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Hot Water in the Shower


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I note from your earlier enquiry that you have no motorcaravanning experience.

 

In fact, you should not expect to obtain constant hot water for showering. The capacity of the water heater’s water ‘tank’ is relatively small and the hot water in it will need to be conserved. Obtaining two consecutive showers is all you should expect, and even then the 2nd person showering may well end up with a cold-water surprise.

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The hot water capacity is around 12 litres or so and when taking a shower two gallons does not go very far, especially when as hot is taken out cold water is let in thus reducing the overall temparature of the water in the heater. It is not a continuous flow heater such as we are used to at home. Does the owner's handbook not explain this and advise the best ways to shower to conserve water?
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Hello Newby, the common way to have a shower in a motorhome or caravan is to hose yourself down, then switch off the water, lather yourself, then switch on the water and rinse, then switch the water off again. It is surprisingly refreshing. If you want a long, warm shower, then the best place is the facilities block on a caravan site.

 

It took us a while to get the hang of eking out the water. The problem we still have is when my wife, wants to wash her shoulder length hair. It's then touch and go whether we have enough hot water left. Sometimes I have to heat more after the first shower of the day.

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Guest pelmetman
Tracker - 2018-07-11 11:07 AM

 

The hot water capacity is around 12 litres or so and when taking a shower two gallons does not go very far, especially when as hot is taken out cold water is let in thus reducing the overall temparature of the water in the heater. It is not a continuous flow heater such as we are used to at home. Does the owner's handbook not explain this and advise the best ways to shower to conserve water?

 

Unless you have a Paloma water heater like us ;-) ...........Then you have 82 litres of hot water :D ........

 

Progress eh? 8-) .........

 

 

 

 

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pelmetman - 2018-07-11 11:40 AM

Unless you have a Paloma water heater like us ;-) ...........Then you have 82 litres of hot water :D ........

Progress eh? 8-) .........

 

The more I see of modern vans the less and less I like 'em - and the moderner they be the deeper the distrust runs.

 

Some things are very good - no rust issues, cab air con, but not a lot else!

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My Chausson Allegro 69 has diesel heating and hot water, it does not store hot water but has heat exchangers that give a constant flow of hot water for both me and my wife to shower [not together sadly hee hee] there are two settings for the water control on the switch panel, one shows a snow flake and the other half a snow flake, one is a winter setting and the other summer? we can have a continuous hot shower until the main cold water storage tank empties [140 litres] but you would be well crinkly if you stayed under the shower that long.
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Guest pelmetman
Derek Uzzell - 2018-07-11 12:49 PM

 

Alden offers a continuous-flow water heating add-on for their boiler

 

http://www.alde.co.uk/itemdetails-4.html

 

From your link Derek.......

 

Dimensions: Height 180 × Width 320 × Depth 320 mm

Weight: 2.3 kg

Max 12 V current: 0.17 A

Max flow-rate: 3.5 LPM

Combines power of gas and electric heating

Can use existing surge damper/accumulator

***Buff manservant to refill Aquaroll may be advantageous***

 

Will a "in the buff manservant" do? :D .........

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vindiboy - 2018-07-11 3:02 PM

 

My Chausson Allegro 69 has diesel heating and hot water, it does not store hot water but has heat exchangers that give a constant flow of hot water...

 

I’m guessing that the diesel-fuelled heater fitted to your Chausson Allegro is a Webasto “Dual Top” appliance and (as far as I’m aware) this cannot provide a constant flow of hot water.

 

A Webasto Dual Top has an operating princilple similar to that of a gas-fuelled Truma combination air/water heater, where water is stored in a (smallish capacity) tank inside the appliance and heated as a by-product of air-heating or separately. As hot water is used (eg. when showering) cold water enters the tank and mixes with the hot water remaining there. In a consecutive showering scenario, if Showerer One uses the limited amount of hot water available lavishly, Showerer Two may start out with hot water but this will rapidly become tepid and then cold as the water-tank fills up with cold water.

 

To counter this people either adopt the ‘Navy shower’ technique mentioned by Brock above, or reheat the water in the heater’s tank for a while before the 2nd shower is taken. If Showerer One takes a ‘Hollywood shower’ where no thought is given to the limited amount of hot water in the heater’s tank (and no consideration is given to the unfortunate soul who’d like to take a shower immediately after!) if the appliance is also providing blown-air heating it may take an age (perhaps 45 minutes) before the temperature of the water in the tank has risen sufficiently for a hot (hottish) shower to be taken.

 

(Obviously, if your Allegro does not have a Webasto Dual Top heater, my comments above won’t apply. But if it does not have the Webasto unit, it would be worth knowing what it does have, as (to the best of my knowledge) Chausson has not fitted a diesel-fuelled air/water heater that can provide continuous hot water in unlimited quantities.)

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Yes my Webasto is a thermotop C/E it does have a small tank but this is filled with antifreeze and is for the heating system, I can assure you that we get constant hot water at the showers and other taps, and a very good flow, it is a great system and, the hot water appears very quickly after switching the system on, As I said earlier we can and do have long hot showers .My vehicle is 14 years old.
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Guest pelmetman
vindiboy - 2018-07-12 10:09 AM

 

Yes my Webasto is a thermotop C/E it does have a small tank but this is filled with antifreeze and is for the heating system, I can assure you that we get constant hot water at the showers and other taps, and a very good flow, it is a great system and, the hot water appears very quickly after switching the system on, As I said earlier we can and do have long hot showers .***My vehicle is 14 years old.***

 

There's your answer :D ...........

 

The OP's problem is prolly due to some EU directive that newer moho owners are no longer allowed to have constant hot water on account of global warming (lol) ...........

 

 

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pelmetman - 2018-07-12 10:16 AM

 

The OP's problem is prolly due to some EU directive that newer moho owners are no longer allowed to have constant hot water on account of global warming (lol) ...........

 

 

You could work for the Daily Mail, and help its £billionaire tax exile owner avoid an EU wide tax directive by supporting Brexit :-D

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vindiboy - 2018-07-12 10:09 AM

 

Yes my Webasto is a thermotop C/E it does have a small tank but this is filled with antifreeze and is for the heating system, I can assure you that we get constant hot water at the showers and other taps, and a very good flow, it is a great system and, the hot water appears very quickly after switching the system on, As I said earlier we can and do have long hot showers .My vehicle is 14 years old.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Webasto’s Thermo Top C system differs significantly from a Dual Top system and, given the former’s output capability, I can well understand that it could keep up with the water-throughput when your shower is in use. I notice from Webasto’s documentation

 

https://www.butlertechnik.com/downloads/4110310A_Thermotop_C_E_Install.pdf

 

that a calorifier can be included in the system to store ‘domestic’ hot water, which should aid showering further.

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