We sold the van back in 2021 but haven’t heard of any issues from the new owner. The water heater worked great when we used the van. It made the water hot in 10 minutes and had enough for a quick shower.
Do you have a switch for the hot water heater, where you turn on when you want to use it? or do you leave it on all times? Do you turn it off at night? thank you for the video.
We installed an outlet that was switched. If we were not hooked up to shore power we would turn it on about 10 minutes before using it and that was plenty of time to get hot water for a shower. Then we’d turn it off when we were done using hot water. I hope this helps!
Love this system, my question is how does the water heater hold up? After say 10 minutes of using the recirculated water does the heat of the water dramatically drop as the water heater won’t have time to heat the water back up? This is the last stumbling block I’m trying to work out before I fit my own. Thanks!
I was worried about this very problem so typically I’ll try to be as quick as possible in the shower but what I found was that the water heater works fairly well as an on demand unit. Yeah it’s not as warm as it is when you give it time but you don’t get an ice cold shower if you run out. Hope this helps!
Would you happen to have a diagram of the plumbing setup? I have the same water heater and I’m trying to figure out how to get hot water to the sink and the shower/dog rinse in the back of my van as well...
I have a really rough sketch of it. In the simplest terms you have your water pump pulling from your holding tank and pushing through the cold line. To get hot water you make a T off of the cold line and run it into the blue connection on the hot water heater. Then you run your hot water pipe out of the red connection on the water heater and just run it next to the cold line to all of your items. Then at each thing sink, shower, and dog shower you have a hot and cold pipe. I hope this helps!
Never dawned on me on the vent I never put a hose on mine I just left it there', open. I'm now wondering if I should put a hose on and have that pointing upwards. good call on your part thank you
You can definitely do it that way but we didn’t because inevitably you’re going to have bacteria grow in the holding tank so we wanted the filter to catch it after coming out of the tank.
Did i see at the end an electrical dump valve to just dump onto ground? The one on shower tank? Maybe i am mistaken? What is this/purpose? I don’t see the part listed and this sounds interesting.
Yes we had one on the shower tank and a manual one on the sink grey water tank. The link for the one we used is below if you are interested in getting one. Let us know if you have any other questions! amzn.to/3jwZIAu
Does that hot water heater have a cold water pass through when not turned on? I ask because some faucets need to have hot water gonin no matter if you have it turned to hot water. And to save electricity, we'd have the hot water heater off. Does that keep all water from going through? Or do you need the heater on to have the water go through?
The water will flow through it regardless of whether it is turned on I’m pretty sure. I don’t know that I ever tested that explicitly but there were no valves on it to keep the water from flowing.
I have a question... at 26:24 in the video the image shows both hot and cold pex going into a hole in the floor... Why is that? Is the red the center pressure vent on the bosch water heater? And does it actually vent out a LOT of water? Or is it just a steam? I am trying to figure out how best to manage this, and do not want to cut a hole in my floor. And why does the Cold have a vent midstream in the line before the water purifier? I have a SHURflo 182-200 Pre-Pressurized Accumulator Tank inline with my hot water tank... isn't that supposed to manage the pressure from the Bosch tank?
Hey Wendy, the red pex is the over pressure relief for the water heater. The only time anything comes out of that is if the water heater malfunctions. The blue pex going to the outside is the city water connection that is under the van. It looks like a vent but it’s really the water inlet and there is a check valve that keeps it from overflowing the holding tank when hooked up at a campsite. I hope this helps and if you have any more questions just let us know!
The water heater is a Bosch 4 gallon water heater. It works really well if you turn it on and give it about ten minutes to warm up. It’s not a very long warm shower but it’s nice on a cold morning!
For your pressure relief valve (Between cold and hot water line) did you put a pipe to drain it anywhere ? Is it needed ? Looking at purchasing same heater myself but need this question answered haha
We plumbed it to run outside of the van in the event that water did come out of it. I don’t think anything has come out of it so far but we didn’t want to take the chance of flooding the van. Hope this helps!
