when you need it the most. What does that mean to you? Fast hot water delivery in the areas of your home furthest from the hot water heater. Which translates into more comfort for your household and less wasted water for your community.  

Here's how the Grundfos Comfort System pump works: Our master bathroom is as far from the hot water heater as you can get. We live in a single story home, with the hot water pipe traveling ~80' through our concrete slab to the furthest shower. Heat bleeds off the pipe into the concrete all day and night. So, when I turn on the hot water, I've got to flush all the cold water sitting in that pipe, and warm the pipe itself, before I can enjoy a steaming hot shower.

Some homes are built with a return pipe that continually recirculates the cooling water idling in the pipe back to the water heater, fixing the whole problem. Not mine. It's a 30 yr. old fixer upper built with less foresight than Mister Magoo. So how does the cooling "hot" water get recirculated to the heater? The Grundfos system uses your cold water line to recirculate the hot water to the heater with the addition of a simple valve. It's so simple that anyone with a wrench could install it in 5 minutes. In fact, the entire installation of this system took no more than 25 minutes (and I'm no Maytag repairman). For a nice Flash animation explaining the whole process check out the Grundfos site.

Real world results after the jump:

As any new homeowner can tell you, sometimes the most rewarding thing you can do to your house is to tear it down. I LOVE the part of my weekend remodel when I get to erase (literally) the previous owner's mistakes and bad taste. Enter my favorite tool: the Stanley FatMax Xtreme FuBar.

Stanley introduced the FuBar in 2006, and has won many accolades since. I was so excited by the press release that I went out and bought the first one I could find. The next day, I volunteered to help tear down walls in a friend's studio remodel. I was making such short work of the drywall and underlying framing that by midday we were both armed with FuBars. 2 years and countless projects later, I won't even consider breaking something down without it.

Why is it great? Design, design, design. Every carefully balanced, gnarly tooth and well articulated angle on this hefty-sized son-of-a-hammer is designed for one purpose alone: destruction.  Billed as a 4-in-1 tool, I am betting you can find dozens of ways to break stuff with its 4 lbs of forged and tempered steel. Pick one up next time you've got a lot of demo to do. It'll save you time and energy, and I promise it will up the fun factor.

More information from Stanley, available in 15", 18" and 30" sizes. Get the midsized one (55-099) from Amazon for $35.