Make Your Own WATER HEATER For Your Camper Van
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 มิ.ย. 2024
- A water heater is an amenity I never wanted in my van due to how complicated and inefficient all the regular options are. So I finally got around to building my own DIY water heater for our camper van conversion. The main goals of the design were to have it function with a water pump, not lose storage space, and be able to power it off my regular fuse panel.
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0:00 Intro
2:33 Demonstration
6:13 Design Constraints
9:38 How to Build One
19:37 Future Improvements
PARTS TO MAKE HEATER (Amazon Links Help Me Out, THANK YOU!)
Heating Element Dernord 12V 300W amzn.to/42QC7jH
O-Ring: Hillman 780054
Copper Pipe www.mcmaster.com/5175K138/
End Caps www.mcmaster.com/5520K48/
1/2" Brass Nut www.mcmaster.com/4429K124/
1" NPT Nut www.mcmaster.com/4429K126/
Side Port Fitting www.mcmaster.com/5520K28/
Pipe Insulation Aeroflex 216-AC15838 tinyurl.com/4rnhybwa
Endcap Tape amzn.to/48fn3wK
Insulation Adhesive Armacell 520 BLV Adhesive
ELECBEE Control Board (the new version I talk about) tinyurl.com/24a7jspb
Part Number for old version is YYW-1S
Temperature Controller (used in my prototyping) amzn.to/4bBGEuf
Automotive Relay amzn.to/49vTOHi
Foot Pump amzn.to/3UC3cou
TOOLS
Torch amzn.to/49ajRnA
Solder amzn.to/3SAzo9h
Paste Flux amzn.to/49voYhP
Tinning Flux amzn.to/497mqXx
Pipe Thread Tap Set amzn.to/3OFBrHJ
Knipex Channel Locks amzn.to/3SUXgWz
Favorite Tape Measure amzn.to/48eCl59
Favorite Shop Pencil amzn.to/3pDXJ3r - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
I love this guy, half a world away, yet the same mindset.
Hat off to you mister!
Thank you!
I remodelled my van based on your light weight cabinets video. Went with poplar, next time I'll go with super thin birch as the poplar 2 months in already has chunks missing (my home is also my work van)
Combine the lightened cabinets with swapping my 240 litre tank to an 80 litre, I've gone from 300 miles per tank to 400.
So thank you
This is outstanding. I have noodled over doing the exact same thing for the same reasons. For a bit of extra safety, take a look at snap action temperature switches...you could strap one on easily and they make them with manual reset. Nice job!
Manual reset for the win! Thank you!!
This thing would benefit from a simple bimetal thermal fuse, say 100C, attached to the side just like the thermistor. Would cut power to the heater in case of overheat, either permanently until manually reset, or auto reset on cooldown...
85C is pretty standard, with a 90/100c on top of it as the final extra step. just in case.
A neat solution tailored to your specific needs. Very easy to increase the heated volume by simply fitting the heating element into a longer tube.
I would strongly advise fitting a pressure relief valve to prevent disaster in the event of the thermostat failing. if something can go wrong, then at some point it will go wrong and you need to cover that eventuality.
I use something like this for my hot water heater at home.
The main water heater is gas with a 12VDC 2 gallon preheater.
Works great for my solar dump.
After my batteries are fully charged, the system automatically switches over and preheats my water.
Odd timing 23:26, I may have a heating element in my moble home, an hour’s drive from me, that matches your specifications to below 1500watts
(Background)
I occasionally meander through hardware stores and love ACE the most, because in my town, they’ve still got ancient hardware that never sold. It’s all dusty and has original sticky price tags. One of those items was a heating element but can’t remember wattage 🤔
It feels like I’m rambling. Cool clever video, I like everything about!
Add a timer switch to cut power after 15 minutes. That should lesson the risk of overheating. Nice idea. For many of the reasons you offered, I decided it was easier to just boil some extra water when I’m making coffee in the morning or at dinner for dishes or washing than to install a hot water heater but I like this. Thanks.
