Can anyone recommend a water heater?

Hi all.

I've had a propane water heater in my van for a while, however I've not often used it as I've had 'issues' with it not switching itself off and then getting burst pipes.

The other day I upgraded my pump controller and decided I would give it another try... oddly it all started working as it should.

As in... when the pump stopped it would stop, or when too much pressure was on it (stopping water via univalve) it would shut off.

The gas ran out, so today I got a new bottle... but now the same old problem is back, the damn things won't shut itself off... and I had a nice mushroom cloud incident with a burst pipe and steam.

So I can only think that the heater is dead (unless I'm missing something)??

Can anyone recommend a heater?

I think the one I've got is a 6L job from ebay (with a 5L 100PSI pump).

Cheers

Jason

I would not recommend a portable shower gas water heater as its an accident waiting to happen.

I had one and came back to the van to find that the battery box and wiring had melted. Luckily my was outside on the back door.

I have since fitted a 2kw immersion heater in a seperate tank in garage. Heat up overnight and fill to van tank in morning, much safer and only use in extreme cold weather.

Other option is a much safer but expensive on demand diesel hot box.

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I’ve had ‘issues’ with my LPG heater. Works brilliantly but I’ve noticed the wiring inside of it has melted and the battery holster has started to melt - I came back to my van one day and flames were coming out of the top of the heater, it’s safe to say I’m a bit wary of it now!!!! Yours sounds like the flow switch is faulty/stuck. I personally think an immersion heater in the tank is the cheapest form of heating water. Next up is the webasto/erberspacher - but again - I’ve had reliability issues with the systems I’VE had. The alternative - which no one has suggested or mentioned yet is a caravan water heater (trauma, carver cascade which run in lpg and/or 240v) these are a similar price to a ‘shop’ brought diesel system but I would imagine they are more reliable and economical to run (caravan owners are renown for being tight!!!). I’ve yet to see one in a van though. You could always change your LPG heater for a decent ‘fixed’ caravan boiler with fixed flue out the van roof - your talking £300 upwards but I get the impression they aren’t rushed out of a Chinese factory like the horse shower variety are!


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Thanks guys. 

I think I'll try getting another one, for now. I see there is newer silver model. 

Also yep for sure an immersion heater is on the cards. Was looking into that yesterday as it happens. 

Cheers

Jase. 

Would you say that an immersion heater is a safe what about the risk of Legionnaires' disease

Mark Thomas said:

Would you say that an immersion heater is a safe what about the risk of Legionnaires' disease

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Legionella thrives at temperatures between 20-45 degrees centigrade. If the temperature is below 20 degrees centigrade the bacteria is dormant, and not actively growing and multiplying. If the temperature is 50 degrees centigrade or more the bacteria are killed.

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Legionella only forms in stagnant water it’s very unlikely to form in a window cleaning storage tank that’s used daily ,it’s usulay associated with cooling towers and air conditioning water that forms from condensation 

Absolutely@pjj, I used to work in water treatment, legionella control with cooling towers.
The ironic thing with legionella is usually if there is any cases or outbreaks it gets sourced back to Hospitals as they have so many air conditioner units, cooling towers and boilers.
Legionella is airborne and it is the cooling fan unit blowing a fine mist in to the air that if contaminated will lead to an outbreak.
These are also recirculating mostly the same water daily.
Any heated water for WFP gets used and replaced daily.

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XLCleaning said:

If your after a quick fix to take the edge off in the mornings then fill your tank in the morning straight from your hot water tap. With an insulated tank you will have hot/warm water for at least a couple of hours. Don’t know if and how this would work with an ro but it’s fine with a di system. Be wary though as water from your boiler can increase your tds readings so you will need to do some tests and work out if the extra resin use is worth it.


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I dont understand the the science behind it but pure water with a  tds. Reading of 000 will show a reading when it’s heated but when it’s cooled it will return to 000 I have experimented with this several times cannot explains why this happens but it does 

They say an L5 gas portable water heater is the cheapest way but only heats the water you are using. A fireman I worked with caught legionnaires disease from a new hotel in Spain. It was when he went for a shower.

Pjj said:

I dont understand the the science behind it but pure water with a  tds. Reading of 000 will show a reading when it’s heated but when it’s cooled it will return to 000 I have experimented with this several times cannot explains why this happens but it does 

Click to expand...

The mystery of science.

It's due to the molecules getting excited as it heats, so they move faster, skewing the readings as the impurities move faster and more often between the probes. Even with 0ppm there are probably a couple molecules that get through, otherwise you wouldn't have the parts per billion resin ionics sell. Something like that anyway