Hot Water Heater

[Kokomo]

After using and exploring many options, we now have a 2.5 gallon electric hot water heater. We use the sun-shower most of the time, but when that isn't hot, we hook up the electric heater directly to the Honda 2000 and have hot water in 8 minutes. The unit was around $150 and installation was easy using water lines from rear shower.

[Cat Tales]

Which make/model did you install?

[Lady of the Lake]

What happened to the Excel? Didn't you buy one of those?

Sam

[Kokomo]

The heater is a "Tiny Titan" by US Craftmaster waterheaters. We did experience some clouding of the water from sitting in the tank. We now use the hot water faucet for most of our needs in order to circulate the water through the 2.5 gal. holding tank.

[maxicrom]

Our boat came with the standard propane demand heater and our insurance required us to remove it. As a replacement we added a simple 4 gal marine electric water heater and mounted it in the port aft hull (all the way at the rear of the compartment above the shaft log). I'm a little nuts about keeping our boat on 30A power so I exchanged the 18A 120v heating element with a 15A 220v unit which only draws about 7.5A @ 110v. It takes a little longer to heat up but we have not seen this as a problem since we rarely shower on board at the marina. Even with our AC, Battery charger, etc. running we stay under a 30A load. Installing it in the engine compartment will allow us to use the engine for hot water under way (I haven't added the Yanmar connections yet) and provide extra heat in the engine compartment over the winter.

The 220v elements can be ordered online or purchased at any plumbing store (the one I purchased was $12.00 online). It's been working for about a year now without any issues.

Maxi

[Kokomo]

I saw Sam's question about the Excel - sorry for the long delay.... We did purchase the "standard" Excel model and it retro-fitted to the Wolters easily. It did experience some surface rust on the exterior after 6 months. It was difficult to control the temp. The water would be a little too hot and then a little too cool. We exchanged it for the "marine" version after a year with just an upgrade charge (the only difference was the lack of D-cell batteries for ignition). No real change in performance and when the heater completely failed in a few months, and no replacements were in stock, we took the company offer of a full refund. We are still using the 2.5 gal. electric when the sunshower isn't hot enough. The Excel company was great to deal with!

BTW - if you are using a sunshower, replace the nozzle with a sprayer from a household sink, and add additional hose, so you can run the hose into the shower stall.

From Hadley Harbor MA