Tankless portable water heater

[Frank Upshaw]

Hi guys!! Does anyone here know if any good portable water heaters will operate with a 1 lb. green propane canister? If so, what brand and model works.
Thanks for your feedback.

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[jschall]

Buy an electric one lol.

Why propane?

 

[Crissa]

Buy an electric one lol.

Why propane?

Because tankless is alot of energy.

But yeah, define 'portable'? A kettle is portable with a truck that has an outlet.

-Crissa

 

[Outdoors]

Yeah sometimes one underestimates the power of an electric kettle. A couple boiling kettles and a trough is enough to keep the mules away while I use it.

Bob Marshall Wilderness(no electric kettle used here).

 

[jschall]

Because tankless is alot of energy.

But yeah, define 'portable'? A kettle is portable with a truck that has an outlet.

-Crissa

It isn't that much energy.

You can run a 5kW load for 10 minutes (enough to shower pretty wastefully) and use about 2% battery.

 

[Crissa]

It isn't that much energy.

You can run a 5kW load for 10 minutes (enough to shower pretty wastefully) and use about 2% battery.

That's fair, but heating water is almost as energy-intensive as driving.

Anyhow, how much water for how long is a better question. If you want enough for a cup or pot of tea, enough to wash your hands, or enough to shower with or wash something?

-Crissa

 

[tmeyer3]

I, admittedly, still use propane for heating things because (1) all the well tested heating stuff is propane and (2) if there's one thing propane is probably better at than electricity, it's heating junk...

Edit: Sorry OP! forgot to actually answer you. This is what I use and I've been very happy with them. Sadly I don't get commission for this link, but I do take tips!
https://rinsekit.com/collections/sh...hyperheater-portable-instant-hot-water-heater

 

[jschall]

That's fair, but heating water is almost as energy-intensive as driving.

Anyhow, how much water for how long is a better question. If you want enough for a cup or pot of tea, enough to wash your hands, or enough to shower with or wash something?

-Crissa

It is possible to use a bunch of peltiers to build a compact water heater with a COP of 2-3 (200-300% "efficient"), but you'd need something to pull the heat out of. Perhaps if it could be plumbed into the battery coolant loop. A radiator would prob need to be too large to be practical. In cold weather it would also have a tendency to freeze its coolant.

 

[Crissa]

Peltier heaters are only really efficient at low power so not sure they'd be good at heating water to boiling. So that would limit how mich water you could heat or the temperature you could get it at. It would also be less reliable than straight resistive.

There's nothing getting around the fact you're trying to put energy into a fairly dense mass.

Hence the question of what you're doing with the water being important... Since the truck just has a standard outlet, any sort of under-sink or water-cooler style water heater could be mounted in the bed.

But if you're only making enough to cook or drink, a smaller kettle might work; but if you want to shower...

-Crissa

 

[bryanle1]

Joolca. I have the nomad. You could probably buy the pieces from home depot, like Camplux, and build your own, but I like everything bundled together with the storage tote.

 

[mongo]

It isn't that much energy.

You can run a 5kW load for 10 minutes (enough to shower pretty wastefully) and use about 2% battery.

5kW for 10 minutes = 0.83kWh
To get 100F water from 55F inlet requires a 45F rise or 25C
Water's specific heat is 4.186J/gCor 4186 J/kgC
A Joule is a watt second
0.83kWh is 3 MJ
/4186 = 714 kg*C of water / 25 = 28.6 kg of hot water / 10 minutes = 2.86 kg per minute * 2.2 = 6.3 pounds per minute = 0.8 gallons per minute which is half the flow of a low flow RV shower head.

2 gallons per minute = 16 pounds per minute * 45F = 720BTU/min * 60 = 53k BTU/hr = 12.7 kW

So even the full Powershare output from a Cybertruck would only get you a low flow or cool shower. (Pure resistive heating, heat pump would cut that a bunch)

Propane energy density is 21,458 BTU/pound. 720 BTU*10 minutes= 7,200 BTU or about a third of a pound per shower.

 

[RoboTaxi]

A single burner stove that runs off butane/1lbs propane bottles and a kettle ??‍

 

[Stuck4ger]

My thought is to just have a little submersible electric pump for the shower but to keep my shower water in the truck cab the night before. Camp mode “room temp” should be good enough for me (no additional heating required).

 

[jschall]

5kW for 10 minutes = 0.83kWh
To get 100F water from 55F inlet requires a 45F rise or 25C
Water's specific heat is 4.186J/gCor 4186 J/kgC
A Joule is a watt second
0.83kWh is 3 MJ
/4186 = 714 kg*C of water / 25 = 28.6 kg of hot water / 10 minutes = 2.86 kg per minute * 2.2 = 6.3 pounds per minute = 0.8 gallons per minute which is half the flow of a low flow RV shower head.

2 gallons per minute = 16 pounds per minute * 45F = 720BTU/min * 60 = 53k BTU/hr = 12.7 kW

So even the full Powershare output from a Cybertruck would only get you a low flow or cool shower. (Pure resistive heating, heat pump would cut that a bunch)

Propane energy density is 21,458 BTU/pound. 720 BTU*10 minutes= 7,200 BTU or about a third of a pound per shower.

2 GPM is a lot for a camp shower

 

[Bobo_LaDouche]

Solar shower; small ones work much better - lighter, easier to support. Half gallon is plenty for a shower, including the hair, so a one gallon solar shower size is ideal. Heat water with an induction stove (3 cups), and you are good to go. You have the option to solar heat the water, but this really only works for late afternoon showers. One each, per person...

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