Considering getting a new water heater installed

delicagirl

Full Member
Posts
5,579
Likes
6,592
I have no hot water in the van. The ancient gas water heater is non-repairable. Replacement could be a relatively easy job - unscrew 12 screws, pull out the metal box (which is accessible via the outside of the back of the van and which box contains the water heater) put in new heater, but then have to brace it/wedge it, as the new truma heater I propose buying is 4" smaller than the internal dimensions of the metal box containing the current dead heater. Also the flue hole is a different size and shape, so, there could be a bit of jiggling about to get that right.

or it could be a pig of a job - what isn't on this van !! - and some of the kitchen units could have to come out if the old heater needs to be removed via the inside of the van.

It could be an all day job and at £42 an hour which is what Blaenavon Caravan workshop charge, this is gonna be one expensive job. The Heater I am looking at is a Truma 14 litre gas/electric heater. This will power a shower, which I can use inside or outside the van for hair and body (the van has a funny little door opening to allow the shower hose to go outside (it means I would not have to spend ages drying out the tiny toilet/shower room.) There is a new 14 litre truma on ebay for £375 - Blanaevon want more than £459 for the same heater.

Any ideas ? Do I need to do this at all ? I do get fed up with strip washes I have to say - and have not yet found a satisfactory way of washing my long hair in the van using a kettle for water heating. I have used swimming pools, and dock side and motorway service stations for showers in the past. But that's all a bit haphazard

Any ideas ? Do I need to spend so much money on this ? Do I need to do it at all ?
 
E Bay Heater..Not for me

If you want to replace with the heater I suggest paying the extra and get it done properly with Blanaevon checking of of course you get a parts and labour warranty.
What is their estimate for fitting ?

Given what you say about hair you will find this better.

However beware POWER SHOWER (Or how you use) they will simply use too much water and you will be constantly filling your main water tank.
 
Last edited:
Thanks - until they get the old heater box out of the van they cannot judge how many hours it will take - that's a very reasonable stance from their perspective, as it is an odd van. I did ask if it could take a day, and the Workshop manager who looked at the van and discussed various options with me said he would be most surprised if it took that long. Tidying up the rear of the van to be waterproof will be a challenge after the flue vent is created.
 
Look at

Some of the latest Posts on Hairwashing

Maybe do without and see how it goes.
The post about mixing boiling water with cold to get a decent volume of warm water in particular.
Given the other complications..
I spent over £1000 on a water ingress repair.
Given what you say about the Flue !!!!

I suspect the labour would be 5 or 6 hours max but combined withe the part and other items !!!!

We are lucky..I am retired and have a sensible Pension and indeed savings.
We let out our house whilst we full-time in Motorhome
So it is worthwhile making sure we have all the goodies as the rental income covers such costs
Hot Water
LPG
Solar panel

However we wild a lot and mix Boiling water (from kettle) with cold for washing etc
But the shower is good as well
 
Years ago when we had a caravan we used a garden pressure sprayer with the head bent at a jaunty angle as a shower and very good it was too. A kettle of water mixed with some cold would shower two of us easily. And the adjustable spray pattern got into all the nooks and crannys:scared: so although you could replace the water heater you could just as easily get away without one.
Dave
 
Hmm.

There's no hot water heater in my van either - and I have thought several times about adding one. But then, given the hassle and expense, and the fact that we don't get to spend more than a week or so at at time away in the van due to work and at the moment its not too much of an inconvenience without it.

Heating the water in a kettle (as others state) and washing the old-fashioned way has done the job so far - if away more than a couple of days then its a case of spending perhaps every 3rd night at a small C&CC site to dump waste and refill with water etc. - and doing this provides the opportunity then to also use the on-site Showers.

I mountain bike so often my van trips involve a spot of MTB-ing, and some of the trail centres have really good token showers at £1 a pop - so this also does the job nicely.

I also have one of those £5 solar showers (basically a black bladder with a hose and small shower head which you hang up and let gravity do its thing) which works well, and you can fill this with pre-heated water if its not Sunny and will do the job too. I've only used this at the beach so far, but it works - I think this might be less faff than the garden sprayer option as you can hold the solar shower head in one hand and wash your hair with the other and its not too unwieldy - so you could perhaps manage to use it over the sink unit to wash your hair? (Note I haven't tried the G-Sprayer so maybe I'm wrong).

Given that you might be considering a spend by the sound of it the best part of £700 minimum on a new water heater, and potentially rather more with flue faffing and so on - aren't you tempted to compromise and trying to find ways to manage without a dedicated water heater?

G.
 
delicagirl said:
I have no hot water in the van. The ancient gas water heater is non-repairable. Replacement could be a relatively easy job - unscrew 12 screws, pull out the metal box (which is accessible via the outside of the back of the van and which box contains the water heater) put in new heater, but then have to brace it/wedge it, as the new truma heater I propose buying is 4" smaller than the internal dimensions of the metal box containing the current dead heater. Also the flue hole is a different size and shape, so, there could be a bit of jiggling about to get that right.

or it could be a pig of a job - what isn't on this van !! - and some of the kitchen units could have to come out if the old heater needs to be removed via the inside of the van.

It could be an all day job and at £42 an hour which is what Blaenavon Caravan workshop charge, this is gonna be one expensive job. The Heater I am looking at is a Truma 14 litre gas/electric heater. This will power a shower, which I can use inside or outside the van for hair and body (the van has a funny little door opening to allow the shower hose to go outside (it means I would not have to spend ages drying out the tiny toilet/shower room.) There is a new 14 litre truma on ebay for £375 - Blanaevon want more than £459 for the same heater.