I guess if you could get some 4 inch pipe you could make a slight more capacity heated water.
This is a good solution in a sensibly sized camper. Your soldering is more than good enough even for a pressurised system.
But the tapping step is unnecessary. The solder will hold even if the hole is slightly larger than the threads. But if you do run a tap through a hole in a configuration like this, then start the tap from the side that's already threaded.
Test your work by pressurising to double the working pressure. Use water, not air for testing! Twisting on the fittings will not reveal pinholes.
Very cool idea! I know you don't want a full blown tanked system, but Whale is the system I went with. 12v heating element at 300w so it's a low draw on the system. I've since switched to a 24v system and will probably swap the element for a 600w 24v element.
I really like this concept. I use barrels for my water and no pipe work whatsoever. Before a long time i seen your videos about foot pumps and with this it might be something I will implement when i have some left over time :D (two small kids so no time). I like that it so small and simple. Kudos for you.
Great idea, have you looked into those heat exchanger plates that connect into your vans engines cooling system. It involves more pipe work though. You can actually buy a Calorifier Tank for a few hundred.
Still a lot of faffing. My solution is going to be a Kelly kettle and a 1l king thermos flask, which actually keeps the water hot for 24 hours if pre heated. I've still got to go out and light it though.
I think you have a lovely little system there!
every off grid rigg should have a device like this for minimal water usages tike you highlighted here...Good Job 👍👍
A very elegant solution, many thanks for sharing!
Two thoughts:
1)You said you would like a lower wattage 120V heater: If you can find a relatively low wattage 240V heater, it will run fine on 120V and run at 1/4 the rated wattage.
2) I wash my dishes using a 'Lawn and Garden Multi-Purpose Sprayer', I estimate it uses less than half the water as my faucet, possibly only 1/10th. I'd love to integrate that low flow with pressurized spray with a tiny heater like yours. Of course, keeping it safe would be more complicated. Thanks for the ideas!
Yes, heaters are just a resistive elements. They don't care about how much Voltage you give them or if it's AC or DC.
if It's a 1000W, 240V element it has 57.6 Ω (or 250W at 120V)
if It's a 1000W, 120V element it has 14.4 Ω
Sometimes you can rearrange the connections on heaters to have multiple power levels for heating.
To make a holding jig out of a piece of 2by4 block. Drill a couple laterals to insert screws that straddle the hole you will drill for the round piece. Then center drill the block of the diameter you want to hold 1 ½” or whatever the OD is of your piece. Then crosscut the block across the diameter of the hole cutout. Put some plumbers abrasive Emory netting or drywall sanding net in the hole for grip. I register the block based on being able to clamp it to my drill press so I can easily hit the center line of the hole. Finally- Insert the round (copper cap or whatever). Tighten the lateral screws that grab the round stock. Clamp into position on the drill press- and drill it. Years ago, I made a long stick piece with several diameters that I usually drill up to about from 3/8” to 1 ”… I use it all the time for center drilling, cutoffs etc. for a bigger hole fit / cut the piece in half and screw the 2 pieces back together first and then drill the center holding hole.
Exact same design I've been thinking about making for a while! So glad to see you've had success! I can see that working great even in a pressurized system.
Well engineered! I love this type of minimalist in all aspects type of thinking. I camp in a similar "light weight" way and have filed this example in my head as a future project. Thanks!
As always well thought out and creative!
I would recommend to add a 6-10 Bar (100-150 psi) pressure release valve.
If something goes horribly wrong you don't want to have a boiler explosion, no bueno 😕
Give it a look on TH-cam. Boiler explosions but also pressure tank explosion. If you see one you know why pressure release valve and rust free pressure vessels are a absolute must!
Pressure vessels are basically a huge spring. Think of the amount of energy put in over time and then is released in a fraction of a second, damn scary.
