Is there any other way to heat water?

Rivers & creeks

Rivers & creeks

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The water heater has died - ruptured because I forgot to drain it and the frost burst it. It's not so much the cost of a replacement at £180 but the fact that it's another gas appliance in the boat that bothers me. Does anyone else know of any way to have running hot water expect by gas? We can't use a calorifier because the HT27 has an outboard engine and we have a swinging morring from April so there is no chance of shorepower.

Any suggestions welcomed.
 
Webasto or Eberspacher diesel powered hot water heaters - i'm just fitting one to the boat. They can be picked up on ebay for about £500 for a good one, less than that for recon units from BT vans etc......search on ebay for item 4615411447 as an example.



rob
 
If you really don\'t want gas...

If you really don't want gas, you could install a hot water tank (calorifier) and heat it in one of two ways. Option 1 would be to use a diesel-fired water heater to circulate hot water through the calorifier coil; this is fairly expensive - say £1000 for the heater. Option 2 would be to have a small (say 1kW) immersion heater in the tank and power it from a small petrol generator. Much cheaper, but you're adding the minor risk of storing petrol on board (although you've probably already got that for your outboard). If you favour the generator route, you might also look at the very small water heaters on the market (eg this one) which only need about 700W but only store a small amount of hot water.

I think I'd stick with the gas heater!
 
Stick with gas heater, their safe and reliable, hot water at the tun of a tap, no engines, no generators, no eberspachers. Wouldnt be without mine. Rinari is probably the easiest replacement for other unit such as a paloma.

Always hated the calorifer on friends boat, prefer to be able to go turn the tap and have a nice hot shower - the hot water is always hot and doesnt run out until the gas or water does!
 
Yes I did exactly the same thing, apparently its best to blow through the heater coil to getb all the water out.
I did replace my heat exchanger for about £125 mainly because I use gas for other applications and am quite happy with the safety aspects.
Another option would be the eberspacher as recommended elswhere the D5w would be excellent with a calorifier but only really worth it if you are going to use it to heat the boat as well. With the Ebber you need to consider battery power which may be a problem with an outboard genny??
 
did the same on my water heater pipes and managed to get it soldered...worth checking

cheers Joe
 
I know they are not cheap ... but

In the last caravan I had ... yep ex SWMBO was not a boaty person - so I agreed to compromise .... I had the boat as long as she had a caravan for family holidays ...

Anyway - we had a Carver Hot Water system fitted which was a catalytic gas water heater. The tank was about 10 - 15ltrs and sited under the side bunk. Control panel to set temperature / timer on-off etc. It was extremely economical and had auto filling from the whale submerged pump in the FW supply.
It needed a small amount of 12v to run ....

Another way of course is the small wall-mounted immersion heater jobs ... run from 240V supply - but then you are limited to when connected to shore power and also you must be careful about Kw required ... as shore power is normally limited to max 15A (up to 3.5Kw). You also have to make sure it is not the pressure cold water type - where if water is not constant pressure it switches off.

I'm thinking about either the Carver - can get s/hand systems from Caravan breakers .... or the 240V wall jobbie.
 
Thanks for all the advice, looks like trying to get the existing one soldered then going for a new Rinnai. That hob top thing looks interesting, fine for a shower but takes too much setting up for everyday use.

Simon
 
Hob top thingy ...

Price is a bit heavy - plus isn't it strange that single burner is 20 quid more than double burner one ????

And what happens when some twit goes past causing a wash ??? I take it you can fix the apparatus to the stove ? But then again - my standard Calor Hob has lift-off grates ... so what to fix it to ?

I've checked Carver hot water systems and s/hand warranty jobs are 299 delivered UK ex breakers .... There are cheaper ones also with top flue at just over 200 ...
 
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