Interior Hot water system

[1DayIll]

Has anyone fitted a hot water system to an expanda that does not have a system. I am thinking of just going electric/12 v.

Ideally it would be hot enough for kitchen sink and also have the ability to run and outdoor shower as well.

Thanks

 

[Drover]

Had a look around 12v and some 12v/240v systems they all seem to have a 10-15lt capacity and want a16-20a, 200w I imagine at 12v/200W it would be a bit of a draw to get it cooking probably a hour or more, a 240/1000W kettle takes long enough for just 1.5 lts, so certainly need heaps of storage or good sunshine ................................

Thankfully someone elsewhere did some maths and came up with this result ......................

QUOTE" Using the Duoetto 10l unit it takes 2hr 15 mins to heat the water from 15C to 70C using 25A @ 12v therefore 56.75Ah. If you use 5l of that water then you will use approximately another 28.4Ah or 5.675Ah for every litre of hot water that you use. UNQUOTE"

Bit expensive on the battery I would think and if you used it a couple of times a day it you would certainly need a high recovery rate for the batteries, of course the time needed has so many variables, with temperature, cable loss its all ball park figures but still a lot of power and you wuldn't want to be using it a few times a day, 10lt isn't a great amount of water.... certainly a quick bird bath shower......... Possibly could be made into a portable unit , make a nice box for it, just need to be close to battery with direct connection with some 4 B&S cables for sure, short as possible ideally, tap into van water pump and lines ....

I haven't checked the figures but probably close, had a 12v kettle once in my truck, would hold 2 cups and even on 24v took ages to get to boil and had to keep the truck running or not enough juice in battery to start .if the water was cold .............

I reckon something like the Joocla Hot Tap Nomads kit is the way to go myself. .... portable but could be fixed, instant HW and is plug an play ........... not overly expensive ...... Im tempted to get one myself................................. https://www.joolca.com.au/products/hottap-v2?variant=45054183702705

 

[poor but proud]

Has anyone fitted a hot water system to an expanda that does not have a system. I am thinking of just going electric/12 v.

Ideally it would be hot enough for kitchen sink and also have the ability to run and outdoor shower as well.

Thanks

the word "outdoor shower", makes me think one of the portable lpg gas cubes might be an option without getting all complicated inside the van, and the kettle inside the van takes care of the washing up. KISS. if you go that way get one that connects to a decent gas cylinder the ones that use canisters are very expensive gas

 

[jazzeddie1234]

portable lpg gas cube

I had one for about 2 camping trips before selling it and going back to the trusty 5l pressure sprayer painted black. To much hassle to set up for me.

Watched and interesting review of an instantaneous hws fitted where the gas one usually goes on a jayco. The upshot was it was not so useful for free camping as it needs a fair bit of water to trigger the heat

 

[Drover]

The upshot was it was not so useful for free camping as it needs a fair bit of water to trigger the heat

Thats right, I remember years back we had a thread about the portable HWS and disposable gas cans and the amount of water used before things got hot was a big downside to some of them, connections also ........................

The Joopla Hot Tap Nomad version that I looked at, used a proper gas bottle, easy fittings and packed into itself, so would be okay for off grid stuff I suppose and if you had a van without the plumbing it really wouldn't be that difficult to plumb some lines, a tap inside and the old portable shower set up ......

 

[jazzeddie1234]

The simplest setup I've used is a hot water bag placed on the edge of the rolled out awning and the shower tent under that. The 12v fridge has fixed all my gas consumption problems so I use the suburban gas hws a lot more these days

 

[Drover]

In my camper days a Jerry can of water left in the sun with shower bag on top meant plenty of hotters for showers ....................... my new fridge with souped up insulation gave more life to my gas bottles then I replaced the regulator and wow a few more extra days and no pong when gas was getting low, so can go for near 3 weeks alongside a creek, used to work on a bottle for 7-8 days now I can give them 10-11 days as a minimum, thats full days fridge, cooking and HWS use, so turned on the whole time with HWS only when needed.... insulated hot water lines as well......... even thought about one of those portable jobs for cooking water drawn from a creek with a outside fitting to plumb into shower , so didn't use the van plumbing with a small lift pump and filter from creek but the amount of time we are by a creek with nice water isn't often so didn't follow up the idea...