-
Webasto for hot water
Earlier this trip we ran out of hot water (I was the third to get into the shower. Never again). I kicked on the Webasto for 15 minutes thinking I would have hot water, but didn’t. Called Troy. He said that Aquahot and NOT Webasto is how you get unlimited hot water. Well, that sucks!
He also said that if I wanted to open the valves on top of the water heater I could, but that they are shut down to avoid overheating while driving.
Thoughts?
-
18 Replies
-
If the valves are shut over the HW tank you get no heating from engine coolant. If they are cracked open or fully open the max HW temp is the engine coolant temps or about 200 degrees.
Since the shower has a pressure balancing / thermostatic valve it is a huge advantage to have scalding water in the HW tank because it takes a whole lot less hot water to get a comfortable water temp for the shower.
But if you have hot water tank temps based on electric heat only it will take more of the HW tank contents to warm up the cold water. So the dilemma is establishing an operating temp for the HW that is best for your purposes.
But I question how with only 2 showers how you could deplete 22 gallons of hot water. Was the HW tank heater on? If you had no hot water after 2 showers were taken maybe you need to have a chat with the kids.
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440 -
Forgot to mention, Troy is right about the Webasto. I think it will eventually heat up the water but the electric heater is going to be much faster.
-
Karl,
I don’t know your configuration. If you have 2 hot water heaters you’ll want to make sure both are working.
Most of these hot water heaters have their thermostat set to 140 degrees. Many showers, if not all, can be set to mix the hot and cold water to prevent scalding. Most of these are not thermostatic, they are simply mixing valves. The right way to maximize hot water and prevent scalding is to have a thermostatic mixing valve installed at the hot water heater and don’t allow any mixing at the shower.
-
I have the same problem after my wife is in the shower,I had Liberty install a tankless water heater that only works with the generator on and only is for the shower,it draws 38 amps on both legs so that is why it only works on gen,it supplies continuous hot water and works perfect.
-
Karl,
Since your stationary, forget all the engine heated hot water stuff and leave the valves turned off as Troy mentioned. Have a family meeting and let everyone know you can’t have Hollywood showers in the bus when 3 need to shower. Or, give it some time to recover. We never ran out of how water in any of the Liberty’s, even when Nance pretended to be in Hollywood.
By the way, if your using the Webasto and the valves are turned off, you won’t get any heating, you’ll need the electric. So, if the valves are open, you’ll get scalding hot water from the engine after driving and the Webasto will give you hot water. With valves closed, no Webasto or engine heated water, electric only.
-
If you have three valves when driving turn left one 1/2 a turn open center one 3/1/2 turns open and right one 1/2 a turn open that way it won’t get to hot and come out relieve valve when driving because it will get to hot , when parked open left one all the way and close center one and open right one all the way , that’s what you should do. If you are using webasto to heat water
-
It wasn’t the kidsssss, it was one kid, and one wife. She doesn’t take too kindly to suggestions to cut down on bathroom time.
There’s only one HW heater that I see, and we did have it running on electric.
Seems like the perfect solution is to open it up a bit and have a mixer valve added to the system. The shower allows you to set the temp to the degree on the handle (nice!) and I wouldn’t want to lose that.
-
I take what was called “Hollywood” showers all the time, and never run out of hot water. Granted I shower after John who is military and takes maybe 5 minute showers. But seriously I’ve showered with the washing machine on and haven’t run out of hot water, and this with only our electric hot water heater on. Maybe you need to be first in line. 🙂
-
What’s the setting of the thermostat on your hot water heater? If, as has been speculated, it’s at 140, that’s partially your problem. When running down road 190+ water is being circulated…webasto will circulate 160+. These temps assume your circulation valves are fully open. Probably shouldn’t be FULLY open though as I’ve tripped the over temp switch on my water heater from too hot coolant. In any event, I would kick the thermostat up the 160-170 and try it. Obviously, you will need to be careful initially of scalding but you’ll use less water.
Alternatively, you could do what we did years ago when we were go karting and spending close to a week dry camping: towed a toybox trailer with an addl 100 gal water AND an addl water heater!
-
There’s no need to over think this. Set the hot water heater thermostat to 140 degrees, if adjustable. Add a mixing valve at the hot water heater. If you do this you can take your shower mixing valve and turn it to full hot. Most of the shower mixing valves are not thermostatic. They simply add cold water to the hot.
What make and model hot water heater do you have? If you only have one, maybe (hopefully) it has 2 heating elements.
-
Gil,
The liberty has a temperature / pressure balancing valve at the shower and a 22 gallon tank. What more is your set up going to accomplish?’
Karl,
Learn to take your shower first.
-
Jon,
Few shower valves are thermostatic. You said a pressure balancing valve at the shower. What does this actually do?
If the shower mixing valve is actually thermostatic (most are not), a mixing valve at the hot water heater won’t help the shower situation. I still advocate a hot water heater based thermostatic mixing valve to prevent scalding at all faucets.
Do you have the make and model of that hot water heater?
-
Liberty and Marthon have thermostatic mixing valves at the showers.
The Liberty water heater is a Raritan, that should get your seal of approval since it’s Marine heater.
-
Karl,
The Raritan HW heaters have adjustable thermostats and leve the factory set to 120 degrees. I would turn it up to 140 degrees, which is the current recommendation to kill bacteria. According to Tom your shower will be safe to use at 140 degrees. I would still install a temperature mixing valve at the hot water heater for scald protection at all faucets.
Raritan didn’t do any any favors when it comes to producing quick hot water. If you have the 110V version the heating element is only 1500W, so recovery time is not going to be good. If you want a faster recovery time you’ll need to run your Webasto and use the electric heating elements. At 140 degrees, you should see a big difference in the quantity of usable hot water.
-
A temperature / pressure mixing valve responds to both changes in pressure or temperature of incoming water to maintain the set temperature. It will cut back or add hot water as required to maintain the temperature selected, and in the event of a loss of water pressure on the cold side for example it will reduce the flow of water from the hot side down to zero if required as a response.
I don’t know the manufacturer of the valves on my coaches. They are a very common valve employed to prevent scalding and are common for applications where safety is a concern, such as in surgical scrub sinks or applications where the user needs automatic protection.
If the cold water pressure were to drop to zero for example the valve would literally shut down unless the HW supply was at or below the set temperature.
Log in to reply.