Campervan Water Heaters - Which hot water heater is best for your van conversion, motorhome, RV
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- If you’re looking at water heating for your van, do you know the Pros and Cons of the different options? This video helps you to find out.
Product links
DS Storm Kettle - amzn.to/3b7IItm
Large Storm Kettle - amzn.to/3bbNbvb
Gas hob Kettle - amzn.to/2W9CtRA
Pump thermos flask - amzn.to/2LazYYY
USB Shower - amzn.to/3betBhV
Pop up Shower tent - amzn.to/2xFkI30
Folding bucket - amzn.to/2WDHX5V
240v -
Truma TT water heater - amzn.to/2WxZ8pC
Propex - amzn.to/2A30sZX
LPG
Camec iMass - Instaneous LPG water heater - www.camec.com.au/media/navupl...
LPG - 240v
Propex Malaga Water heater - amzn.to/2WAEWDB
Truma Ultrastore - www.truma.com/uk/en/products/...
Whale Water Heater and Underfloor Water Heater- whale.navico.com/rv-caravan-m...
Truma combi Heating and Hot water - www.truma.com/uk/en/products/...
Engine Collant -
Surecal Water Calorifier - www.surejust.co.uk/surecal
Diesel
Webasto Thermo Top - water heater - amzn.to/2L5Pcyr
Diesel - 240v
Heating and Hot water - www.truma.com/uk/en/products/...
Music
SOLO ACOUSTIC GUITAR by Jason Shaw freemusicarchive.org/music/Jas...
Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported- CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/_solo-acoustic-guitar
Music promoted by Audio Library • SOLO ACOUSTIC GUITAR -...
I will always try my best to link to products of the best value for money, in my opinion. Some of these may include affiliate links where a commission may be received, the price to you remains the same.
Any information provided on this channel is intended for general guidance only and must never be considered a substitute for advice provided by a qualified professional.
Topics in my videos may have potential safety implications for you and your van.
Any information I share in this video is purely my opinion. What you chose to install or how you install it, is entirely your choice and responsibility.
Brilliant! I have been going around in circles trying to work out which option and you've resolved it in minutes. Thank you 🤩🌸
So glad it was helpful!
Mate, I've got to say, you are an absolute god send! Your vids are very clear and making the planning process of my future camper build a whole lot easier. Thank you!
Thanks for the feedback that is great to hear! Glad they are helpful!
Great video buddy. Food for thought definitely
perfect video for what i needed to know, THANKS :D
Thank you for the great overview.
Great videos mate! I'm a novice to all of these systems but the videos are great at breaking everything down. Thank you!
That's great - thanks for taking the time to feedback and happy building / travels!
Awesome video .thanks for posting
Glad you enjoyed it
Wicked video thanks
very useful thanks
I like the idea of a water heater providing space heating with added modifications like the Webasto Thermotop. It'll take a while to heat up the space, but it'll also take a while to cool down compared to blown air.
From what I understand, hydronic heating floor would the best and most efficient method of heating up a space. But I'm still researching.
Good video covering many options. For off grid in a small camper the duetto 12v/220/110 ac/dc water heater is also worth considering. It stores 10l of hot water which can be used on hookup at camp sites or while engine is running to heat water using the alternator. If you use a thermostatic mixing valve that 10l can go a long way.
Never heard of that one, I’ll take a look! Thanks
@@ExploreVanUK any recommendation on the duetto 12v water heater?
I've not tried it personally and my suspicion is it is more suited to somewhere with reliable sunshine to keep batteries topped up or where you are usually on hook up.
Eg - this review says "The only times we were unable to use the Duoetto on 12 volt was when it was raining or very overcast days."
It is often raining and overcast days that a nice warm shower is wanted so this wouldn't suit us.
"caravans and motor homes that use 240 volt most of the time, this unit would be ideal and compact."
We are often offgrid so again doesn;t sound like it would work for our needs
www.campertrailers.org/duoetto.htm
But if you are happy with the limitations it may be a consideration.
Ultimately power from the alternator comes from the engine. You can get high-power alternators, to supply mobile living needs, on top of the alternator's normal use of powering the vehicle's electrics. But they put load on the engine, and that means more fuel and that means money. In the USA gasoline is virtually free and every house has 3 taps in the kitchen, two are for hot and cold water. In Europe that's absolutely not the case.