Excellent work! I like the concept and ease of build/use!
Thanks for the share... love how basic it is! Super smart!
Great idea. I love the simplicity.
Very good!…..very smart design…thanks for sharing!!…good info
Great job!
I didn’t think of this so I went with a small computer heat exchanger (radiator), installed inside my diesel heater vent. Considering there is no power cost, it works extremely well.
Dang, thats a creative solution. What kind of temperature rise are you seeing?
@@projectofscience I don’t have exact temperatures but I will try and explain best i can. We recently did a ski trip to Montana and with the heater running all night long, the firs few seconds after opening the tap are pretty hot but after that it’s milder and you can easily wash your hai or do dishes. What I didn’t expect, which was a pleasant surprise, is that while heater ran all night long, hot water made its way back up into the tank (no pump) and warmed up the whole tank (16 gallons).
I suppose the downside of the system is that in the summer i’d have to run the heater if I needed warm water but I guess we’ll see..
You are a creative man!
Well done.
Genius product
Curious if you considered an off the shelf style Insulated Thermos rather than the copper pipe? Those have a nice flat bottom for a fitting and the nice threaded cap to mount the heating element.
Love your builds, keep them coming.
They work on a vacuum drilling would negate that
@@patrickday4206If you can find an all stainless steel one you could solder everything to the top opening to avoid drilling.
Nice! You got some great ideas right there!
I wonder if using a longer (or wider) copper pipe would give more hot water flowing at one time since the copper pipe sort of works as a mini-water tank. Just a thought.
Keep these ideas coming. You're a wizard.
Mr. Project of Science, I like this idea. Thank you for sharing it with us. Keep up the good work. I would use this idea for my own needs.
I'm considering making my own hydronic system. It's essentially just an engine block heater, a few hoses and two radiators. One radiator is submerged in the hot water tank the other is the radiant heater
Like the idea of truly instant (warm?) water.
Another solution that could work with other pumps is to have two pipes running between the floor and the faucet, linking them to form a loop at the bottom and the top. They can be pressurized by the main pump, but have another small, in-line pump and a heater within the loop. This way, the entire loop becomes the reservoir, and as you use hot water and introduce cold water you minimize the temp swings. The whole system stays at the same set pressure by the main pump.
You might want to think about pressure relief valve. If something was to happen to the electronics, where the heater sticks on, you could end up boiling water. Water to steam expansion ratio 1600, and could end up with some explosive results. There is more then one safety built in to water heater for this very reason.
Pavel doesn’t have a valve in the system after the heater. The system is open after the foot pump so there’s no way to develop any significant pressure in the water heater chamber. In case of a “run away heater”, the steam would simply escape from the spigot. That stated, once the water boiled off, there’s no secondary protection for overheating with all the associated risks (melting, fire etc.). The thermal snap switches others have mentioned would be a good addition to protect against that occurrence.
Brilliant idea. It looks very similar to a RIMS tube used in homebrew beer setups. I wonder if a 12v element would fit in one of those...
I just love the way your solution focused thought process works. I wonder if a Brass Oil Change Pump would make a better starting point than the odd bits of copper?
It appears that you use less than a gallon for each use of the sink. Without taking up to much more room you could design a similar unit that would utilize all the height available under the sink and be a slight bit wider to possibly hold a gallon of heated water. You showed how the water gradually cooled as you kept pumping and that's because of the small tube. The lager tube would end up producing a lot more hot water and would pump a lot more through before it cooled like the little pipe. Oh. Please put a pressure relief valve in that build. Have you ever watched a video of a water heater explosion. Not pretty and in an environment like the camper, plus being switch operated, it would give you a redundancy in overall safety that is generally built into water heaters. Great job and good luck on your travels! J Poll. I've subbed! 👍🇺🇸🏁
just cooked dinner on the inverter based induction hot plate. 600 watt sine wave. drew about 40 to 70 amps off the 12 volt battery /solar system. steak and potatos...
