Camplux instant hot water

[gblanchard81]

Please point me in the right direction if this is the wrong place to ask this. I am installing a camplux propane instant hot water heater at the cabin and wanted to run some things by you. Outdoor shower will be at the back of the house and the sink is at the front. Was going to mount the unit on the west side of the house where there is plenty of shade. Any recommendations?

 

[acdoctor]

Unless they have charged them they are designed to be used outdoors but not rain proof. I have a ecoflow it goes indoors and vented through side wall.

 

[MichaelK]

I also have an Ecoflow, and I found it suseptable to safety shutdowns due to wind gusting. Nothing worse than taking a nice shower, and suddenly the water goes stone cold. Make sure the unit is in a well-protected area so the flame won't be able to be blown out.

If you have a choice, get the largest unit available. I've found that the amount of hot water produced is too optimisticly estimated. Also, how hot I can get my water is seasonally dependent, and in the winter I can't have more than a barely luke-warm shower unless the water flow is lowered to a trickle.

 

[acdoctor]

I also have an Ecoflow, and I found it suseptable to safety shutdowns due to wind gusting. Nothing worse than taking a nice shower, and suddenly the water goes stone cold. Make sure the unit is in a well-protected area so the flame won't be able to be blown out.

If you have a choice, get the largest unit available. I've found that the amount of hot water produced is too optimisticly estimated. Also, how hot I can get my water is seasonally dependent, and in the winter I can't have more than a barely luke-warm shower unless the water flow is lowered to a trickle.

My water runs 48 to 55f and it will raise 40 deg f at 4 gallons a minute. My shower is 1.5 gpm so I have no problem.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

I have a smaller camplux water heater mounted inside a 26’ RV
No, that is not recommended but it’s been fine a year and a half or two. I needed it warm for winter usage.

Please point me in the right direction if this is the wrong place to ask this. I am installing a camplux propane instant hot water heater at the cabin and wanted to run some things by you. Outdoor shower will be at the back of the house and the sink is at the front. Was going to mount the unit on the west side of the house where there is plenty of shade. Any recommendations?

I put a 12V-3VDC converter on a switch instead of using batteries but batteries can last a year.

Run a good whole-house filter. It can get munged up and the waterflow switch can stop shutting of flame when water stops- but it lets you know the overpressure relief valve is functioning.

The power on a switch : I use a rotary 15 minute timer. This is a safety factor since the flame not shutting off has been a common failure across three units. The timer lasts longer than my shower but I physically turn it off so it can’t fire up for whatever failure it might have.

I plumbed it into the camper hot water lines. I keep it turned down for temperature and don’t mix cold at the shower valve because it can make 150* water. I have a ball valve on the feed and attenuate water volume that way.

Run a water filter ahead of it. The passages and switches are too small to deal with stuff running through it.

I used bsp to npt adapters and screwed swivel pex fittings into those. I’d advise the same for you and just feed your kitchen from a tee.

When my first one failed it was $110 to replace. The second one quite a lot more. Now I think they’re like $225. Doing that every year is annoying.

I contacted service a couple times and I think they are helpful but I just needed hot water and Amazon was two days rather than shipping one out and waiting for it to be serviced and returned. I didn’t return or replace this current one. I just kill the power if I hear the flame not shut off. Usually the high-temp kills it but sometimes it won’t and over pressure release lets off steam. Impressive. Not.

But the cost to run it for hot water is like basically nothing.

 

[gblanchard81]

I have a smaller camplux water heater mounted inside a 26’ RV
No, that is not recommended but it’s been fine a year and a half or two. I needed it warm for winter usage.

I put a 12V-3VDC converter on a switch instead of using batteries but batteries can last a year.

Run a good while-house filter. It can get munged up and the waterflow switch can stop shutting of flame when water stops- but it lets you know the overpressure relief valve is functioning.

The power on a switch : I use a rotary 15 minute timer. This is a safety factor since the flame not shutting off has been a common failure across three units. The timer lasts longer than my shower but I physically turn it off so it can’t fire up for whatever failure it might have.

I plumbed it into the camper hot water lines. I keep it turned down for temperature and don’t mix cold at the shower valve because it can make 150* water. I have a ball valve on the feed and attenuate water volume that way.

Run a water filter ahead of it. The passages and switches are too small to deal with stuff running through it.

I used bsp to npt adapters and screwed swivel pex fittings into those. I’d advise the same for you and just feed your kitchen from a tee.

When my first one failed it was $110 to replace. The second one quite a lot more. Now I think they’re like $225. Doing that every year is annoying.

I contacted service a couple times and I think they are helpful but I just needed hot water and Amazon was two days rather than shipping one out and waiting for it to be serviced and returned. I didn’t return or replace this current one. I just kill the power if I hear the flame not shut off. Usually the high-temp kills it but sometimes it won’t and over pressure release lets off steam. Impressive. Not.

But the cost to run it for hot water is like basically nothing.

This is great! How did you wire the converter directly to the unit?

 

[12VoltInstalls]

This is great! How did you wire the converter directly to the unit?

The battery holder has ?3mm spade connectors. I unplugged and unscrewed the holder and plugged in the DC transformer, and wired the pos(+) through the switch.

Now keep in mind I used a 120VAC rotary timer switch. AC switches are not made for safe DC operation. Typical “derating” for 12VDC safety over an un-spec’d AC switch is 5- 15% so in this case the switch I think was 15A so 5% is .75A at 12VDC. The power supply is like 200mA ? so less than half the safe margin.

Generally do not switch DC with AC switches btw. if you do use 5% not 10- or 15%.
While I used household wall switches (120VAC) for my DC lighting most of the time in my camper, the loads are 90mW to ~300mW so I am not going to worry about it. I did it for convention convenience because I wanted some three-way switches by door and kitchen area.
You shouldn’t do that, however. I’m accepting my competency and math and the risk but I can’t assess or accept those for you.

The bulk of other lighting and DC circuits are punch-in 12-24VDC rocker switches. I fused the circuits small (for the load not the wire) because I’ve run 12ga, 14ga, and 16ga wire - and I didn’t want 20A available, just ‘efficiency’ over distance. So 20W lighting gets 3A or 5A fuses for example. The circuit the rotary switch 3VDC transformer is an exception because it also runs the 6A water pump; 12ga wire 8A fuse I think. Might’ve been 7 but those in ATC are hard to find. Never have blown the fuse

 

[KMac55]

Also, there is a rain cap you can get for the chimney exhaust on top. It keeps rain out and importantly stops wind from blowing it out. Great option to add.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

Also, there is a rain cap you can get for the chimney exhaust on top. It keeps rain out and importantly stops wind from blowing it out. Great option to add.

I wouldn’t leave it out in the rain/weather myself

 

[12VoltInstalls]

I am installing a camplux propane instant hot water heater at the cabin

How that go for you?

 

[Scoutmaster]

I have the camplux 50,000btu I picked up on Amazon. It was $239’

So far so good. I use it outdoor at my cabin and bring it inside to store it. I may mount it indoor and put in a small vent. I think these are pretty fragile so I’m not sure about leaving it outdoor.