Hot water in your van.

[jed the spread]

I have been thinking for a while how to get hot water from Our camper for a while now. We have one of those 12volt showers that is really good and carry a big black jerry can that gets really quite hot in the summer when left on the roof rack in the sun. We also have a clip on tent that hangs from the tailgate and this gives us a shower room while we toured Europe last summer and this also worked a treat. I have been wondering for quite a while now that if I took some of that thin copper pipe and wrapped it round the J pipe on my exhaust (diesel engine) loads of times and put another whale pump in our water tank it would act effectively as a heat exchanger and heat the water coming out of the shower head under the tailgate?

A bit like this I suppose, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccGcVHVB ... ture=feedf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What do you all think?

jed

[lloydy]

It would work, but have you seen those little water cylinders that you plumb into your coolant pipes?
The main issue with using the exhaust is you would be suprised how hot it will get, you will need to mix it with cold water so you don't get scalded. I've seen the cylinders on eBay for about £20 so pretty cheap, then all you would need is a thermostatic valve, which again are pretty cheap

[jed the spread]

It would work, but have you seen those little water cylinders that you plumb into your coolant pipes?
The main issue with using the exhaust is you would be suprised how hot it will get, you will need to mix it with cold water so you don't get scalded. I've seen the cylinders on eBay for about £20 so pretty cheap, then all you would need is a thermostatic valve, which again are pretty cheap

I know Jake bought some fancy pants plumb in thingy like the one your talking about from Australia but it was alot more than £20, have you got a link? I was thinking try the exhaust thing then just reduce the amount of coils round the exhaust pipe until it gets something like.

jed

[CycloneMike]

Have a look out for a calorifier from an ex BT van.

[lloydy]

Just been looking on eBay, non on there for sensible money at the moment. You need to search for a calorifier for campervan. New they seem to be £200 +. There was a fair few on eBay last year for peanuts.
I'm sure Tom had a set up that involved copper pipe wrapped around the Hobs, might be a bit more controllable?

[jed the spread]

If its in the van Isaac will burn his hands or worse in it.

Ahhh I have seen the calorifier things but they are to big for in my van, space is valuable. The one Jake has is the size if a beer can I think and it goes in line on your coolant hoses and will give you hot water when the engine is hot. Maybe a less permanent Pan sizes gizmo might be worth thinking about.

jed

[ninja.turtle007]

The thing I made that sits on the hob is only there whilst you bring the water upto temp. Maybe 10mins depending on the starting temp of the water. Preheat the water in the sun as you have been.

Leave the water running through it for a few seconds after turning ofthe gas to cool it.

It's a bit of a fiddle but works well. Needs more development.

[ringo]

I'd be looking for an old caravan water heater that ran in gas. Box it up, slap it in the roof rack and plug it in to the BBQ point when you need it. But as you say, with space being an issue. Also you tend to use your engine every day so your idea sounds a good one.

For your solution do you think you need a special pump that can take very hot water?

the florida uses gravity to get got water from the heater in the roof and pumps cold water from the tank up to the water boiler.

Ringo

[ghost123uk]

A friend of mine had a narrow boat with a heat exchanger such as the one you describe (wrapped around the exhaust with asbestos over the pipe) the copper pipe then ran around the inside of a smallish cylinder (like a small domestic hot water cylinder) in the form of another heat exchanger, presumably like the insides of a steam trains boiler.

This system also ran the water around the engines inlet manifold also (presumably to heat it rather than cool it).

I know all this because I had to fix it after which it worked very well.

The heat exchanger tank on the boat was too big for a camper, but I am sure a smaller one could be made.
I see that this is not as good as a more simple "on demand only" system, but I personally don't think a simple on demand system could be made to have suitable temp control.

[billybigspud]

i have got this you could have jed.i am sure you could take it apart and use the guts. runs off of the alternator. i took it out of the new van i bought. it is made by eber. pm me if interested. i would use it but am too lazy.

[Aberdeenbus]

I have one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/camper-heater ... 336ed65125" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think it came from a BT van and I have it connected to the heater circuit, it makes 9 LT of very hot water in no time at all.

It realy is a cracking bit of fit and forget kit.

Cheers
Si

[ghost123uk]

That looks very similar to the set up I mentioned above as fitted to a canal boat

[miggs]

so these calorifers how do they actually get water out ??? once heated excuse the questions just a bit confused

[Aberdeenbus]

There are four connections two for the internal coil that
you connect to the heater circuit
And one in the bottom for the cold water in and one in the top for the
Hot water out.
Ultimately the cold water in dilutes the hot water but by the time your
Heater is blowing warm air out of the air vents your water will be nicely warm
It prob cost £40 all in for lashings of hot water


Cheers
So

[v-lux]

i have got this you could have jed.i am sure you could take it apart and use the guts. runs off of the alternator. i took it out of the new van i bought. it is made by eber. pm me if interested. i would use it but am too lazy.

Ive been thinking for while now that the innards of one of those could be used for this purpose. There's one in the work truck i use, the only downside is having to fill it up all the time, however i'm sure it could have a constant feed to keep it topped up if done properly.

Still not sure how big the internals are, however i suspect that they're not all that big once you get rid of all the unwanted stuff.