Brilliant, coffee inbound and subscribed
Great idea, thank you!
Just a couple of things, once when I dreamed about building a still I made up a citric acid bath to clean the copper. It brings it up really shiny and hot soapy water will get rid of any flux.
A safety shut off could be easily added onto it with the secondary PID controller that you got. I did think you could add a surface mounted temperature switch like you get in irons etc but here the UK being 240v they only go up to 20amps. I'm guessing you could get a 110v 40amp one where you are. As these only want to lay on a flat surface a 60-80'c one might do it as not all of the switch will be touching the copper jacket.
Those temperature sensors (thermalcoupler) are easy to replace if you need one in the future, just check if you need a k or j type.
I have the cheap propane on demand water heater. Been using it full time for 8 years. The second or 2 of water flow you talk about is less than 8 oz of water before I get hot water. I just measured as I watche dyour video. That amount can be added to a pitcher for drinking or rinsing dishes if you are that worried about water usage. 2 D cell batteries last me 6-8 months. I go through a 3o lb tank of propane every 4-5 months, but that is also used for my 2 burner stove that gets used a lot more than my water heater. Actual cost is minimal. When hooked up to a good water supply, I can take limitless showers, which I rarely do, but it is nice to have that option.
You can put PC CPU thermal paste to decrease your temperature probing inaccuracy.
Good video. You're my tinkering idol.
Thank you!
Awesome!!
For high limit safety, thermostatic switch in series with relay coil is one option. Won't save you in the event of welded contacts, though.
so cool!
Smartest, tightest and lightest builds. Superb.
Excellent solution!
Related: I've been imagining a three-season solar water heating setup. The idea is to mount my rooftop solar panels with an inch or so of airgap below them, then loop some PEX tubing around in the space below them, so that they could help cool the panels while simultaneously heating up some water for sink use. I'm not sure how well that could work or if that could actually get too hot at the height of summer.
This train of thought was partially inspired by the existence of the RoadShower, which is expensive, only does one thing, and stores all of that water at roof height. I want to see if this idea could become something that serves multiple purposes.
This is great! I had the same idea, but not fleshed out like your setup. I have some heating elements, 120/240v, wonder what they would do hooked to 12v? Or, as someone here in the comments mentioned, run a 240v element on 120v (producing less wattage, of course). I would need different electronics too, and would have to run an inverter.
Have you considered a highly insulated tank pipe with a section of pipe bonded to your exhaust pipe heats water when driving stores hot water blend mixer for usable temp foot pump would work
If those fitting were just slip in a drilled hole you could consider silver solder them. When making restroom battery groups. Lines of urinal and toilets. We tee drilled the pipe to make tees then you silver solder the branches. Of course yours dont have lots of pressure.
Very cool project! btw, there is hi-temp pvc you can get. And did you consider boiler thermastat? It should mechanical to turn it on/off... but then you wouldn't be able to adjust the temp.
What you could easily integrate is what is called a “thermal fuse” on the positive lead. 👍 nice job for not being a plumber
An accumulator tank would be a nice addition .
My electric hot water heater for my home is built exactly like that but with 2 elements in 2 connected copper tubes.
wondering how well solar oven would work to heat up the water for that purpose
How about a glow plug from a diesel for a heating element? Just curious.
What if you add a second identical unit and have the 2 units take turns getting power so you would have twice as much hot water without drawing excessive power that would blow fuse.
dernord also make 120v elements less than 1500 watts. im using one their cartridge elements - the solid cylindrical elements - in my water heaters that's similar to yours, but uses threaded brass nipples and NPT fittings.
exactly what i was thinking. 1" npt brass nipple, tee, and reducing coupling would have been a lot easier.
the dernord 120v 750watt element is the "rod style" and in retrospect i'm not sure why I didn't want to use that style. probably makes no difference. as for npt fittings, i wanted to make this thing a single unit with minimal amount of connections. a nipples and fittings solution would introduce a lot more potential spots for leaking...but given my soldering ability maybe it would make no difference haha. thank you!