@@goldenadvantures2573 thanks for the reply :)! It did help a lot of setups I’ve seen incorporating the water heater don’t have anything connected 🤷🏼♂️ doesn’t hurt though right
Great video! How do you tun on the water heater? Do you have a dedicated wall outlet with a switch somewhere? Or do you come out of the van to turn it on? Thanks!
We have a switch on our control panel in the cabinet to turn on the single outlet that runs the hot water heater. It makes it where we can wake up in the morning flip it on and have hot water. Glad you enjoyed the video!
We’re running BFG KO2 245/75/R16 tires on Ultra Toil 450 5x130 wheels. I’d suggest going down a tire size though because we have a little bit of scrubbing when we turn after a lot of trimming.
@@goldenadvantures2573 thats a really good looking tires and wheels ...don't you want to modify the fenders? .....Thank you for the information and Again, REALLY great job you guys are doing, I like ...No short cuts.
The way the inner fender is designed makes it where I’d have to crush it in with a mini sledge to make the tire stop scrubbing. I cut everything out that I could with a cutoff wheel and sawzall. Yeah I’m not a fan of shortcuts so we did everything the best we could!
Pex is compliant with ABYC standards and has been in use in the marine environment back to at least 2000 that I know of. It may have been used for even longer.
@@goldenadvantures2573 Thanks. Since Pex was not originally designed for the marine or rv industry (typically used in static applications) I wasn't sure how well it would hold up. I in no way trust the rv industry and always use marine standards for reference. Since you work in the marine industry you're a great resource for info.
People like to use pex in larger yachts because it requires less supports than typical soft wall hose on longer runs. I’ve noticed a lot of people use it in sailboats as well for potable water systems.
@@goldenadvantures2573 My concern has been it's reliability in that environment. My previous van I used ss braided hose for all my water lines. I will try pex on this new project.
The connection method for pex is very similar to an Oetiker clamp commonly used on engine fuel and coolant lines. That’s one of the main reasons in trusted it. Sounds like you invested serious money in your water system. We used stainless braided line for our propane system but that’s it.
We’ve been really happy with it so far! We turn it on for about five to ten minutes before we’re ready to shower and I’ve yet to run out of hot water. It is a pretty big electrical draw but with 600 watts of solar we keep the batteries topped off even with heating water.
@@goldenadvantures2573 Ohh wow! Nice I'll probably end up getting that then. I was hoping for 600w, but I have the Maxxfan and a huge skylight hatch above the bed area at the back, so I ended up with one 325w panel. I've built a 24v 200ah LiFePo4 battery bank and have the 3000w multiplus too, so hopefully with the soIar and alternator charging I should have enough juice for it! I'm about to buy that shower pan on your website. That's surely the best option for the T1N I have come across.
We just barely fit 600 on the roof using the compact renogy 100 watt panels. We have one in front of the fan and one on either side then a row of three between the fan and ac. If you can keep it clean the 325 should be plenty. Ours right now are maxing out around 350 watts because of how dirty they are from all the wildfire ash. That was the smallest shower pan we could find that would work and we like it so far.
@@goldenadvantures2573 Looks like I should consider building a ladder into the van to keep that panel clean haha. Maybe later on down the road if the 325w isn't cutting it I'll most likely redo the solar like yours. And thats good to hear, I didn't it to be cramped in there, but didn't want it to take up too much room. Thanks for the replies! Your channel is so helpful to me!
We’re really glad that you find our channel helpful! We don’t have a ladder on the outside yet and that’s definitely something we want to add down the road.
They definitely make them you just have to worry more about explosions and keeping the pilot light Lit. Not to mention you have to have them vented to the outside is the van. The electric version was a much easier install for us.
@@goldenadvantures2573 Yeah I heard about the pilot light also...that it also does not to be on uneven ground. I only have 100ah lithium battery bank (300w solar) so electric water heater is pretty much out.
