webasto + heat exchanger + shower = quiet morning showers? (1 Viewer)

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veiloctane

veiloctane

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hey,

I am just brain storming here and was wondering if anyone has done this.

I currently have a webasto to heat up my diesel engine in the winter and I am considering installing a hotwater shower like a Hilton hot water shower or something custom with a heat exchanger using the webasto in the summer to heat water through a heat exchanger.

The idea is that starting the cruiser in the morning is kinda loud and starting and using the webasto would be more quiet and use less fuel.

does something like this seem like this idea could work? and if so what kind of heat exchanger should I run and what temps should I expect?

if not a good idea please explain why.


Thanks.
 
I've thought about this with mine as well. I don't think it would work that well, as you would be using fuel to heat coolant and then using that coolant to heat water. Lots of conversion loss I would imagine.

If you do give it a try, swap the pin on the top of the Webasto to increase its cut off temp.
 
Douglas S said:
I've thought about this with mine as well. I don't think it would work that well, as you would be using fuel to heat coolant and then using that coolant to heat water. Lots of conversion loss I would imagine.

If you do give it a try, swap the pin on the top of the Webasto to increase its cut off temp.
Click to expand...

I am thinking of swapping the pin for the hi temp mod would help a lot. Or just simply just run the water strait into the webasto with out heat exchanger for direct water heat.
 
This sounds great. I live off the grid, and currently (when the wood stove stove isn't running) don't have hot water. Could you just have valves to pipe water directly through the Webasto?

Subscribed.
 
I have the webasto on the garage floor as well as a heat exchanger and pump I used for hot water on my old Tacoma. The heat exchanger on the Tacoma would produce scaulding hot water when the truck was at operating temp (about 190) and had the be tamed with a mixing valve to keep temps reasonable.

As long as the webasto can keep up with the heat loss from coolant traveling through the heat exchanger, I dont see why it wouldnt work. I hope it does, because thats my plan when I eventually get around to installing it all ;)
 
ZombieResponseUnit said:
This sounds great. I live off the grid, and currently (when the wood stove stove isn't running) don't have hot water. Could you just have valves to pipe water directly through the Webasto?

Subscribed.
Click to expand...

You could run water through it, and either just cycle it through the reservoir, or whatever container of water it is, until the water in the container reaches an acceptable temperature to wash your dishes or whatever, though a separate loop, with antifreeze might be smart, you could have a coil of copper in your water tank/reservoir and run antifreeze through those lines, that way of things froze it wouldn't crack your webasto's pump.
 
Using the truck pre-heater seems like a lot of pissing around to get hot water. Why not just heat the water on a camp stove and use a gravity feed shower? ...or a simple solar shower sold at most camping supply shops.
 
John Galt said:
Using the truck pre-heater seems like a lot of pissing around to get hot water. Why not just heat the water on a camp stove and use a gravity feed shower? ...or a simple solar shower sold at most camping supply shops.
Click to expand...

Answer is simple - Because I can and because I want to!

I want to be able to have a large supply of warm water because imo it is better than a gravity feed with limited supply.
I can take a hose to a stream and lake and use that water source. Virtually unlimited supply until I am out of battery or diesel to heat up water for a shower. It's not pissing around it's about the fun of figuring it out and doing it myself.

Hanging a bucket to shower and or to boil water to take a bath seems so uncivilized it seems so far back to almost caveman days.
It's technology and convenience in the long run and I plant to take advantage of it.

Sure I enjoy primitive ways of enjoying a classic fire but when I'm hungry and want to eat in a hurry I'll bring out the propane stove. It's the same idea to me as to having warm water to shower. I do not want to have to wait for the sun to heat up the solar water heater and limit me to showering in the afternoon when the sun is the hottest. What if I want a warm shower at night or early morning?

To each there own.... But anyways Thanks for sharing your opinion.
 
Its been done many times using the engine to heat the coolant. As stated above, I used this system on my old Tacoma and it really is fantastic. Heating water on a stove and rigging some kind of gravity feed is pissing around. Once this system is setup, there is nothing to do but flip a switch.

Dont knock it until you strip naked and have a hot water shower in the open air at a beautiful location. :) I built mine for my wife and soon found I enjoyed it just as much.
 
How hot does a Ctop Webasto Heat the engine coolant? Couldn't we apply some simple math for heat loss at different temps to derive a scale for the hot water output? It seems to me that once the coolant is up to temp (this could take awhile on a cold day) figuring a rough guess on heat loss on the exchange would be straight forward.
 
broth9640 said:
I will just leave this right here for the people on this forum who are way smarter than I am.

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~doster/NE400/Text/HeatExchangers/HeatExchangers.PDF
Click to expand...

Ha, I remember those equations from my Mechanical Engineering courses...

I think the biggest variable for heat loss is rate of shower water in this instance. Since people like their showers at different flow rates, this could also see a big difference in output temp. Faster flowing water, worse heat exchange.
 
@veiloctane , did you you set this up in your vehicle? Happy with the results? I ask because I'm working on the same idea for my Troopy. I'd like to use engine heat or the Webasto for hot water. Also planning to use the Webasto for supplemental cabin heat and engine preheating.

I found an On Board Water group on Fcaebook that also seems to have some good design ideas.
 
RufusTheDufus said:
@veiloctane , did you you set this up in your vehicle? Happy with the results? I ask because I'm working on the same idea for my Troopy. I'd like to use engine heat or the Webasto for hot water. Also planning to use the Webasto for supplemental cabin heat and engine preheating.

I found an On Board Water group on Fcaebook that also seems to have some good design ideas.
Click to expand...
I am installing one in my 1987 HJ75 with a 2H. By using 2, 12V, 3 way motorized valves, with a flick of a switch, you can have hot water to the engine, heat exchanger for showers / dishwashing or RTT heating with a hot water coil / fan unit. All available on eBay.

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A system of valves is key to making this viable IMO. If you don't need to heat the engine and rad, being able to achieve full heat in 30min or less is far more reasonable to expect from a C-top Webasto. In normal output setting it throttles down once it's achieved 71C on diesel heaters, I can't seem to find what the high output temp is.
 
OR you could just buy the Webasto Hot water heater with furnace.
 
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