Ok, here's my water heater setup. my water heater (natural gas, 50 gallon tank) is in the attic, easily accessible. The original owner also installed an insulated storage tank after the heater. Valves are used to direct water flow on whether to use the storage tank or just bypass it. The valves are currently set to bypass the storage tank and have been that way since we purchased the house. As far as I know, nobody has touched those valves. The house also has a recirculating pump (actually 2 but the other one looks to be only in use when the storage tank is in use). There are pipes that connect the storage tank back to the inlet of the water heater controlled by a valve that is currently set to stop any flow from the storage tank back to the water heater. The return pipe for the recirculation is below the outlet level of the water heater. The issue: when using hot water, sometimes, the hot water will stop flowing to a faucet (most of the time we have more than 1 faucet going but the other day, my wife said only 1 faucet was going). It used to be that to resolve the issue, we would stop the recirculating pump, turn it back on and hot water would flow to the faucet again but recently, this stopped working and only cold water flowed to all the faucets that were using hot water. We stopped everything for a bit of time, restarted the pump and hot water flowed again but I'd like to resolve the issue more permanently. I have checked the recirculating pump in this situation and it at least sounds like it's still working. other possibly important information: - currently have a bit of mild pipe knocking when faucets are turned off - we have greenish residue on a shower wall and floor which I've read is an indicator that a copper pipe may be a corroding somewhere. We have a Polaris PG10 50-199-3nv water heater that I've read says has no anode rod to replace - I replaced the recirculating pump myself about 5 months ago and thought it a good time to drain the pipes as we heard some very noisy pipe knocking when the pump failed and my wife said she heard some pipes mildly knocking before the fail. I thought there may have been some air bubbles. I've read that I should have slowly brought the water pressure up slowly but at the time, I just turned the main water valve completely on and first did the cold water lines and then water into the hot water lines. I didn't do anything special for the return line for the recirculating pump, figuring that it would fill those pipes first before going through the water heater as the level is below the outlet level of the heater - the pressure relief valve on the water heater is releasing water every so often - when replacing some faucet cartridges, I've never been able to shut the water off completely with the valves on the lines ( multiple locations in the house and not just 1 valve) - I believe the cold water and hot water lines may be connected through a temperature controlled valve as the house inspector indicated that we were getting hot water in a toilet tank and the response from the previous home owner was that it was from the recirculation. Thanks to those who are reading this long post. How do I go about diagnosing what the issue may be? I'm thinking cold water may be flowing through the return pipe or the valve between the cold water and hot water lines is broken. Could this just be air bubbles and a simple drain and refill may fix a lot of my issues? I would have called a plumber but my financial situation isn't the best right now and I couldn't believe the quote I got to replace the recirculating pump (close to 1000), especially considering it's installed in the pipeline with flanges and gaskets, rather than any soldering. I had to pay for the visit and estimate from a supposedly reputable company. I don't know where the connection between the cold water and hot water lines may be but I'm guessing somewhere above the toilet that had the hot water thanks in advance.

I want to replace my older no name 3 piece controls with a 1 lever for shower/tub. I will have to do some cosmetic stuff and later and am ok with that. I have access to valve assembly front and back of the stall. I want a lower priced but decent unit that is common...something that wont be obsolete soon. I need the rough in bracket and valve. I will make it fit in my shower space with new connections. Can someone recommend a model around 100-130$ complete( no shower head or bath spout) that is decent....??