Electric vs Gas Water Heater

[fox9988]

A $150 1 gallon electric WH looks appealing and simple at ~1cuft. I doubt I’d heat water very often in the Caribbean. 1400W load on my 3000W inverter. Run the suitcase generator if necessary.
Am I missing anything?

[Turtle Blues]

Don't think so.
They are designed for a single hand wash sink. Just throttle the faucet supply valves to maintain the output. Works fine for a hand shower etc.
Saw a post where a guy didn't understand why it wouldn't heat enough H2o for his pressure washer.

[Dockhead]

Go for it. ABYC compliant gas water heaters are rare and extremely expensive. Using cheap non-marine one is really dangerous.


But why not use a normal calorifier with a loop for your engine coolant? Then you always have a tank of piping hot water any time you run the engine; and otherwise heat electrically. It's what most people do.

[Don C L]

Do you need a one gallon heater? How about heating a kettle of water on the stove and mix it with a couple gallons in a chemical sprayer? May sound silly, but it works great, it's cheap, simple, no plumbing or wiring. Or just fill the sprayer and leave it in the sun for a couple hours?

[DefinitelyMe]

If you're sure one gallon is enough then go for it. For showering though I think you might wish you'd bought a 3-gallon.

[fox9988]

My engine is raw water cooled. I’d rather leave it simple and not have to run it for heating water.
I could probably get by fine heating water on the stove or in the sun.
I think 1 gallon of hot water would be plenty for me to shower but the larger ones aren’t anymore expensive.

Thanks for the replies.