the "rod style" ones tend to be very long, maybe thats why. i went the threaded route just to prototype it, but it ended up working fine so i just stopped there lol. the other benefit was the ability to add a threaded pressure relief valve and a threaded temperature sensor/switch. my sink heater is more like a tankless heater though, using a 1500W element. i have another that uses a 300W rod element, but for a recirculating shower. i skipped the safety features with the recirculating setup since the water continually flows. i would highly recommend adding a pressure relief valve to your setup just in case the electronics fail in the worst way. @@projectofscience
Another crazy idea would be to repurpose a 12v electric tea kettle - but I assume the heating time would be too long....
U also want it to shut down when the temp stays low for too long or is at the max low temp (short or open) because then it keep heating to infinity.
Looking at the picture, I thought it was a bomb. Haha
Hi, the ISOTEMP 120V heating elements are typically 750W, replacement elements should be available.
I think you should more strongly emphasize that this is an open system, and that anyone with a faucet valve would need a pressure-release/relief valve.
Also, you mention a possible safety measure of detecting temperatures ABOVE boiling, but that could never happen in your open system; instead you should be looking for higher than 180F or so.
Thanks; I really enjoy your content!
How much solar do i need to run one? 😊
I see a In-Line 1000-Watt Bath Heater for $229 at Home Depot. Seen that?
Kinda complicated.
I use a simpler method -- a flat thermo-siphoning solar panel feeding a 3-gallon receiver filled with OIL. A single length of 3/8" copper tubing passes into and out of the receiver top through a gasketed plate held on with 6 bolts, nuts welded in place, in a loop. As water passes through, the oil exchanges its heat and I have HOT water.
The receiver is packed in beach sand to insulate it. Oil can reach 300°F in clear skies and won't freeze in cold conditions.
I'm autistic and approach projects differently than "normies".😊
Bravo......hey don't do a closed loop system.......and put a pressure relief valve......cheers
Would that work on our Scamp? We are currently traveling...
Thanks for the $! Not super familiar with Scamps, but if you have the battery capacity and space in the cabinet it should. I'd say any battery bank capable of induction cooking will definitely be fine.
Overall decent idea, why not use PVC instead copper and just line the inside of the PVC with rolled copper sheet
You could use a dryer safety cut off less than $15
Hot tub pressure switch for controlling no water burn out..thier cheap
Make it with 2 pipes, while you are using from 1 the other is heating up, then reverse...
i wonder how bad this would look if somebody pulled you over and decided to search your van lol.
I would of just soldered the nuts to the end of the 1" 1/2 copper pipe... other than that nice project...
For the last 15+ years ive used a 12v/600 watt element/solar diversion load for both my solar and wind turbine.
a modified 5gal propane tank with a thermister and ported pressure relief valve for the water holding.
For better space use, i made a 7 gal rectangle tank
(i plan to make it bigger, but 5 gallons is more than enough for a shower. Typically i only neeed about 3 gallons.)
that sits in the back nice and tight in an otherwise unused space.
Free on demand hot water all day long courtesy of the sun and wind.
As long as theres wind, night time as well.
I also have a solar water heater on top i use as a "preheater", but it can often work all on its own.
Theres more to it, built into it a ridiculous amount of redundancy that turned out to be overkill.
Such as the heater unit also heating night time water.
Since the tank sits directly under the sink, hot water is almost instant. its warm regardless due to the fact the short line is only
@ 1: 00 discuss no ability to get more water whilst driving in snow covered fields... ok... no water there.
That's scary. There's no way for the pressurized water to go if you have a runaway. Let alone after it bursts, you now have a fire hazard.
Dangerous, There is no t&p valve in case you have a runaway
A baby version of what Chromalox makes (invented)...
Just use a coffee maker...