Any ideas ? Do I need to do this at all ? I do get fed up with strip washes I have to say - and have not yet found a satisfactory way of washing my long hair in the van using a kettle for water heating. I have used swimming pools, and dock side and motorway service stations for showers in the past. But that's all a bit haphazard

Any ideas ? Do I need to spend so much money on this ? Do I need to do it at all ?
Click to expand...
go have a chat to Andy at caravan and motorhome solutions in chard he is very helpful has never let me down
 
we mix cold and hot in a container and drop a pump in.this pumps water through a normal shower head and is very easy and effective . pop round and have a go with it if you want
 
n brown said:
we mix cold and hot in a container and drop a pump in.this pumps water through a normal shower head and is very easy and effective . pop round and have a go with it if you want
Click to expand...

hey that sounds like a great idea nic..... many thanks for the offer... i will get back in touch with you in a day or two and make arrangements to come up and road test it.....
 
delicagirl said:
hey that sounds like a great idea nic..... many thanks for the offer... i will get back in touch with you in a day or two and make arrangements to come up and road test it.....
Click to expand...

Don't forget to post the pic's though :lol-049::lol-049::lol-049::tongue:
 
"we mix cold and hot in a container and drop a pump in.this pumps water through a normal shower head and is very easy and effective "

yet again WCers may have come up with brain waves... my van is very tiny. 3 feet from the shower door, and under the kitchen worktop I have a white plastic 10 gallon jerry container containing drinking water - with its own electric pump to get the water from the container to the kitchen sink just above it. I fill this container inside the van with a watering can - its too awkward and heavy to fill outside the van and then lug it inside.

Could I put some boiled water and some cold water in this container and could I then remove the pump which leads to the kitchen sink tap , insert a separate pump which I could then manually attach to a shower hose/pipe as recommended above and hang that in the shower - does that sound feasible ?


no - I just realised that would not work as I could not connect it to the mains power - doh .....


and "no" no piccies of me in nic's shower will be available for public consumption.... !!!!
 
Last edited:
delicagirl said:
"we mix cold and hot in a container and drop a pump in.this pumps water through a normal shower head and is very easy and effective "

yet again WCers may have come up with brain waves... my van is very tiny. 3 feet from the shower door, and under the kitchen worktop I have a white plastic 10 gallon jerry container containing drinking water - with its own electric pump to get the water from the container to the kitchen sink just above it. I fill this container inside the van with a watering can - its too awkward and heavy to fill outside the van and then lug it inside.

Could I put some boiled water and some cold water in this container and could I then remove the pump which leads to the kitchen sink tap , insert a separate pump which I could then manually attach to a shower hose/pipe as recommended above and hang that in the shower - does that sound feasible ?


no - I just realised that would not work as I could not connect it to the mains power - doh .....


and "no" no piccies of me in nic's shower will be available for public consumption.... !!!!
Click to expand...

A 12 volt pump into a 5 gallon container [painted black and kept half full outside during the day] would work. Who's Nic?
 
GRWXJR said:
Hmm.

There's no hot water heater in my van either - and I have thought several times about adding one. But then, given the hassle and expense, and the fact that we don't get to spend more than a week or so at at time away in the van due to work and at the moment its not too much of an inconvenience without it.

Heating the water in a kettle (as others state) and washing the old-fashioned way has done the job so far - if away more than a couple of days then its a case of spending perhaps every 3rd night at a small C&CC site to dump waste and refill with water etc. - and doing this provides the opportunity then to also use the on-site Showers.

I mountain bike so often my van trips involve a spot of MTB-ing, and some of the trail centres have really good token showers at £1 a pop - so this also does the job nicely.

I also have one of those £5 solar showers (basically a black bladder with a hose and small shower head which you hang up and let gravity do its thing) which works well, and you can fill this with pre-heated water if its not Sunny and will do the job too. I've only used this at the beach so far, but it works - I think this might be less faff than the garden sprayer option as you can hold the solar shower head in one hand and wash your hair with the other and its not too unwieldy - so you could perhaps manage to use it over the sink unit to wash your hair? (Note I haven't tried the G-Sprayer so maybe I'm wrong).

Given that you might be considering a spend by the sound of it the best part of £700 minimum on a new water heater, and potentially rather more with flue faffing and so on - aren't you tempted to compromise and trying to find ways to manage without a dedicated water heater?

G.
Click to expand...


aren't you tempted to compromise and trying to find ways to manage without a dedicated water heater?

I most CERTAINLY am - nearly £1k for a shower several dozen times a year..... its not gonna be worth it is it ?
 
I am not too good at the moment so not even tempted with saying anything naughty, we bought a Ring 12v portable shower the same as this, it works from a 12v socket or with 4 D cell batteries, we have a shower obviously but we only bought this to wash the dogs outside, but it would be ideal for your needs, it has a stop switch to shut the water off on the shower head as well
 
delicagirl said:
hey that sounds like a great idea nic..... many thanks for the offer... i will get back in touch with you in a day or two and make arrangements to come up and road test it.....
Click to expand...
yeah - who's nic ?

anyway we've used this method for years,summer and winter, it's a great water saver,and your pump would be running off 12v not mains,so it's all sortable !

not sure why you lot want pics of me in the shower , but obviously,if there's enough demand .....
 
Last edited:
We have no hot water in our van either (just boil a kettle!) but I'm thinking of getting one of these A mix of water from the kettle and cold and robert is your mother's brother
 
tadpole58 said:
We have no hot water in our van either (just boil a kettle!) but I'm thinking of getting one of these A mix of water from the kettle and cold and robert is your mother's brother
Click to expand...

They are very good, we use one to wash down the mud magnet dogs. They are light and strong and you can lock the spray on and the pressure is good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top