If you're going to heat water using gasoline, gasoline which you've paid fuel duty on as a fuel meant to take you places, at least do it directly and burn it. 12V water heating sounds terrible, though I admit I haven't any experience with it.
It's a shame wood stoves aren't practical in caravans and RVs, like they're popular in boats and things like bus conversions. Lots of energy in there and it's often free! Problem being they get too hot in too large a volume, they're not designed to have the hot part insulated away to a couple of jets. Maybe something external, a rocket kettle, kept outside the home and plumbed in through a panel? Put a big heat-exchanger on it. Something for a tinkerer.
You can get vented instant LPG water heaters that have concentric flues for intake/outtake so that if the outtake leaks it is contained within an enveloping intake pipe meaning it doesn't leak into the inside of the van.
I saw these, but I havent seen evidence of them used in a van. Any experience you could share?
Many of those items were not available years ago when I needed to shower. I had (and still have) a ten foot stationary travel trailer at a remote camp I own in Maine USA. The only thing available back then when I went camping was a solar water bag. "Solar Sun Shower" it was called. They were not only feasible they were practical in my mind. When there was no sun I would heat a pot of water on a campfire or with sterno fuel and pour it into the bag which already contained room temperature (or stream temperature) water and then take a comfortable shower. My dream right now is I might have a RV in the future and so I'm window shopping on TH-cam for ideas:)
wood gas camp stove for me, similar type to biolite,
I'm trying to figure out if there's an appliance that truly gives instant hot/warm water. For off grid I think it's kind of essential that one is able to not lose any water (those few seconds of wasted water each time when you need hot water, it's not the best, certainly not good enough for 2022 I think).
Why don't heaters have a button to preheat for a few seconds, instead of having to let water run for a few seconds? It would be so simple to add such a function, in my opinion.
Hello there! Really appreciate your Video! I was wondering if you would consider the 12v Elgena KB-3 Boiler? I kind of dont know if 12v is actually enough to heat water. They give 5 Years of warranty and say the water heats up to 80°C but kind of unsure about it. Cheers
Personally from my perspective heating anything (water, air or food) from 12v isn’t feasible. Unless you have a lot of solar, are in a location where full sunshine is plentiful and have a high capacity of LiFePO4 batteries.
The 12v heater in the Elgena would draw approx 16 Amps and is only 200 watts so would take a long time to heat water.
Hei! Great informative video, thank you for sharing this. I was looking for information about this subject for a while and this is the best.
If I may, I do have a question, as I'm slowly preparing for my own conversion/build, calculating costs, etc. but actually I have quite narrowed needs, which is: able to live in a van during winter in the North (Norway) and no-gas installation (really want to avoid it), is this Truma Combi seems as worth option? It is very pricy, I looked also at Elgena Nautic Compact Boiler (?) which looks like half electric, half hot-air heater (but I'm a little bit skeptical about this, also protection from the really frosty days, and waiting time is 50 mins, woah). Would be lovely to receive your opinion on that, thank you!
(btw do you know how these heaters are working with altitude? does it affect these?)
Hei, hei! Glad you found the video useful!
As you are looking to avoid gas (propane) if you want Heat and Hot water the Truma Combi D6E is a good choice, but as you have seen it is expensive.
The Nautic seems similar to the Truma TT2 which is also Electric / Heated from your hot air heating, so used in conjunction with a diesel blown air heater would be an option. The downside of these is when you want hot water in the summer and don't have electric hook up. Even if it's baking hot outside you have to run your heating to heat the water and as you have seen it takes a while to warm the water while your van is being made even hotter!
In winter you probably would have your heating running most of the time so the heat up time of 50 mins wouldn't be an issue as you would always have a tank of water heated.
It probably comes down to how you plan to use the van and how much hot water you will actually use. If you will usually have 220v hook up then the electric option (with the back up of the blown air heating option when off grid) might be fine for you.
If you want to be sure you have heating and hot water on and off grid and plan to use it a lot then may be the Truma Combi is the best solution for you.
