16' Series Portable Hot water system discussion

[Jez85]

Hi All,

First time poster long time thread reader! I need options around connecting a portable hot water system directly into the mains water inlet on my expanda. Wife wants hot water in the van for dishes etc (I know I could boil a kettle and we have been) but also the convenience of a outside shower for our 2 boys.. I am looking at the Hot tap by Joolca but am wondering before I commit on whether anyone has had experience in running an additional hose connection (where the shower head would normally go) and connect it directly into the inlet mains connection on the expanda, so in theory hot water would flow directly into the van? Can this be done, is there enough pressure to push the hot water so that it flows out of the kitchen tap? Sounds like it should work but am no expert!

Appreciate the feedback!

 

[chartrock]

Sounds like you would have no cold water available in the van unless the hot water was off or disconnected. Not an ideal situation. The best way would be to run a hot water pipe from the heater directly to another tap (or a dual hot/cold tap) on your sink.

By the way, welcome to the forum, @Jez85, another member may come up with a better suggestion

 

[Jez85]

Sounds like you would have no cold water available in the van unless the hot water was off or disconnected. Not an ideal situation. The best way would be to run a hot water pipe from the heater directly to another tap (or a dual hot/cold tap) on your sink.

By the way, welcome to the forum, @Jez85, another member may come up with a better suggestion

Cheers for the reply. Yes had the same discussion with the wife and we aligned that we could just use the tank hand pump tap for cold water, again isn't ideal. Might have to look into running an addition pipe into the current kitchen tap as it is already set up to take both hot and cold but just not connected. My main concern is the Joocla being able to push the hot water through the mains inlet at a rate that would enable enough pressure at the tap.

 

[Dobbie]

Sounds like a bit of a challenge.....I'm not sure it would work effectively.

Do you have the onboard external shower or are you looking at adding one?

If the plan is to add both the shower and the hot water you might be better with one of those Coleman hot water cubes...you could hook it up to the gas bottle or take an extra bottle....then just use that for water at the temp you need for the shower.....no need to change the plumbing.

It sounds like boiling the kettle for the washing up is far easier.

and....:welcome:

 

[Jez85]

Sounds like a bit of a challenge.....I'm not sure it would work effectively.

Do you have the onboard external shower or are you looking at adding one?

If the plan is to add both the shower and the hot water you might be better with one of those Coleman hot water cubes...you could hook it up to the gas bottle or take an extra bottle....then just use that for water at the temp you need for the shower.....no need to change the plumbing.

It sounds like boiling the kettle for the washing up is far easier.

and....:welcome:

Yep the Coleman is similar to what I am looking at.. Just looking to kill 2 birds with one stone, Hot water external shower and hot water into kitchen sink. I would run a standard hose connection from where the red shower hose is to connect, straight into the van mains inlet for hot water in the sink, and then swap/reattach the shower head for when we need to utilize the shower function. Can mount this into a Jerry can holder on the A frame next to the gas bottle and all that would be required is swapping over the hose connections from Shower function to hot water into the van. Think this unit will do it but still just not sure of the pressure it would output into the van..

 

[bigcol]

welcome @Jez85 to the forum

hmmm, interesting what you are asking, as @Dobbie said, do you already have the outside shower? - I dont think so by your post (but may be wrong)
if you dont already, are you going to be using the front tap as your shower?
in this instance, yes it would work, but as @chartrock said, you would not have any cold water to adjust the temp

 

[Jez85]

welcome @Jez85 to the forum

hmmm, interesting what you are asking, as @Dobbie said, do you already have the outside shower? - I dont think so by your post (but may be wrong)
if you dont already, are you going to be using the front tap as your shower?
in this instance, yes it would work, but as @chartrock said, you would not have any cold water to adjust the temp

Yep no outside shower currently. The water temp is controlled on the unit, cold water mains hose plugs directly into the unit, unit heats water to desired temp and the sends it out through the outlet connection (of which i want to then connect into the van mains inlet connection). The unit would be the 'middle man' so to speak of the normal cold water connection from caravan parks main tap, direct to vans inlet connection thus creating heated water into the van. In the instance of wanting to have an outside shower, you would then disconnect the hose that is running from the Hot water system to the van and attached the shower head hose.. The trade off is, no cold water in the van unless the unit is turned off (which is a flick of the switch) and I'm not convinced that the pressure the system would release is strong enough to be desired for the kitchen tap. I have trolled through various forums looking for anyone that has tried it to no avail which isn't filling me with much hope

 

[bigcol]

I have been lead to believe that the Joolca one does have very good pressure

from the videos I have seen anyway

 

[Crusty181]

Hi All,

First time poster long time thread reader! I need options around connecting a portable hot water system directly into the mains water inlet on my expanda. Wife wants hot water in the van for dishes etc (I know I could boil a kettle and we have been) but also the convenience of a outside shower for our 2 boys.. I am looking at the Hot tap by Joolca but am wondering before I commit on whether anyone has had experience in running an additional hose connection (where the shower head would normally go) and connect it directly into the inlet mains connection on the expanda, so in theory hot water would flow directly into the van? Can this be done, is there enough pressure to push the hot water so that it flows out of the kitchen tap? Sounds like it should work but am no expert!

Appreciate the feedback!

Hi, and welcome. I've got a Joolca Hot Tap at my factory and I'm very happy with it. It has a built in pressure reduction so runs directly off the mains which is great. They also have a purpose made rack and travel bag to permanently mount externally to a van bumper

To get hot water to your kitchen youll need a flick mixer which you may already have. If you have a mixer it will have a "T" junction under the bench splitting the cold supply to both the hot and cold side of the mixer.

You'll need to remove the split cold, put the existing cold mains direct to the cold side of the mixer, split the mains nearer to the vans main connector and run that second line via the Joolca, through a non-return valve to the hot side of the mixer.

Then you'll have hot and cold water whenever you want. My factory in Dandenong, your welcome to have a look at the Joolca

 

[bigcol]

I was going to suggest something like @Crusty181 said
fix up your internal flick mixer to how it could / should be - Hot/Cold
then run a dedicated line from the Joolca to the tap.... that way, you will have the hot water internally like you want
so a T piece under the unit that has the hot water outlet - one to internal Van, and one to external shower

I cannot see a problem with that

it is somewhat like what I was thinking, if SWMBO really really wanted hot water internally

 

[JT76]

We run the Joolca and regarding pressure it will be fine. You control both pressure and temp on the unit. For myself I run pressure at just under half for shower and it's good. As pressure increases you need to increase temp as you need to heat more water per second. I haven't tried it at max pressure but I'm sure it will still get hot enough.

 

[Jez85]

Thanks guys, have set up the Joolca and are extremely happy with the result!! Hot water in the kitchen through the mixer and hot shower to wash the boys, bikes, ect on the Aframe tap!