Gas water heater aboard?

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Nos4r2

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I'm currently looking for a new vessel of some description,and the OH says whatever it is, she wants to be able to have a hot shower aboard.

A normal immersion heater/heat exchanger type calorifier is easy to understand, but I've come across adverts saying 'gas calorifier' ( can't even find one on Google small enough for onboard).How do they work and what's people's opinions of them? I've also come across quite a few with small wall mounted gas water heaters.

Are these safe in a cabin?

Ta :)
 
We have a standard Bosch gas water heater, have had it for 20 years, and we are still alive.

It gives us, almost, instant hot water any time, even when we have not run the engines. It is vented to the cockpit. When I say instant - we need to wait for the cold water in the system to be replaced by the hot. Its just a bit too hot to use neat, we need to use a bit of cold.

I'm always puzzled by the safety issue - people use their gas ovens, and if you bake bread - for quite long periods, longer than your shower - unless you have an endless supply of fresh water :). As far as I know they are also all still alive (and ovens are not vented - or ours isn't)

We do not have calorifier - which might have been a mistake (as it would, obviously, save gas).

A note of caution - we are a catamaran - and have the space.

Jonathan
 
Ours is located in the saloon. It takes up the space of half a 'common' yacht fridge.

I'm not sure why you think you can only locate in the heads - you can pump the water anywhere. It depends on the yacht - but it could be in the transom locker (with probably a short run for the gas pipe). With ours in the saloon it gets the saloon temperature up, a bit, and despite the adverts (for beaches and bikinis) its down to single digits in Sydney overnight currently.

Jonathan
 
Nos4r2 said:
I'm currently looking for a new vessel of some description,and the OH says whatever it is, she wants to be able to have a hot shower aboard.

A normal immersion heater/heat exchanger type calorifier is easy to understand, but I've come across adverts saying 'gas calorifier' ( can't even find one on Google small enough for onboard).How do they work and what's people's opinions of them? I've also come across quite a few with small wall mounted gas water heaters.

Are these safe in a cabin?

Ta :)
Click to expand...

I have had a instant gas water on my last 2 boats my first was a Bosch fitted inside a cupboard with the chimney vented into a raised Vetus round deck vent.

The one on my current boat is a no name brand from our local equivalent B & Q store vented in a similar way but turned 90 degrees through the cabin side also in a cupboard in the head/shower compartment.
 
My previous boat came with an old fashioned geyser instant water heater which was mounted in the shower toilet. It had a pilot light and went into roaring heater mode when the tap was turned on. It got used in the UK and was still working 7 years later. It had a separate gas tap which we turned off after any and every shower.

It was likely fitted in the 60s and looked just like ones I saw in the 50s in houses.
 
TQA said:
My previous boat came with an old fashioned geyser instant water heater which was mounted in the shower toilet. It had a pilot light and went into roaring heater mode when the tap was turned on. It got used in the UK and was still working 7 years later. It had a separate gas tap which we turned off after any and every shower.

It was likely fitted in the 60s and looked just like ones I saw in the 50s in houses.
Click to expand...


Ours also has a pilot light, which we turn off after use of the boiler (manual piezo ignition lighter) - primarily to save the gas! It too has a separate gas tap - which I think may be a legal requirement here in Australia. The boiler has its own gas tap. Nothing like belt and braces

Jonathan
 
I think these things are frowned on in the UK, for a typical yacht installation.
Quite a few yachts have had them, but having an installation which satisfies surveyors and insurers in the UK might be difficult.
A calorifier heated by the engine, immersion heater when on shore power and an Eberspacher/Webasto is perhaps a better way to go. Gas is expensive in small bottles for one thing.
 
Nos4r2 said:
Yeah but ovens are usually used with the cabin open and not in such a small space as a heads. Hence me wondering.
Click to expand...

The oven maybe using 1 Kw of gas but the heater is possibly around 5 Kw.
I did have a water heater on my boat but removed it because I wasn't happy with the ventilation and the insurance company insisted upon its removal after a survey. We now shower on board by use of a pressurised spray container.
 
TQA said:
My previous boat came with an old fashioned geyser instant water heater which was mounted in the shower toilet. It had a pilot light and went into roaring heater mode when the tap was turned on. It got used in the UK and was still working 7 years later. It had a separate gas tap which we turned off after any and every shower.

It was likely fitted in the 60s and looked just like ones I saw in the 50s in houses.
Click to expand...

We bought a boat with one like this. It was excellent, perfectly safe IMO and had been on the boat for something like 12 years. When we sold the boat after about four years the surveyor went purple and insisted it had to be removed. Totally illogical we thought.
 
We have a similar water heater on our vessel. Over 20!years we have had no issues. Yes we have a CO alarm and we have ventilation when we use it for a shower. Our larger gas issue would be the oven which remains on for far longer periods on a daily basis.

Simply fitting the item outside is not the whole solution. An unfortunate death occurred here with a similar heated fitted outside a holiday house in a shower area with a curtain. Like most things in life it may be best to unserstand what is happening and how to manage this rather than some fixed rule such as fit it outside.
 
My boat had one on board at the time of purchase, it was condemned by the surveyor prior to purchase and subsequently decommissioned. It was installed in a locker within the heads so ventilation was a big issue. Also, it shared the locker with a battery so the combination of hydrogen gas in conjunction with an ignition source went against it. However, the previous owner used it for years without suffering explosion or asphyxiation so I suspect the various ventilation measures mitigated the risk.

The previous owner was a big fan of the boiler and I'm minded to have it re-commisissioned by a suitably qualified gas engineer, subject to insurance company agreement. We routinely deal with sources of explosive gases and lethal fumes on boats so it shouldn't be too difficult.
 
I have a Cointra gas water heater on my cat, installed by a marine gas engineer a couple of years ago. Can't fault it, does what it's meant to.
 
id LOVE to have hot water on mine. whats the new model of the Cointra gas water heater or similar?

what about installing one in the cockpit locker?
 
pvb said:
That heater is only suitable for use outdoors!
Click to expand...

I realise that, I've seen 2 boats listed for sale that had them fitted and I didn't think it was a good idea either!


The facebook ad is probably my fault for posting the Amazon link in the last page.
 
As I posted before I have used a gas water heater on my boat for 20 years but I think the issue in the UK is H & S and possibly the requirement to have a "room sealed" gas heater like this that seem to be OK to use on Narrow boats.

https://www.caravanaccessoryshop.co.uk/product/morco-f11e-room-sealed-lpg-water-heater/1240

The fitting of this looks simpler that what I had to do with my non room sealed units I had.

I not this unit is out of stock but it just an example.
 
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