Club 80-90 Forums

The idea has been mulling around for a little while.
A trip away with Dutchdude (Rob) and his solar water heating system got us thinking.
We had 3 quick showers out of twenty litres. Let's be honest it's a quick freshen up shower but really that's all thats needed.

The first problem was our weather doesn't get hot enough to rely on solar heating which got me thinking and a trip to my favourite place and return home without a normal heat exchanger but this..



Dug out a 12v water pump (purchased last year solely for the job.



The idea was to plumb it into the van's coolant system somewhere take a water feed from the external tanks. But the calorifier had 12mm outlet inlet so played around with them to get them to 15mm to fit the coolant pipes, bit of solder/ copper tube and job was a god 'un.



This its new home



And now in with drain off valve fitted to prevent winter freezing.



Episode 2 later

Looking good!

How much water does it hold?

10-15L by the looks of it

Mine T's off the rear underbench heater pipes but the tank is in the rear wardrobe. It gets hot !

I would think about the person who has to sit on the bench above it Pete. Betty swollocks and all that !

The tank has a radiator thermostat to control the coolant flow through the tank. If its left open the water gets up to near coolant temperature.

Mark

spray it with expanding foam, then trim it off to a decent shape. Pretty good insulation and no betty swallocks!

Lloyd, it doesn't do 15 litres, 3.5 in fact. It's not a storage tank just heating up.

Mark, Hot seating is still to come.

Mark, Yes we took the heater fed from the the rear heater pips.



On a trial run, the tank heated to 'ouchey' , not burn but HOT.

Following on from tank trial - install of temporary water tank and test



Short run-3miles, tank was starting to warm up. Maximum of 10 mins on the road tank showed 65 deg c.

We got terribly excited on return and started to route pipes but heard gurgling, turned out to be a loose connection but prior to identifying leak the tank had deposited a good 5 litres inside (bad solder joint)

Skip forward, van was tidied up inside - pipe wise and protection re-fitted.



Need to fit a valve here and stop the coolant heating constantly, idea is to fit a valve when the pump is triggered for heating water.

As far as insulation 30mm polysterene (all the way round) and encapsulated with a nice metal sheet shroud.

Got to do some part shopping in the morning to try an complete hot water shower installation...

Onwards to completion

Spent the morning at my favourite place and found 12v solenoid, re-thought the coolant pipes under Georgia's bottom and puts us in control of the heat.



And all insulated



Pipework routed around engine bay, inlet from external tank pulled through calorifier, then pushed onto external tank.



Wired up. Main pump control 'up front' to activate pump and solenoid to get the heat.
Shower control wired to divert water to shower and activate pump. ATM we are hot water only though.



Pipework into tunnel to take the feed to the tanks


Tank location idea stolen from Dutchdude, 2 tanks will hold 40 litres. A good half decent shower will use 1/3 of a tank.



Hey presto hot water shower


More bits arrived for doka so back onto that.

Can see the q forming at SPD already !

Standing in line already. ..

that's an awesome piece of kit you have made ! love it !

I remember you talking about this last year, really cool you finished it. Makes my shower look like crap now. Might copy you on the idea.. Are you going to put a shower curtain around the rear hatch?

I've had so many technical problems lately I'm seriously doubting the syncro's reliability as a travel vehicle. Thoughts of getting rid of it and investing in a unimog crossed my mind..

Cheers

Syncros don't have technical problems... they just have maintenance needs !

A bit like needy children, one thing after another...

Awesome !

showertastic