You can also get a tankless propane water heater that doesn’t use a pilot light. We’re running a Tesla module and 600 watts of solar so the electric one was a no brainer for us.
***DO NOT USE ANY DUCT HANGING WIRE OR STRAPS ON WATER TANKS UNDER YOUR VAN!!!*** You are asking for trouble with that support system. Use sold sheet metal strips bent at the appropriate angles and screw it into the frame. 1 gallon of water weighs 8lbs. A 20lb tank is 160 lbs! Remove this video or edit that out please.
We have a rubber isolator between the metal bands and water tank and wood between the metal of the van and the tanks. We’ve had the tanks under the van for going on a year now with over 20,000 miles driven on not the best roads with zero problems. Also those tanks are only 7 gallons a piece. They are almost never over half full which would put about 30lbs of weight in them. If we were to build another van we would more than likely do it the same way again as we see no issues with the mounting method.
How has your water heater hold up? I’m thinking of purchasing this one. Would you recommend it?
We sold the van back in 2021 but haven’t heard of any issues from the new owner. The water heater worked great when we used the van. It made the water hot in 10 minutes and had enough for a quick shower.
Do you have a switch for the hot water heater, where you turn on when you want to use it? or do you leave it on all times? Do you turn it off at night? thank you for the video.
We installed an outlet that was switched. If we were not hooked up to shore power we would turn it on about 10 minutes before using it and that was plenty of time to get hot water for a shower. Then we’d turn it off when we were done using hot water. I hope this helps!
@@goldenadvantures2573 this helps. Thank you!
Love this system, my question is how does the water heater hold up? After say 10 minutes of using the recirculated water does the heat of the water dramatically drop as the water heater won’t have time to heat the water back up? This is the last stumbling block I’m trying to work out before I fit my own. Thanks!
I was worried about this very problem so typically I’ll try to be as quick as possible in the shower but what I found was that the water heater works fairly well as an on demand unit. Yeah it’s not as warm as it is when you give it time but you don’t get an ice cold shower if you run out. Hope this helps!
Great stuff, nice work, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Would you happen to have a diagram of the plumbing setup? I have the same water heater and I’m trying to figure out how to get hot water to the sink and the shower/dog rinse in the back of my van as well...
I have a really rough sketch of it. In the simplest terms you have your water pump pulling from your holding tank and pushing through the cold line. To get hot water you make a T off of the cold line and run it into the blue connection on the hot water heater. Then you run your hot water pipe out of the red connection on the water heater and just run it next to the cold line to all of your items. Then at each thing sink, shower, and dog shower you have a hot and cold pipe. I hope this helps!
Never dawned on me on the vent I never put a hose on mine I just left it there', open. I'm now wondering if I should put a hose on and have that pointing upwards. good call on your part thank you
Glad you got some value from the video! The vents definitely help the tanks out.
@@goldenadvantures2573 I just have a open pipe.👍
has that pipe strap with rubber pads rubbed a hole through that tank yet ? how you have that put up there looks really sketchy
We sold the van last year but I stay in touch with the new owners and haven’t heard any issues out of the water tanks
Thank you brother 🤘
Glad you got some value out of the video!
Hey what wheels and tires do you have? What size? They look great, thanks!
They’re ultra motor sports toil 450 wheels and bfg KO2’s for the tires. They totally transformed the look of the van!
@@goldenadvantures2573 they really look amazing! What size tires?
Here’s a link to our Instagram post that has all the details on it. instagram.com/p/CE8RHlkBzmA/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=
What do you think about putting the water filter on the line before any of it even reaches your holding tank??
You can definitely do it that way but we didn’t because inevitably you’re going to have bacteria grow in the holding tank so we wanted the filter to catch it after coming out of the tank.
Did i see at the end an electrical dump valve to just dump onto ground? The one on shower tank? Maybe i am mistaken? What is this/purpose? I don’t see the part listed and this sounds interesting.
