Water Heaters

[Sailboatman]

Hi Everyone,

At this point we have a 8 gallon tank sitting under the quarter berth. It is not wired or plumbed to the engine or water system.

The question i am pondering is do i really need a water heater and if i do what type? I am sure the boss (my wife) would want hot water of some kind.

I will have a small gas generator on board that possibly could power a tank or on demand system.

I have heard of small electric and propane on demand water heaters. Do they work?

It would be nice to free up the space that the tank water heater uses.

Thanks for the help.

Rick and Deb

SV Amante 41 Islander

[MMNETSEA]

Originally Posted by Sailboatman

Hi Everyone,

At this point we have a 8 gallon tank sitting under the quarter berth. It is not wired or plumbed to the engine or water system.

The question i am pondering is do i really need a water heater and if i do what type? I am sure the boss (my wife) would want hot water of some kind.

I will have a small gas generator on board that possibly could power a tank or on demand system.

I have heard of small electric and propane on demand water heaters. Do they work?

It would be nice to free up the space that the tank water heater uses.

Thanks for the help.

Rick and Deb

SV Amante 41 Islander

Hi Rick,

The amount of electric power that is needed to provide on demand hot water is considerable, my shower system requires 3 kilo watts (220 volts) just to give me hot/warm water. The gas powered are more efficient but take up too much space for a yacht.

Depending on the distance from your main engine - it is possible to run a lagged copper pipe in a loop from the engines fresh water system through this small tank (ie : in one side and out the other without adding/taking water from that tank)

The designer of your yacht, Bob Perry is a member of our forum - a note to him as to the reason for the tank may be useful in your quest.

Regards

Richard

[JeanneP]

A friend of ours had an on-demand propane water heater on his 38-foot sloop, which worked well. I don't know what kind it was, but I assume he bought it in South Africa, where he built his boat.

The only problem I remember about the heater was that it had a pilot light, and once when he left the boat for a few days we received an urgent call to go check whether he had remembered to turn the pilot light off.

I wish I could offer more info, though.

[roverhi]

If I already had propane and was going to be hanging on the hook or otherwise be away from electricity, I'd go for the 'On Demand' propane heaters. Instant hot water without the gross demands for electricity or necessity to run the engine and of the tank type heaters and they take up little space. Used to see a lot of the small Paloma heaters on Euro boats. Now there a whole lot more mfgs. and probably all now have electronic ignition.

If you are going to install a diesel heater, you also might consider the water heating coil option on the Dickensons and other heaters. Assume you are probably only going to need hot water when it's cool enough to be able to use the heater.

Aloha

Peter O.

Pa'akai O'o, Pearson 35 #108

[MMNETSEA]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Used to see a lot of the small Paloma heaters on Euro boats.

Aloha

Peter O.

Pa'akai O'o, Pearson 35 #108

Thanks Peter, good info >>>>> Rick, here is the Paloma site - has US Distributors

www.palomatankless.com

[imagine2frolic]

When I bought Imagine she was built to be at sea, or anchor. There was no shore power, a/c, or hot water heater. The previous owner,builder, put a funnel into the vanity. By swinging the faucet out over the sink it would reach the funnel. At the bottom of the funnel was a seperate 5 gal tank that could be filled from the sink. Then with a tea kettle hot water could be added as needed.

Since we have gone back to work, and are at the dock now I have installed a 6 gal. hot water tank along with shore power, and I use window a/c units over my hatches. All is very comfy now while at the dock. I will say this, the tea kettle was on the boat when I bought her, and the previous owner used it for almost 4 years. The kettle started to leak last year, so I bought a new shiny stainless steel kettle. I would say we are good for another 10 years.

The hot water heater cost me a total of $200.00 including my labor for installation. When we leave the dock again the heater will get tossed, and that shiny tea kettle will once again get double duty..............

[Footprints]

Hi Rick,

On our boat we have a heat exchanger from the engine running through the hot water holding tank (approx 60 litres). We have looked at getting the on demand hot water system but am a little worried at the amount of gas (propane) it will use. Have a look at the Bosch or Rinnai systems. They are small, very efficient and they dont have a pilot light. They do require to be hooked up to 12 volts to enable the spark to light the gas when water starts to run through the system. The only downside is that it can take a couple of seconds for hot water to get to the tap, all that time, fresh water is running down the plug.

