Eccotemp water heater on trailer

[DonBeasley]

Anyone use the Eccotemp Water heater L-5 on their trailer? If so, what kind of water pump are you using to supply the unit? Did you find one that works and do you have to make adjustments for the psi?

 

[Titanpat57]

Yep...use the Eccotemp..

Have a Shurflo 2.5 gpm pump..no issues outside of I thought I drained it properly before winter, and left in the trailer all winter, when I pulled it out, there was a small split in the valve. The repair parts are extremely reasonably priced, and the customer service was incredible.

I was finally able to get the right parts to connect it to my gas bottle...if you need it I'll share a few pics, and a parts list as well.

 

[DonBeasley]

Thanks for the info. Have you used it at higher altitudes? I hear it doesn't work well above about 5000-6000 feet.

 

[loren85022]

I have L5 and the sureflow 2.8. They flowed like a champ at ExPo-12. Mormon Lk is at 7,100 ft (Wiki)

Shots below are 2 weekends ago at Bartlett Lk.

 

[DonBeasley]

Thanks. I was there as well and that kind of altitude is what I was worried about.

 

[/dev/ram]

I'd appreciate pics of how it's mounted, gas and water line routing, etc. This is part of the plan for my M416, one of these days...

 

[DonBeasley]

I will echo that. I am planning on putting this in my M416 in the next few months.

 

[Woods]

It's probably six of one and half dozen of the other, but I'm very happy with my Campchef Triton 5L.

Couple things to keep in mind with these heaters. The Triton has a minimum flow requirement of half a gallon per minute. This is a pretty high flow rate and will eat through water pretty quickly. The pump that I use does not stay on, but pulses when the flow is that low. Something else is that the faucet at such a low flow rate does not provide a very strong jet action. I ended up filling a bunch of the holes in the head (with epoxy) to increase the jet action. Other than the jetting my system works pretty well.

Though I haven't tried it, I think a possible solution to the pulsing (other than using an accumulator), is to buy a lower flow pump. I found the Shurflo Aqua King Mini 1.0.LINK. My current pump (FlowJet Quiet Quad) has a flow rate of 3.3 gallons per minute. The Aqua King Mini has a flow rate of 1 gallon per minute.

 

[DonBeasley]

Good info. Thanks.

 

[loren85022]

Woods, Have you taken a shower at 1 GPM? just curious if its acceptable volume?

My pump operates a sink and the shower head. I measured the sink to be appx 3GPM. But I have a hunch, the shower nozzle is something less given the adjustable spray options.

We use the sink far more than the shower. For testing, I used a 5gal bucket to collect drainage. I kept it because its a nice way to monitor day-time flow. Of course the camp kitchen hates it 'cuz I look at it 5x/day.

 

[Woods]

It works okay. A 1.5 GPM shower head is considered the standard for low flow shower heads (in home). But it's about as low as you'd want to go. Here's one that goes down to .5 gpm but is adjustable: http://www.theenergyconscious.com/wat1028.html

 

[spressomon]

We have an Eccotemp L5 water heater we use with our Kimberley Kamper and its great. I played around with getting the water flow down and the corresponding pressure up. I was able to get the volume down to .75gpm with an Aquajet 12v water pump. We are using a bathroom style hand help shower head we got at Costco...and a penny fits inside the handle just perfectly...so I experimented by drilling a different hole diameter in a penny until I got to the least amount of flow the pump would handle (used up about 10 cents worth for my experiment :coffeedrink. The penny just serves as a flow limiter inside the handle...and higher pressure is a resulting benefit too! It works perfectly.

A couple years ago, apart of a straw bale home building project in Northern California, we used another's L5 for daily showers for 25-30 workers...and it never winced! Its especially nice when you have a rather unlimited supply of water...then its just a matter of dialing in your preferred temp and enjoying a fantastic shower... On most of our forays though we have limited water available so I just use the L5 to quickly heat however much water we need for hot showering. Typically we can have a nice shower with this set-up at 1-gallon per person. 1.5 gallon is fairly luxurious given most of our locales.

 

[loren85022]

Spressomon, when people come over to use our shower, I charge them 2 gallons. My thinking is I'm earning about 1 gallon of water each time. As for propane, we probably use 1/3rd tank per day and that includes 2+ hrs of fake fire for marsh mellows and a healthy Cuba Libre.

 

[DonBeasley]

Great info guys. Pictures would be good as well. You are convincing me to buy the L5. Anyone hooked it to a spray rig that you can buy at a farm and ranch store? These usually have a 16-25 gal tank on them and the pump is already hooked up. I am thinking of replacing my three 7gal water jugs with one as it will fit in my M416. Also anyone used a small accumulator on the outflow line to minimize pump cycle?

Again Thanks.

 

[Woods]

Spray rig? Now you got me looking through the Northern Tool site. Are these spot sprayers? I don't know that it would matter, but tank, hose and pump should be approved for drinking water. If these are, then I'd like more details about what they are. Link?

Great info guys. Pictures would be good as well. You are convincing me to buy the L5. Anyone hooked it to a spray rig that you can buy at a farm and ranch store? These usually have a 16-25 gal tank on them and the pump is already hooked up. I am thinking of replacing my three 7gal water jugs with one as it will fit in my M416. Also anyone used a small accumulator on the outflow line to minimize pump cycle?

Again Thanks.