Add hot water option to a Sailfish...?

[onoahimahi]

Hi - I've got a new-to-me 1994 Sailfish 252 which is the same as the 95-97 272. It has got everything I want except hot water. Two questions:

1. Has anyone added a hot water heater to an older boat? I have the shore power option. Any particular hot water heater recommendations?

2. I'd like to be able to occasionally use the hot water heater on the water (and the microwave, but not at the same time... ) I'm thinking I'll install an invertor large enough to handle the hot-water heater (maybe 2000W) and then just make up a short shore-power cord and run it from the invertor located in the battery compartment to the shore-power connector.

Are these reasonable things to consider doing...? Even if I don't add the hot water heater I plan to add the invertor to run the microwave on the water for heating up coffee, etc.

Thanks,
-Scott

 

[bc282]

my 282 has a 5-6 gal hot water tank installed in the cuddy at the bow - don't have a genset so shore power use only.

a 2000 watt Inverter would IMO be the smallest inverter for heating water, if you want to take a hot water shower, you likely need an inverter that can do 2200-3000 continuous to work well and coupled with a couple larger batteries for the large draw. Talk to your marine hardware supplier who would be selling you the inverter as to their recommendated size and battery set up for your needs.

If i had to add hot water, i'd look into an elec tankless heater and add a small portable gas generator (honda or yami). Not a lot of space IMO to add a couple additional batteries, inverter and charger on a trailer size boat.

consider your use, if you need to overnight and take showers and don;t have shore power, you need hot water. if you just want to warm food up and have hot coffee, i'd use a thermos, a portable butane/propane stove and/or buy and stock up on come hot cans for the coffee (www.hot-cans.com).

OR . . . buy a larger boat that has already a full head plumbed with hot water and a genset :jaw

 

[ocnslr]

I just removed the 6-gal water heater from our boat. Didn't use it much in 11 years and wanted to be rid of the weight.

I installed an inverter to power the microwave, and for occasional use of 120VAC outlets.

I would NOT recommend installing an inverter to power up the water heater.

Brian

 

[onoahimahi]

I understand the concern of running a water heater off the batteries. Isotherm makes a 750 Watt which is about the same power as the microwave but the water heater will be on for much longer periods of time. Here is the heater:

http://isotherm-parts.com/product-range ... -4_34.html

The Etec 200HO alternator is a high output claiming 133 Amps but I can bring my Honda EU2000 for overnights or days with lots of swimming and showering.

I'll start by installing the shore-power hot-water system and think about the inverter later. I definitely want to be able to run the microwave on the water.

 

[Slacktime]

I would not recommend running a HW heater off an invertor. The invertor might be rated for the power, but the voltage drop from the batteries will kill the deal. I have a 2500 W invertor fed from 2- 1 year old parallel group 29 batteries and two #1awg copper cables per pole not longer than two feet from the invertor. When I try to run the microwave on the 03 Marlin on full power which is about 900w, the inverter starts to alarm on low input voltage and eventually cuts out. In order to heat up a cup of water so that the admiral can have some tea, I need to reduce power to 70-80% on the microwave just to keep it going. I even tried to parallel all 4 batteries which is dangerous because it's taking juice from the starting batteries with limited results. Keep in mind that if you want to pull 1000 watts from an invertor that's about 80% efficient, it will draw over 100 amps from the battery. The battery can produce the current, but the terminal voltage drops enough to stop the invertor. It only needs to drop to 10.5 volts to cut out the invertor. The only practical solution to make hot water away from shore power is to use a portable generator rated at least 2kW.

good luck, Slacktime

Life's too short to own an ugly boat!

 

[Grog]

Your best bet would be to heat the water on dock power then have the inverter or genset (prefered) keep it hot and add extra insulation to the heater. The water is OK to wash off the sand and salt water but I wouldn't want to take a real shower with it, are you sure you want hot water?