Yes we had one on the shower tank and a manual one on the sink grey water tank. The link for the one we used is below if you are interested in getting one. Let us know if you have any other questions!
amzn.to/3jwZIAu
Does that hot water heater have a cold water pass through when not turned on? I ask because some faucets need to have hot water gonin no matter if you have it turned to hot water. And to save electricity, we'd have the hot water heater off. Does that keep all water from going through? Or do you need the heater on to have the water go through?
The water will flow through it regardless of whether it is turned on I’m pretty sure. I don’t know that I ever tested that explicitly but there were no valves on it to keep the water from flowing.
I have a question... at 26:24 in the video the image shows both hot and cold pex going into a hole in the floor... Why is that? Is the red the center pressure vent on the bosch water heater? And does it actually vent out a LOT of water? Or is it just a steam? I am trying to figure out how best to manage this, and do not want to cut a hole in my floor. And why does the Cold have a vent midstream in the line before the water purifier?
I have a SHURflo 182-200 Pre-Pressurized Accumulator Tank inline with my hot water tank... isn't that supposed to manage the pressure from the Bosch tank?
Hey Wendy, the red pex is the over pressure relief for the water heater. The only time anything comes out of that is if the water heater malfunctions. The blue pex going to the outside is the city water connection that is under the van. It looks like a vent but it’s really the water inlet and there is a check valve that keeps it from overflowing the holding tank when hooked up at a campsite. I hope this helps and if you have any more questions just let us know!
Does the water still flow if you dont have the water heater on to heat?
Yes it will allow water through it even if the power is turned off to the heater.
great job
Thanks so much!
What kind and how do you like the water mixer for your shower?
The water heater is a Bosch 4 gallon water heater. It works really well if you turn it on and give it about ten minutes to warm up. It’s not a very long warm shower but it’s nice on a cold morning!
Have you had any problems with the pressure release valve leaking water? I didn't see it connected for drainage.
On the hot water heater? If that’s what you’re talking about we ran it out of the bottom of the van and have never noticed any water coming out of it.
For your pressure relief valve (Between cold and hot water line) did you put a pipe to drain it anywhere ? Is it needed ? Looking at purchasing same heater myself but need this question answered haha
We plumbed it to run outside of the van in the event that water did come out of it. I don’t think anything has come out of it so far but we didn’t want to take the chance of flooding the van. Hope this helps!
@@goldenadvantures2573 thanks for the reply :)! It did help a lot of setups I’ve seen incorporating the water heater don’t have anything connected 🤷🏼♂️ doesn’t hurt though right
Yeah it’s just a little bit of pex hose and you never have to worry about it so it definitely seemed worth it.
Great video! How do you tun on the water heater? Do you have a dedicated wall outlet with a switch somewhere? Or do you come out of the van to turn it on? Thanks!
We have a switch on our control panel in the cabinet to turn on the single outlet that runs the hot water heater. It makes it where we can wake up in the morning flip it on and have hot water. Glad you enjoyed the video!
No issues with the pump being above the water level in your tank?
Not so far. It’s a self priming pump so it can pull the water up to it.
Whats your thoughts on the pex A type with the Upnor fittings?
I’ve never used it before but from what I can tell it looks to be a pretty good product.
help me out....could your tell me your tire size and wheels?....
We’re running BFG KO2 245/75/R16 tires on Ultra Toil 450 5x130 wheels. I’d suggest going down a tire size though because we have a little bit of scrubbing when we turn after a lot of trimming.
@@goldenadvantures2573 thats a really good looking tires and wheels ...don't you want to modify the fenders? .....Thank you for the information and Again, REALLY great job you guys are doing, I like ...No short cuts.
The way the inner fender is designed makes it where I’d have to crush it in with a mini sledge to make the tire stop scrubbing. I cut everything out that I could with a cutoff wheel and sawzall. Yeah I’m not a fan of shortcuts so we did everything the best we could!
Is pex used in the marine industry and if so for how long?
Pex is compliant with ABYC standards and has been in use in the marine environment back to at least 2000 that I know of. It may have been used for even longer.
