Hot water heater recommendations

Thanks everyone for you comments on chain rust. Very helpful. Next issue. Wanting to take showers on boat, but hot water heater leaking. Admiral said, get it replaced this week. Looking at about 6 gal heaters. Any comments? Give me the good, bad and ugly. Like the Raritan but wow, they are very proud of those puppies. Any experience with West Marine brand? Kuuma?

I replaced my old 6 gallon with a Atwood 10.5 gallon square style heater it's been great and my wife appreciates the additional hot water it provides.
Bill

I have had good luck with the Kumma water heaters.. and their priced decent.. just keep up on the anode.

HOLLYWOOD

We just replaced our old Raritan water heater. I am lazy though, so we replaced it with exactly the same thing because all the hoses, connections, and wiring lined up.

Hot water | m/v Archimedes - An Old Grand Banks 42

Great blog Rusty! Good timing too as I'm just about ready to replace our water heater.
Sorry to say I haven't updated our website in over a year. - Boyd

Just ordered the Isotherm 6 gallon unit. Has a great reputation and what is better for me is the 750 watt element (110 volt). My current unit which is 16 years old has a 1,500 watt element. When I run the generator I have two chargers (100 and 135 amp), refrigeration running. If I add the hot water heater for the 15 minutes it needs, the hertz on the generator output drops almost 2 cycles per minute (from 59 Hertz to 57 hertz). While this is workable given Bay Pelican's equipment, I prefer not to see 56.5 hertz on my meter. And whether I run the hot water heater for 15 or 30 minutes makes no difference in generator run time.

We have a Seaward 11 gallon, it works great.

Torrid? Tempo? I would buy the exact same for the same fittings, as another mentioned, but I would never have less than 11 gallons. 2 navy showers with 11 gallons, my wife washing her hair, ergo bingo, no water to wash dishes.

I like the Raritan because of their porcelain lined tank. If you can't go the cost of a Raritan, at least get one with a stainless steel tank. I once cut open an aluminum water tank and it was nasty looking.

Shop around for the Raritan before you give up on it.

My vote goes to the Isotherm/Isotemp range. I replaced the one in my vessel, which is the same basically as yours jnvoss, and once I flushed out the pipes from the engine cooling system to the H/W cylinder it works like a charm, and even tho I am strictly 12v DC out on the water, giving it a quick heat on shore AC while loading the boat gets it up tp quite warm before we even leave the dock, then the engine takes over and does the rest. Plenty hot water (careful as actually almost too hot - at home we are mandated now to max 50C), but I installed the 42 litre one. = ? ~ 10gal..?

I was amazed the old one still worked, but slow, because of gunge in the pipes mainly.

Isotherm and Raritan are both good units I have had my Atwood for 7 seasons it's still going strong.
Bill

Underway even the smaller sizes work IF you shower or do laundry underway

hollywood8118 said:

... just keep up on the anode... HOLLYWOOD

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We lost a Torrid after 6 years because we never changed the anode. Didn't know we had to.

These 3 are from Raritan 12 gallon hot water heaters. The top is new, the middle was changed at 3 years. The bottom, I pulled from one that was the original anode and the water heater had failed. I do not the age of the heater.

Larry great point about changing the anode. This is often the main failure on a boat's hot water heater.
Bill

Our Atwood is 12 years old, still fine.

-Chris

Has anyone tried supplemental solar water panels to heat water on their boat?
I'm thinking of trying this on my Gulfstar. I will require a 12vdc circulation pump and a pair of solar water panels.
Bill

N4712 said:

We have a Seaward 11 gallon, it works great.

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The worst tanks out there IMHO are those made of Al only that are non glass lined, like most Seawards. It is strange that Al is not the fresh water tank of choice but some hot water tanks mfrs use it - think low price on the build side. Like using Al wire vs Cu wire in el cheapo house trailers

My all Al Seaward rotted out after 9 years and was replaced by a glass lined Torrid.

I also had issues with aluminum holding and waste tanks.
Bill

sunchaser said:

The worst tanks out there IMHO are those made of Al only that are non glass lined, like most Seawards. It is strange that Al is not the fresh water tank of choice but some hot water tanks mfrs use it - think low price on the build side. Like using Al wire vs Cu wire in el cheapo house trailers

My all Al Seaward rotted out after 9 years and was replaced by a glass lined Torrid.

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Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep my eye on it. What are the signs that it's needing replacement, leaking, not heating?

sunchaser said:

The worst tanks out there IMHO are those made of Al only that are non glass lined, like most Seawards. It is strange that Al is not the fresh water tank of choice but some hot water tanks mfrs use it - think low price on the build side. Like using Al wire vs Cu wire in el cheapo house trailers

My all Al Seaward rotted out after 9 years and was replaced by a glass lined Torrid.

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As well as many homes built in the early 70's mine being one of them. I had to rewire the entire house 8 years ago.
But I got a good deal on the home anyway. I'm told it was done because there was a copper shortage due to the Vietnam war, don't know?
Bill

N4712 said:

Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep my eye on it. What are the signs that it's needing replacement, leaking, not heating?

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Our Seaward worked great too, even after it started leaking brown cruddy water out the base. If you are contemplating a long cruise to foreign places, change it out. Finding a NA rated electric heater in Europe or SA is not easy. The later year Nordhavns I've been on seem to have gone with Raritan heaters and according to the spec sheet I have in front of me.

sunchaser said:

Our Seaward worked great too, even after it started leaking brown cruddy water out the base. If you are contemplating a long cruise to foreign places, change it out. Finding a NA rated electric heater in Europe or SA is not easy. The later year Nordhavns I've been on seem to have gone with Raritan heaters and according to the spec sheet I have in front of me.

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Yeah in the future when it needs replacing we'll more then likely go with a Raritan since they are local to us, also I believe Lewis Marine carries them.

ON our boat we have a small electric circ pump that is for the box heater feed.

In cool evenings after shut down we run the circ pump and box heater fan on low and can enjoy a couple of hours of >free< heat .

This could easily be done for a HW heater , a 3000lb engine at 180F has a lot of BTU ready for the taking.

Getting rid of a Torrid (not leaking) after 16 years. Have changed the anode every five years. Just a preventive measure. Our location would make replacement during season expensive with a three week time delay.

Anyone have experience with Solaris water heaters. They are expensive but the copper tank is interesting.

Hot water heater recommendations

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Why would you want to heat hot water?

Thanks Ron! Pet peeve of mine too.

Rob

Datenight said:

Thanks Ron! Pet peeve of mine too.

Rob

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Google cold water heater and see what you get, pet peeves aside.

To save the pedantic ones , use Hot water systems.

I recently got rid of my gas hot water system and replaced it with a Force 10 (Kuuma) 45 lt (10 gal) 1500 watt, 240 v unit. I am more than pleased.
I don't use the engine heating as gen set time makes more than enough hot water for us and when we are motoring I have a 5 KVA cruise alternator to supply the power.

Cheers
Benn

Ron, it may very well be your pinch point but these units are called hot water heaters. When discussing circulating or creating hot water I see nothing wrong in using the term hot water heater...
Would you prefer hot water creation devices?
Bill