Hot water via inverter help?

[jeepdreamer]

So I think this is more a power question which is why I'm asking it here. If I'm wrong (mods) please tell me to move it.
I happened across this fairly small, house sink instant hot water heater thingy. Obviously it runs on 110 but it made me wonder... If I plugged it in via my inverter and ran it to my water tank... Could this work for a jeep based hot water source for a shower/drinking/etc??? Would it draw to much juice?? Thoughts.

 

[Haf-E]

Its rated at 750 watts - so it can run off your inverter most likely. The amount of water it will produce is another matter - these are usually intended to fill up a cup for tea or soup and usually take 10 seconds or so to do it (from past experience) so not a lot of hot water output. Certainly could be used to fill up a portable shower bag or a weed sprayer setup.

You'll also need a pump and a tank of water and most likely a mixing valve to prevent being scalded as these usually put out very hot water.

 

[Rickbfried]

An easier solution is to look at the marine world. There are systems that run hot water via the engine to a water heater as an intercooler in reverse. The engine cooling water runs in captive coils inside the tank.

 

[Happy Joe]

I considered this sort of thing, in depth, for tent camping (including salvaging the heater out of a drip coffee maker) electrical water heating looks like a net loser overall, if running from batteries. I went with a trangia alcohol burner to heat morning wash/shaving water. Larger quantities of water is heated on a stove (propane or white gas) although I have considered a propane on demand heater, the bulk and hassle is more than I want to deal with but probably practical for trailer camping.

Enjoy!

 

[rayra]

watts is amps times volts. And there's a small percentage of power lost via an inverter process. Your 750 watt device on 115VAC is about 7 Amps out of your inverter at 115VAC. It's about 50amps+ out of your battery. That's a pretty big draw. I don't think you'll be wanting to use it in more than a limited fashion without a period of fast idle every day to recharge your battery(ies)


There's a guy in the storage drawer forum that has a large capacity potable water tank and he uses a multi-plate heat exchanger setup. He recirculates that water tank thru the exchanger during the mobile part of his day and has a lot of hot water at the end of his day for showers and dishes.

eta scratch the above, missed the 'jeep' part. You don't have tank capacity. Might want to look into a propane-based solution, using a 10-lb bottle. Something like this will do both showers and small hot water supplies. You can rig it to run from your water cans etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Eccotemp-L5-P...-1&keywords=Propane+Tankless+Hot+Water+Heater

 

[Joe917]

When we are stationary for a while we heat our water with a 750 watt element in our 5 gal hot water tank. Running off 520 amp/hrs battery bank powered by 630 Watts solar, so probably a bit heavy for a Jeep.

 

[KE7JFF]

What about one of those screw on shower head water heaters? I think Home Depot carries them.

 

[ryan212]

That is a 2500 watt heater. You would need a huge battery bank to power this.

 

[Happy Joe]

If considering a propane tankless heater here is what I was looking at;
https://www.eccotemp.com/re-conditioned-eccotemp-l5-portable-tankless-water-heater/
I don't know if your setup includes a pump so that may complicate things a bit.
Enjoy!

 

[Bbasso]

I have an eccotemp L5 and it's pretty good, but it does have its quirks as Verkstad mentioned also it doesn't like wind... tends to blow out the flame.