Twin coil water heater
- Thread starter Bob S
- Start date
There may be a simpler and less expensive solution. Sure Marine has a heat exchanger that works with the engine heat and the hydronic system. I'm working through this now as I plan to install a hydronic system. The way I think it works, is the heat exchanger is placed inline with the hydronic system. When the engine is running and the hydronic system is on the engine will heat the coolant in the hydronic system which can then heat the HW tank and/or the cabin. That is about all the detail I can give now as I am still in the early stages of designing my system. Give Sure Marine a call and talk to them.
I just did a google search for twin heat exchanger marine water heater and got lots of results, including Defender Marine.
I took a quick look and I think your search returned models that have both electrical and a heat exchanger, not dual coils. Adding 2 coils would reduce the capacity of a heater or require a larger tank for the same capacity. Any tank with dual coils would need, 2 hydronic inlets, 2 engine heat inlets, cold water inlet, hot water outlet, pressure relief outlet, and may be a drain, a quick visual inspection of the tank would reveal if it had enough inlets and outlets.
It would be possible to add several three way valves to the plumbing and manually change them to heat from the hydronic heater or from the engine. That could be a PITA and prone to end user errors which could be damaging to the engine or hydronic system.
Yes Defender does have an 11 gal over 1k. Dimensionally to big.
Dave, I’m doing the same. Sure Marine, AMC Cliffv’s Marine and ITR Hurricane are all great resources.
I bought the Real fan heaters from Sure Marine and the 3 gal coolant tank from AMC. The Hurricane systems are probably the best but their smallest unit is bigger than I would need. I am installing Eberspacher S3 5kw diesel heater. I’m going to use Inkbird 12v thermostats to control the cabins. Now the boat is on land I will try to lay out where it might best fit.
Dave, I’m doing the same. Sure Marine, AMC Cliffv’s Marine and ITR Hurricane are all great resources.
I bought the Real fan heaters from Sure Marine and the 3 gal coolant tank from AMC. The Hurricane systems are probably the best but their smallest unit is bigger than I would need. I am installing Eberspacher S3 5kw diesel heater. I’m going to use Inkbird 12v thermostats to control the cabins. Now the boat is on land I will try to lay out where it might best fit.
Sure Marine seemed to have the best instructions and support and I like one-stop shopping. I haven't ordered the parts yet. The first thing I did was build mock ups of the major components to make sure they fit. Sabres generally have less volume than other modern boats of the same LOA, that drove me to the hydronic system rather than a forced air. Hot water also tipped the scale.
Last year there were some really cold nights on our way south and next year we're heading North out the St Lawrence River. Heat will be essential to comforting our aging bodies.
I was thinking of using a heat exchanger https://www.supplyhouse.com/Heat-Exchangers-821000 but I don’t know how old my water heater is and it’s looking tired. I could apply the cost of the exchanger to the cost of a new water heater if that makes sense.
Due to space limitations, I'll probably use a heat exchanger from Sure Marine. It is only 2" x 23" with some extra for the fittings.
www.suremarineservice.com