When it comes to altitude, the brand name Diesel heaters do have to be adjusted to run at altitude. Above 5000 - 6000 feet the fuel-air mixture needs to be adjusted to allow for the lower Oxygen levels or they can run too rich. Whether this is possible on the Chinese copies I am afraid I don't know.
For the Tuma Combi there is an "Altitude kit" accessory which allows you to switch the fuel mixture for extended running above 5000 Feet.
Hope that is helpful and best of luck getting your van sorted!
@@ExploreVanUK thank you so much for this comprehensive answer, you're an angel
We have the imass heater and currently have a warranty issue with them. We made a video about it in our channel.
Hi, yeah I watched your video the other night, as I called out in the video I always thought the iMass may not be the ideal solution in a temperate climate where it’s hard to predict when it’s going to drop below 0. The fact they very clearly call out not to use when the outside temp is below 0 and to make sure it’s fully winterised rang alarm bells that it could be a weakness.
It does seem like there may be a bit of ambiguity in the winterising instructions but to be fair to iMass they don’t say to close the drain tap, which it sounds like is what they claim caused the problem in your case.
Fingers crossed they do feel that some sort of gesture would be appropriate as it does seem you made a good effort at winterising it even if you didn’t quite follow it to the letter.
@@ExploreVanUK thanks the people we bought the heater from offered us another one for £500 which we bought and installed in the video. We would see how it goes, but we are considering selling the other heater with the burst at a good piece if we can.
cheers for the vid but i cant get the link to wowrk for the underbody mounter water heater
Good spot - thanks for letting me know - it looks like Whale have changed their web links. You can find their range of water heaters, including the under body ones, here whale.navico.com/rv-caravan-motorhome/water-heating/
I have updated the link in the description too.
But if the iMass is suppsoed to be inside anyway why would you have to worry about it being colder than 0? Don´t think you´d like the interior to get that cold anyway.
Also do you know if LPG water heaters usually accept a mixture of propane/butane or just one at a time?
The iMass mounts through the wall and the flue plate is external. As it’s not keeping the water warm all the time there is a risk that the water inside could freeze presumably as the external panel is metal and could conduct the cold into the unit.
It’s the manufacturer that advises it not to be used and drained in temperatures below 0 degrees C.
Doesnt the Truma use lots of gas? Most vans in Germany have Webasto and Whale water heaters, im in Scandinavia and plan on living full time so i guess webasto/ whale combination is best... will do lots of off grid too so solar panels and batteries will be big.
There are lots of variables when it comes to fuel consumption. How cold the water is, what temperature you’re heating to, how much hot water you use, how much you use the heating, (with the Truma Combi) Truma quote, 160g to 335g per hour for the Combi 4 (so heating and hot water).
Whale quote 93g per hour for their water heater.
Webasto quote 100ml of diesel per hour per kW.
Hard to compare as we don’t know under what usage / conditions the figures are calculated but they don’t seem a million miles away from each other.
@@ExploreVanUK agree with the variables but in Sweden I would be dealing with very long periods of sub zero temperatures.
Im leaning towards the diesel heaters more as it would be fed off the main diesel tank.
Lots to think about and plan...
Im new to this and looking at getting an off grid one , like to have solar , would the truma combi work off of that ?
The Truma Combi needs a 12v supply for the control panel etc when off grid. So with a suitable 12v leisure battery and solar you would be fine. (Obviously you would still need the LPG or diesel for the actual heater fuel)
@@ExploreVanUK thanks for reply , id like to get away from using lpg ,
The diesel option would be a good choice then.
Heating water food or air solely via battery / solar, whilst possible would require a very expensive solar and LiFePO4 battery set up and guaranteed sunlight to be able to keep up with the demand.
Currently my advice would be to stick to LPG or Diesel for any form of heating / cooking.
is there any that specifically run off of electricity n not gas/desal or not really?
There are 240v water heaters available for use on hook up.
Just buy a hot Eletric shower head 🚿 they use them back in my home country
Plug in 🔌 Shower head, shower head heats up
That’s when you really need it to tell you the truth
You mean what lots of people call a suicide shower? Not for me, only could be used when on grid as would blitz the batteries and not safety approved.
I know they are used a lot in less developed countries but personally I wouldn’t risk it.
@@ExploreVanUK you’ve got a point there
Better off boiling water lol
Try looking for a van shower and not get a British accent.