I have been on a couple of boats with the instant (on demand) hot water systems and they work great. To combat the wasted water on boat they had a recirc valve system set up so they could recirc the cold water back to the hot water tank while they were waiting for it to get hot. After about 20 seconds he would change the system back to normal and saved approx 5-10 litres of water.

These are the links for Rinnai and Bosch. (Australian sites)

http://www.rinnai.com.au/hotwater/home/?whs=home&pg=0

http://www.bosch.com.au/content/language1/html/4195.htm

Hope this helps.

Mel and Damien

S/V Fortuna

(10 weeks to go!!)

[JeanneP]

S/V Fortuna

(10 weeks to go!!)

Oh, my, how time flies! You must be so busy with all the things you hope you haven't forgotten to finish!

Where will you head first?

Keep in touch!

Fair winds,

Jeane

[Footprints]

Jeanne,

You couldnt be any more on the money! We are running around each day ticking things off the list. The hardest part is being in Perth West Oz (still in the Navy) while the boat is 4000kms away in Cairns.

The plan is to head south to just north of Brisbane (Hervey Bay/Fraser Is) and then just drift North back to Cairns for Summer. Then after Cyclone season head around the North coast to the Kimberlies.

When we are done there............ the World!!!!!

Mel would like to do the Med and the Amalfi Coast........ And a gentleman never sails to weather!

We plan on staying in touch and using the "Blog" to allow family and friends to stay abreast of what we are doing, and hopfully along the way, gain a love for what we and everyone else here aspire to do!

Mel and Damien

(we feel honoured you have taken an interest...Thank you!)

[Lighthouse]

(we feel honoured you have taken an interest...Thank you!)

We are ALL very interested and will follow your blog every step of the way.

[Sailboatman]

Thanks to all of you for the information.

I like the tea kettle option and will give that a go until i get over ruled by the boss.

At that point we will look at the propane on demand systems.

Thanks again.

[imagine2frolic]

With the teak kettle there is a lot less plumbing, and a lot more safety involved. It only took 1 kettle to warm a gal tank while in tropical weather.

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by Sailboatman

Thanks to all of you for the information.

I like the tea kettle option and will give that a go until i get over ruled by the boss.

At that point we will look at the propane on demand systems.

Thanks again.

There's a nice article in one of the recent issues of Good Old Boat magazine about making a solar hot water heater. A woman cruiser/liveaboard took one of the little solar showers sold for camping, put it in a "hot box" secured to deck (this box had something like lexan top and was painted black inside as I recall. She ran the hose down through a fitting through the deck to her shower room. It worked wonderfully for her. Inspired by her story, we pulled out our solar shower for camping and use it when doing overnighters and weekend trips here locally on the non-cruising boat.

We are outfitting the cruising boat with a heat exchanger that takes from engine and genset waste heat (either/or not both at the same time). We expect to use the genset far more often than the engine, therefore feel it is important to pull waste heat from this source. We will also be putting in a couple radiators to provide cabin heat from the engine and genset waste heat.

[equaregis]

Hi Rick,

So far, I have a Vaillant Propane heater on demand on he galley sink, linked to the two showers. It works well except for a 3 to 5 litres waste of water to go from the galley to the showers. But the consumption of gas by the "witness flame" is unnacceptable. Therefore, I am only sparking it at time of use: shower or washing up.

I am currently installing a 20 litres (5 gallons) insulated tank with 2 metres of copper pipe spiralling in. It cycles the cooling water of the genset. The tank is on the hot water line of the main shower. As I am using the genset every late afternoon when not on shore power, it will give two to four short showers to the happy crew every evening. The Vaillant will only be sparked and used for washing up.

Other cheap, water and energy saving deck shower is a 2 or 5 litres agriculture pump spray filled with cold water + 0.5 to 1litre boiling water from the kettle. Incredible how well you can rince yourself with 1 litre of sprayed water!!!

Francois