@@goldenadvantures2573 Thanks. Since Pex was not originally designed for the marine or rv industry (typically used in static applications) I wasn't sure how well it would hold up. I in no way trust the rv industry and always use marine standards for reference. Since you work in the marine industry you're a great resource for info.
People like to use pex in larger yachts because it requires less supports than typical soft wall hose on longer runs. I’ve noticed a lot of people use it in sailboats as well for potable water systems.
@@goldenadvantures2573 My concern has been it's reliability in that environment. My previous van I used ss braided hose for all my water lines. I will try pex on this new project.
The connection method for pex is very similar to an Oetiker clamp commonly used on engine fuel and coolant lines. That’s one of the main reasons in trusted it. Sounds like you invested serious money in your water system. We used stainless braided line for our propane system but that’s it.
YES! This is the episode I’ve been needing! How’s the performance of that Bosch water heater for the shower? Thinking about getting it for my T1N.
We’ve been really happy with it so far! We turn it on for about five to ten minutes before we’re ready to shower and I’ve yet to run out of hot water. It is a pretty big electrical draw but with 600 watts of solar we keep the batteries topped off even with heating water.
@@goldenadvantures2573 Ohh wow! Nice I'll probably end up getting that then. I was hoping for 600w, but I have the Maxxfan and a huge skylight hatch above the bed area at the back, so I ended up with one 325w panel. I've built a 24v 200ah LiFePo4 battery bank and have the 3000w multiplus too, so hopefully with the soIar and alternator charging I should have enough juice for it! I'm about to buy that shower pan on your website. That's surely the best option for the T1N I have come across.
We just barely fit 600 on the roof using the compact renogy 100 watt panels. We have one in front of the fan and one on either side then a row of three between the fan and ac. If you can keep it clean the 325 should be plenty. Ours right now are maxing out around 350 watts because of how dirty they are from all the wildfire ash. That was the smallest shower pan we could find that would work and we like it so far.
@@goldenadvantures2573 Looks like I should consider building a ladder into the van to keep that panel clean haha. Maybe later on down the road if the 325w isn't cutting it I'll most likely redo the solar like yours. And thats good to hear, I didn't it to be cramped in there, but didn't want it to take up too much room. Thanks for the replies! Your channel is so helpful to me!
We’re really glad that you find our channel helpful! We don’t have a ladder on the outside yet and that’s definitely something we want to add down the road.
You made it sound like there is no such thing as a propane tank hot water heater. The rest of the vid TL;DR.
They definitely make them you just have to worry more about explosions and keeping the pilot light Lit. Not to mention you have to have them vented to the outside is the van. The electric version was a much easier install for us.
@@goldenadvantures2573 Yeah I heard about the pilot light also...that it also does not to be on uneven ground. I only have 100ah lithium battery bank (300w solar) so electric water heater is pretty much out.
You can also get a tankless propane water heater that doesn’t use a pilot light. We’re running a Tesla module and 600 watts of solar so the electric one was a no brainer for us.
***DO NOT USE ANY DUCT HANGING WIRE OR STRAPS ON WATER TANKS UNDER YOUR VAN!!!*** You are asking for trouble with that support system. Use sold sheet metal strips bent at the appropriate angles and screw it into the frame. 1 gallon of water weighs 8lbs. A 20lb tank is 160 lbs! Remove this video or edit that out please.
We have a rubber isolator between the metal bands and water tank and wood between the metal of the van and the tanks. We’ve had the tanks under the van for going on a year now with over 20,000 miles driven on not the best roads with zero problems. Also those tanks are only 7 gallons a piece. They are almost never over half full which would put about 30lbs of weight in them. If we were to build another van we would more than likely do it the same way again as we see no issues with the mounting method.
How is it holding up? Any leaks? Like under your sink with electrical?
We sold the van last month but it hadn’t leaked a drop up until then. We used a lot of flexible silicone to seal everything.