Also, I need to make yet ANOTHER amendment to the On-Board Hot Water shower build.
After being out on the trails over 2 days, getting the jeep nice and hot and the tank sloshing around, I realized that the system has yet another flaw. Unfortunately with a prototype system, it takes real field testing to make it perform correctly!
I mentioned previously that the hot water line needs to be cracked open at all times to prevent pressure build up in that line from residual water. Well, that still rings true, since I don't have some kind of pressure relief valve built into the system.
What I found over the weekend, is that the high pressure in the "hot water" line and the low pressure in the "cold water" line, will actually draw water out of the tank, and past the water pump, when the system isn't being used. I lost about 8gals of water per day due to the issue. Closing the hot water valve would create a pressure build up, which is what I want to avoid.
I figured out that the only solution would be to install a "ball valve" into the fresh water line between the tank and the water pump, that way it wouldn't draw water out of the tank at all. These are the parts I picked up at Lowe's to fix the simple problem:
