Head upgrades

[Mary Mac]

My boat is not currently set up with working hot water. There is a water tank sitting in the lazarette that is not hooked up. I think it holds hot water that is heated by the engine?? How is yours set up?

I think it would be great to have a working hot water shower someday. The head has a track on the ceiling that I assume was for a shower curtain. It looks like a very tiny and uncomfortable situation. I'm looking for ideas to update my head so the whole thing is waterproof and I don't need a shower curtain. Have any of you done this? Please share photos!

[thudbranch]

FIRST OF ALL , Is the hot water heater actually usable? My Cal 31 has a 5gal HWH located in the starboard lazzarette that uses the hot water out of the engine fresh water pump to heat and can also heat on 120vac. Running our engine for 15 minutes gets me a full tank of hot water at 180 deg F. I ask - Why was the HWH disonnected? Maybe because it leaked....

Our shower is shown in the pics attached. We do not use a curtain; but are careful where we point the shower head when on. The mixing valve is shown in the cabinet wall. Note the hand-held head has a on/off control right at the head. Very useful to conserve water. Agreed on the shower curtain set up! We just wipe down the Formica and teak afterwards. The vented loop next to the shower head is for the head flushing sea-water, not for the shower.

Greg

[Mary Mac]

Thanks, Greg.
The water tank is a “new” unit, meaning someone put it in there before I owned it. It looks like it has never been hooked up or used. I just found it in the lazarette. There is a place aft of the engine where the old one probably used to sit. That unit doesn’t have an electric water heater built in. I looked online and the electric + heat exchanger unit is $1000!
I got an instant hot water heater last time I was in Brazil (most of the showers use those there) and am thinking of a way to hook it up for use at the dock. There aren’t enough amps at the dock to make it make cold water hot, but if I had warm water saved in the tank, it may be able to make that hot.
Thanks for the photos. I have the shower head built into the faucet, but I think that your way of showering would work in my boat, too.

[thebastidge]

Mine has the combo heat exchanger/electric 6 gallon water heater, installed in the engine compartment.It heats when the engine runs and when on shore power (and the breaker is on). You might be surprised how fast a very small water heater can work on 110v. We have a 2 gallon heater in our Carver and it heats water almost instantly and maintains a decent temp even with the water flowing- as long as we're on shore power or on-board 110v generator.

[Mary Mac]

I dug out the hot water heater today and realized that it is in fact a water heater. Just have to get around to hooking it up. The boat needs new fresh water hoses while I'm at it.

IMG_4360.JPG (273.67 KiB) Viewed 60899 times

IMG_4357.JPG (136.79 KiB) Viewed 60899 times

IMG_4356.JPG (145.43 KiB) Viewed 60899 times