What Brand HotWater Heater

[cburger]

After four years of living aboard I would like to install a hot water heater, can anyone recommend a quality brand?

[LeaseOnLife]

I went through this a year ago and bought an Isotemp, mainly for the built-in mixing valve. I adjusted the mixing valve to a slightly too hot temp, but not scolding. When in need of hot water, I open only the hot water at the faucet, it gets hot quickly and add a bit of cold to it to be comfortable. With my old waterheater I seemed to constantly adjust between too hot or cold, and I think I save water with the new heater.

Mixing valves can be added to any waterheater, if you want to go DYI.

Dirk

[Privilege]

What are you going to use to heat it? I have an instantaneous propane heater. A barbecue size tank lasts me three months. They are great but the need to be vented to he outside.

[cburger]

shower and sinks and also thinking about plumbing my diesel heater into the tank to run hot water to a couple of radiators, so propane fired no good.

[senormechanico]

Why does hot water need to be heated?
It's already hot.

[Lepke]

You need to start with how much space you have and how much hot water you need. With the right plumbing, you can heat it with the diesel heater or engine FW.
Because I have room, I use a house type electric HW heater. I also can heat it with a coil in my diesel stove, or if the boiler is hot, it also has a coil. When I'm running the mains, the engine FW heats the boiler and so on.
Insulate your hot water lines. Also add insulation around the heater. I've use most of the marine water heaters, but found they don't seem to last any longer than a good house type.

[chuckr]

Our Jeanneau DS40 - new 2003 came with a C-Warm that was all copper and lasted until this winter so say winter of 2015. We replaced it with a Quick and had to go down a bit is size to keep within the confines of the space available without making any changes.

And the Quick is stainless steel so probably will not last as long.

[vtomanov]

I have "SIGMAR CALORIFIERS" - my one is 23L and I'm quite happy with it.. enough water for 4 person to take a proper shower

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by cburger

After four years of living aboard I would like to install a hot water heater, can anyone recommend a quality brand?

Hi Cburber,

I went through the same exercise in 2014-15 and decided to go with an IsoTemp SPA model [I could squeeze in the 40 liter model, so I did...] We are very pleased with it.

Here is another thread on this topic on this forum from March 2015.

Here is my blog post about the IsoTherm containing some additional details. This post is really a compendium of forum posts I followed/participated in, with links to product info and the original forum posts. (In case that is useful for you...)

Best wishes with your project.

Cheers!

Bill

[Xthewater]

I recently rebuilt the Raritan 6 gal on our Cape Dory 31 "Renata" (see blog) and was impressed with the quality of construction. Added better insulation so it retains heat longer.

[Russ]

Attwood Brand. Get from their site vs vendors.

Mine has lasted 30 years Can be bought with or without engine HW Bypass piping. Various sizes etc. Propane is great ass long as boat if LEVEL!!!! Russ

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by wrwakefield

Hi Cburber,

I went through the same exercise in 2014-15 and decided to go with an IsoTemp SPA model [I could squeeze in the 40 liter model, so I did...] We are very pleased with it.

Here is another thread on this topic on this forum from March 2015.

Here is my blog post about the IsoTherm containing some additional details. This post is really a compendium of forum posts I followed/participated in, with links to product info and the original forum posts. (In case that is useful for you...)

Best wishes with your project.

Cheers!

Bill

I too went through this last year and purchased an LPG unit. But given recent deaths on a boat I've had second thoughts and have decided NOT to install it as it's not designed for inside use.

These IsoTherm look really interesting and I could fit one in my engine bay (just). I take it the power part works off an inverter does it? Or is the power bit just for when docked?

I had a Glind Portable 4wd Hot Water Systems | Camping Showers | Glind - Glind Hot Water Heat Exchanger Camping Showers for 4WD and Marine unit which I attached last year but my 34HP VP doesn't create enough heat to heat the water continuously. So I need something with a holding tank.

[crazyoldboatguy]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Why does hot water need to be heated?
It's already hot.

One of my pet peeves, along with ATM Machine & PIN Number.

Or perhaps the OP is talking about a perpetual heating machine.

[jmcdboater]

We recently replaced our 24 original one with Raritan's 12 gallon unit with mixing valve. Very happy with unit, easy to install, can buy with or without engine heating loop. We installed one with engine loop so we have hot water underway.

Good luck with the new one.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

I too went through this last year and purchased an LPG unit. But given recent deaths on a boat I've had second thoughts and have decided NOT to install it as it's not designed for inside use.

These IsoTherm look really interesting and I could fit one in my engine bay (just). I take it the power part works off an inverter does it? Or is the power bit just for when docked?

I had a Glind Portable 4wd Hot Water Systems | Camping Showers | Glind - Glind Hot Water Heat Exchanger Camping Showers for 4WD and Marine unit which I attached last year but my 34HP VP doesn't create enough heat to heat the water continuously. So I need something with a holding tank.

Hi Rustic,

I also had an instantaneous propane heater on a boat in the past. [Wallas- made for boats/cabins] It worked great, was mounted piggy-back on the back of the gimbaled propane stove/oven, and was next to the companionway hatch and an opening port light. It had no flue through the deck, so I only operated it when the companionway hatch and port lights were wide open. Despite that, it would set off the CO alarm clear across the cabin. That was the end of that for me...

Fast forward to the present boat and our decision to go with the IsoTemp SPA model. We love it. The heat exchanger is very efficient, and it holds heat quite a while too [48 hours after engine shut down and we still have to mix some cold for showers... I quantified heat retention and provided many other details in the blog post I linked in my first reply in this thread...]

Regarding your question of running the electric element it off an inverter... I have- accidentally.... [900 AH 12VDC house bank; 2800 watt 120VAC Magnum sine wave inverter] Even though I ordered the unit with the lower wattage heating element [700 vs. 1400 watts 120 VAC] It still 'pegged' the meter for amps drawn from the house bank...

It does work great on the generator and shore power, however. [We have a 10kw built-in. I haven't tried it with the 2000 watt portable gen but I suspect that would power it no problem as 700 watts is way under the generator capacity, and only a resistive load...]

[Note that you can order 220VAC elements too...]

I hope this helps.

Cheers!

Bill