I have installed the PrecisionTemp Showermate on two boats and it is
exceptional in design and efficiency - it is also very pricey.
Propane on demand and externally power vented. No AC electricity and
no engine coolant connections. I live aboard so it makes sense - and
I like the idea of having a shower or hot water when at anchor or
sailing without cranking up the engine.

www.precisiontemp.com

On PEREGRINA it replaced a leaking hot water tank that had been
disconnected from the engine before I bought her. A hot water tank
higher than the engine seems to cause problems with coolant flow - at
least it did on this boat.

TIM

On Apr 25, 8:39 pm, Skip Gundlach wrote:
Well, the ER refit/rehab is under way, with stringer replacement soon
to
come. However, the leaking POS Raritan water heater is soon to find
its way
to the junkyard. It looks similar to another Raritan water heater I
see in
the yard, which is to say rust stained and streaked from wherever it
is that
the water came/comes out. In my case, it's a pinhole, somewhere, as
it
manifests itself in not only water around the base, but steam out the
top.
The six (inlet and outlet for feed and heat exchange, relief valve
and
heater element) designed holes in the unit are dry...

In trying to assess the durability of (electric/heat exchange - see
bottom
for discussion of "instant") water heaters, I see several iterations
of
mode.

First is the Raritan, which is a glass-lined galvanized unit. Just
like at
home, but you aren't usually going to have salt air around your home
unit,
nor bouncing around as the earthquakes hit. I don't think I want to
go that
route again, whether or not it's the most expensive around.

Second is other (also) expensive units, which have, usually, stainless
steel
innards, and, occasionally, stainless steel outards. As there's no
grade of
stainless I've seen which won't rust, I don't know that I have any
enthusiasm for that (SS shell) part, but the SS interior is
interesting on
the basis of its inability to make AlCl crystals to clog up my water
system,
and the presumption of a reasonably robust construction as compared
to
Aluminum; nearly all the non-heater (water, fuel, holding) tank
replacement
discussions I see wind up going to stainless (or to rotomolded, but
that's
not practical for water heaters) if they don't want to suffer a leak
in the
future. That suggests SS is a good way to go.

However, the third iteration is WH tanks with aluminum innards. Those
are
universally inexpensive by comparison to the others (but outrageous
by
comparison to HD units, not surprisingly). At least one manufacturer
proclaims that theirs are more robust (and/or the reason to buy
theirs) than
SS units, as SS units have a predilection to leak at (they say) at
less-than-sufficient welds (whereas theirs are [stated to be] superior
[in
part, due to the metal?] welds). Assuming those assertions to be
true, I
still have an aversion to aluminum, as AlCl crystals, and other
corrosion
issues, are the bane of aluminum tanks everywhere. However, not-
leaking
trumps AlCl issues, because it's relatively trivial to insert a
carbon
filter before the tank to filter only the supply to the hot water (our
water
and fuel tanks are fiberglass) of chlorine, should any remain after
watering
wherever it is we take on supplies and it makes its way to the water
heater.

So, I'm looking for input on (long-term; I'd prefer not to have to do
this
again very soon) experience with both SS and Aluminum interiors on hot
water
heaters. I've had a recommendation for Super-Stor SS interior units,
but
the only vendor I've found for them is Defender (which in itself is
good,
but they're as far away from me as possible and still be in the
continental
US, which means long and expensive shipping).

I've also had a recommendation for the wall-mounted units which are
essentially on-demand water heaters. They come in propane and
electrical
models. I have a problem with both types, and individual problems
with
each.

The problem with both types is that there's no storage. That means
that
water coming in has to be heated before it goes out; we shower with
some
fairly extensive time between hot water uses (wet, soap, shave,
anything
else, then rinse), which means it has to start over. One could put a
unit
at each location to solve that, of course, but in our case, that's
three,
and mucho dinero.

The bigger problem(s) is that the draw electrically is more than our
inverter is capable of handling (we're replacing the one which was
lost to
salt water intrusion in our wreck; it's 1500W), so we can't use one of
those
(the ones I've seen start at ~20A/120VAC and go up from there).

The propane ones make me nervous, in addition to the complexities of
usage.
Short of placing it in the propane locker (I don't know how big they
are,
but I suppose one might fit by displacing one of the two 10# bottles
in
ours), I have a real problem in having "always live" propane in the
boat
living space. There's also a supply issue (we'd have to run a new
line to
wherever it was), so those are non-starters. OTOH, if there are users
of
these units reading, I'd enjoy hearing about how you overcame those
objections.

So, please, reports of (positive or negative - a reason to avoid is
as
valuable as a recommendation) experience? And for those who've bought
one,
is there another vendor besides Defender for Super-Stor?

Thanks, as always.

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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