hot water heater

Dec 7, 2012
515
Kittiwake 23, Irwin 43 .. Indianapolis / indianatown, fl
hello all

I am looking to install a hot water heater in my 1971 Morgan 35' sailboat.... my wife wants some hot water for washing up, so I told her I would see about it.... I have been looking at hot water heaters for RV/Boats, but they all seam to be propaine.... do they make them in all electric (DC)... what are the better ones to get and install... and what size in gallons would be best.... our boat has a shower, but no hot water... the previous P/O unhooked the 46 gallon water tank and ran blue pvc pipe in the boat to a hookup for a regular water hose.... he never sailed the boat.... it was his live aboard at dock perminantly.... he and his wife lived on it for 2 years before I bought it from him....

I also have a 30 gallon water tank to add also.... this will give me 76 gallons when we are out at sea or someplace we cannot refill the tanks easily.... but my wife is insisting on hot water, and she doesn't want to keep heating it up in small quantities on the stove.... I also have 12v dc water pump to install (already have), so she has water pressure too... right now when we leave dock, there is no water unless it is bottled and we bring it with us... she is a real trooper, but likes a few things without a lot of work....

any help will be greatly appreciated in this....

sincerely
Jess
 
Sep 15, 2009
6,243
S2 9.2a Fairhope Al
if you have a heat ex-changer on your engine you will be ok with a 8 gallon one like the indel isotemp they are a little pricey and have a 750 watt heating element and piped for running your engine water through them to heat while under way they will also hod the hot water in the tank for 24 hrs with very little heat loss they are not dc only ac electric as far as dc that would be way to much power to use on a boat to heat water let your engine do the heating while away from the dock or you could run your portable gen set to heat with electric
 

TFrere

.
Oct 1, 2008
144
Morgan 382 Mandeville, LA
Ariston 7 gallon

I looked into several water heaters but since my engine is raw water cooled, I elected to go only electric. I installed the one below last week in my Morgan 382. I took a couple of long showers and never ran out of hot water. It is an Ariston 7 gallon.
 

Attachments

Last edited:
Mar 20, 2012
3,983
Cal 34-III, MacGregor 25 Salem, Oregon
as Woodster says, if your engine has the fresh water cooling instead of seawater cooled, spend the extra dollars and go with the marine water heater with the heat exchanger in it... they operate on 30amp 110 shore power, or when your engine is running, the heat from the engine heats the water thru the internal heat exchanger in the water heater.... and fast!
there are units available for around $300 on up to $800... we have the $835 model (Raritan) and still not sure if its any better than a $300 unit.... maybe in 15-20 years we will be able to compare the differences in how they lasted.
 
Mar 1, 2012
2,182
1961 Rhodes Meridian 25 Texas coast
:D:D

Like Flip Wilson, the devil made me say it

:D:D

Why would you want to heat HOT water?? Wouldn't you just need to heat COLD water??

:D:D
 

Ross

.
Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
We had two half gallon coffee pumper style thermos bottles. each morning we would boil water and fill/replenish those. Had one in the head and one in the galley. If we were not wasteful they supplied enough hot water from one day to the next.
 
Nov 6, 2006
9,885
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Something like this in a 6 gallon or greater size works well, especially if you have a heat exchanger engine. Some raw water cooled engines (the QM series YAnmars were one) had a circuit that would allow heating the tank from engine too
http://shop.hunterowners.com/prod.php?515/
These are available from other marine suppliers as well.
 
Feb 6, 1998
11,667
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
thanks........ that's good to know ...ya learn something new every day
These are intended for boats with excess energy from wind etc. where the current needs to be diverted or dumped to a dummy load.

They are purposely EXTREMELY SLOW at actually heating the hot water.. At 300W it also equates to a 25A load on the battery bank if you were to try and heat the hot water with DC....

Most 6-10 gallon water heaters for boats have elements in the 1500W range at 120V though some Raritans run a 1200W and some Isotemps 750W... At 12V and 300W you are burning a lot of time and battery capacity to heat hot water unless it comes from "excess energy"......

If you want to have hot water away from the dock a HX water heater is the best method that also complies with current safety standards and what your insurer will want to see...