[Evan]

Anybody ever had a LPG Instantaneous Water Boiler in there van to produce hot water?

[NWH]

Yeah they are dangerous get a bounce back loan and buy a proper diesel one 🤣🤣

[dazmond]

Anybody ever had a LPG Instantaneous Water Boiler in there van to produce hot water?

Type in gas hot water heater in the search bar......its been talked about many times......

I've had a lot of experience with these boilers....my advice would be to avoid them and go for an immersion or if you have a new van and the funds a professional fitted diesel heater.....

[NWH]

I’ve always been a fan of buying the right thing for the job the boiler you are talking about is not it,do they produce very hot water yes are they dangerous yes,are they made for window cleaning no.
The same argument could be made for a diesel heater as they are not initially designed for window cleaning they have been adapted for it and are safe,electric reel lightest poles possible and hot water, if anyone moans then you need to think about getting another job.

[nathankaye]

This old chestnut again, lol
I think myself n daz will try not to get involved 😁😁

[Dry Clean]

Most things can be dangerous in the wrong hands, caravans, motorhomes and so on all use gas powered water heaters safely, you will need to put your gas bottle in a container vented at the bottom (these can be bought on E Bay, Amazon for around £100) and to stop the build up of gas sometimes causing blow out/scary flame bang on the unit a flu is a mush have.

[NWH]

Get something that you can turn on and if there’s a problem it’ll turn itself off like a diesel heater,you say to yourself when you try one of these little heaters I’ll be ok I’ll check for leaks etc after a while you don’t bother and before you know it you’ve turned into a suicide bomber 🤣🤣

[Evan]

Anyone on here using immersion heater for hot water?

[harleyman]

Yep....i think we need to end it before it gets annoying 😠

[NWH]

Go on YouTube and type in squeaky clean Dave he’s done a video of how to fit an Immersion heater.

[dazmond]

Yep....i think we need to end it before it gets annoying 😠

Everything seems to annoy you these days mate.......take a few deep breaths........and relax.........👍

[dazmond]

Anyone on here using immersion heater for hot water?

Just make you dont get a 3kw one and risk melting your plugs/wires.........a 2kw will be fine on a normal circuit but you'll have to leave it on for a long time to get a hot tank of water if you have a 500l tank(14 hours at least)

[NWH]

Yeah 14 hrs to get warm water I get 60-70degree water from mine after about 6-8 minutes and there it stays,I know I bang on about hot water but it’s well worth the investment the stuff I’ve been cleaning lately has been filthy we’ve had that Sahara dust again cuts through it like a regular clean.

[High-Tower]

Yeah 14 hrs to get warm water I get 60-70degree water from mine after about 6-8 minutes and there it stays,I know I bang on about hot water but it’s well worth the investment the stuff I’ve been cleaning lately has been filthy we’ve had that Sahara dust again cuts through it like a regular clean.

no - 14hrs will get you 60 degree water.
 if you are serious about using an immersion spend a few hundred pound and have a separate spur/outlet wired into you fuse box to use a 3kw element, and that'll reduce heating time to 9hrs, and only cost about £4 a night to run.
much cheaper and more convenient than a diesel.
A 2kw element will still get you hot water, just take a bit longer to warm up.

[NWH]

You use that method fair enough but don’t go around telling people it’s a more convenient way of heating water what can be more convenient than hitting a switch and having hot water,the method you use gives you warm water but even if you have a jacket round the tank from the second you disconnect you’re plug it’s cooling down and it won’t stop the hose reel freezing on cold nights in the depths of winter.

[High-Tower]

£150 to fit versus £4500, is a lot of convenience.
Plug it into a timer over-night and forget -convenient.
No maintenance - convenient
No servicing - convenient
No extra leisure batteries to maintain/replace - convenient
No Running 2nd pump or having to plug in to recirculate during the day - convenient
No extra costs when I change vans - convenient
Less than 1/2 the running cost - convenient.
Frost free system without a heater kicking on at 2am, and no damage if it does freeze over a weekend - convenient

90% of the benefit 5% of the expense, and 50% of the running cost.

But sorry, I’ll ask your permission before I share my experience on a forum in future.

[Smudger]

You use that method fair enough but don’t go around telling people it’s a more convenient way of heating water what can be more convenient than hitting a switch and having hot water,the method you use gives you warm water but even if you have a jacket round the tank from the second you disconnect you’re plug it’s cooling down and it won’t stop the hose reel freezing on cold nights in the depths of winter.

This again shows your lack of understanding of the subject Nigel - with the immersion running silently through the night it keeps the whole van warm and frost free

Darran

[KS Cleaning]

You use that method fair enough but don’t go around telling people it’s a more convenient way of heating water what can be more convenient than hitting a switch and having hot water,the method you use gives you warm water but even if you have a jacket round the tank from the second you disconnect you’re plug it’s cooling down and it won’t stop the hose reel freezing on cold nights in the depths of winter.

I use a 3kw immersion and have foil wrapped around my tank to keep the water hot, I deliberately left part of the tank uncovered so it acts as a radiator, so no frozen hoses.

[Evan]

Do you guys fit the heating element near bottom of the tank?

[Pete Thompson]

You use that method fair enough but don’t go around telling people it’s a more convenient way of heating water what can be more convenient than hitting a switch and having hot water,the method you use gives you warm water but even if you have a jacket round the tank from the second you disconnect you’re plug it’s cooling down and it won’t stop the hose reel freezing on cold nights in the depths of winter.

An interesting point here.

While that is technically true, of course the water in the tank will cool during the day (and more so when the ambient temperature is colder) the temperature of the water actually in use during the day doesn't actually change much.

How so?

When you heat a tank of water, using an immersion heater or whatever, you do not get the same temperature of water throughout the tank.  I've done some quite extensive testing on this over the last 2 years, and what I have found is that the water is usually about 10-15 degrees hotter at the top of the tank than the bottom.

As an example, I have heated the water in my 700 litre tank up to around 45 degrees, as measured at the bottom.  But the temperature at the top is around 55-60 degrees.  I have measured this differential during the day, and it seems to stay almost the same no matter how much driving and mixing is done.  (It's a baffled Ionic tank)

So, what this means is that, as you use the water, you use the coldest water first, and gradually as the level goes down you start to use the hotter water.  If all were equal, the water you use during the day would gradually get hotter and hotter.

Now, the cooling of the water has the opposite effect.  By amazing co-incidence, my tank loses about 10 - 15 degrees of heat during the day due to cooling (depending on how cold the day is).  This cooling effect is actually very welcome as the heat the tank loses is radiated into the van, which keeps the whole van warm throughout the day, even in sub-zero conditions.

So, these two opposing effects pretty much cancel each other out, to give a pretty consistent 45 degrees of working water.

TL;DR - The water does cool during the day, but as you use the water, you start to use the hotter water at the top of the tank which cancels out the effect.