Hot water from a Chinese diesel heater Bobilvans hot water kit | EP34 | Ford Transit Campervan Build
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- Опубліковано 24 лис 2024
- This episode I install my Hot water heater from Bobilvans! Im incredibly impressed with its speed. The kit used the Hot area from my 5kw Chinese Diesel Heater via Heat exchanges on the diesel heaters hot air flow. I have gone for there 18 Litre tank are there largest 2.1kw "Bumper" kit. Final hot water for my self build campervan
EDIT: I highly recommended at the end of the Bobilvans hot water heater as an install to install DIY Solution to hot water in a van. Having subsequently used it now for a few weeks properly for my shower and hot water system I can continue say that it is absolutely brilliant and highly recommend it.
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#Chinesedieselheater #Campervanhotwater #Mispronouncedadventures
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Welcome to my Ford Transit Mk8 Van build series.
My name is Alex Frood, I'm a UK based Freelance Expedition Leader and Outdoor instructor. I am converting my 2018 Ford Transit Mk8 L3H3 into a full-time Camper.
These videos are not How-to videos but showing my process for my conversion. feel free to copy me but id always recommend doing your own research as well.
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This is older video and I have reviewed newer version as well. Check the Channel
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Yours is the first installation I've seen. It's confirmed my intention to buy when/if I get a new motor fitted out. Good work.
Glad it is of help, they do have a newer version now, but I’ve been very happy with my original kit which has been in for over two years now
That’s a game changer no dangerous fumes or hassle of moving water around 💯
It’s a great System. That’s one of the main reasons I went for it
That's a brilliant idea recycling energy, heating the caravan and the water at the same time it's similar to the engine heat exchanger heating the water while you're driving 👍
Definitely I think it’s good use of equipment I already had. Really happy with it
Chinese diesel heaters are compatible for kerosene, but I particularly wanted to plum it into the vans main tank. so I only had to worry about one type of fuel.
You're the first one with the Bobilvans water heater kit in a van. And you've made a good video.
The rest of your built seems impressive, so I'll watch the rest of your videos over the coming days.
Thank you! It’s a great kit I’m very happy with it. Enjoy the rest of videos
I have one of these and am well impressed with it. Your install is soooo much neater than mine! Bobil now have a diverter gizmo so you can divert the heat and just heat the van, stops the system water doing that boiling thing also.
Yeah I now have a divert ( the boiling was the main reason ) so I can send the hot air into the heat exchanger or not. I’m currently doing freelance work for Bobilvan so i get to see install as well.
@@MispronouncedAdventures That’s good to know. Where are you based?
In my van so anywhere really but at the moment near Bristol with the Bobilvans work
Great idea and a easy to follow video. Thank you for taking the time to make the video
No problem at all, it’s a great bit of kit and having now had it installed for quite a few weeks it’s absolutely fantastic
Blown away by this idea, seems a good system. We’ll be looking into it 👍🏻
It’s brilliant. I’d happily recommend it!
Fabulous I hadn’t heard of of this system, thank you
Glad you enjoyed it! I’ve had it installed now for almost 2 years. Love it
I have just bought an exhaust gas recycler (aka heat exchanger) to use the exhaust from my diesel heater to heat water.
That option does work as well, different set ups will benefit in different ways. In the summer, I like having the bobil van system on the diesel heater air aspect, so the diesel heater doesn’t heat up the habitation area because the hot is being transferred into the hot water.
I was watching a video by someone else a couple of days ago that used this same water exchanger. Looks a good idea
I’m been super impressed with its efficiency
Looks great. Cant wait to see your shower set up with it ..👍👍🚙
Me too. Seems like I’ve been waiting so long now to get the shower finally finished!
Cool set up nicely done. 👍
Thank you
Wow, this is very smart engineering it is!
I always wanted to try and knock the fins off the burner housing and tightly wrap with a 3/8 copper coil and pump water thru that
I don’t know how effective that would be due to contact area with the pipe on the shell. But I do know there are a few rarer versions of the diesel heater which have a water jacket inside.
So it would be a good idea to put a tee or Y in the line if you want to use for heat and water,. To be most efficient! So 2x 8kw heaters should heat 30-40 gallons of water fairly well, like an hour +/-,' maybe less if using 3 of these units to capture the heat, have two feed the hot air from two radiator units into a Y and into another radiator, to catch the heat! Then pipe the water in series, possibly using a single pump! Awesome!!
I did make some changes later on. I have a diverter after the heater, so I can choose the air to go into the heat exchanger or just into the van.
Ive been living the van life for about 2 years now in the United states I had a big old propane hester which was in my way more than it was of use considering I live in a 92 Chevy astro van I have a 20 gallon fresh water tank under the bed and a 5 kw maxpeedrod diesel heater I would live to try one of these hest exchangers
Fantastic insight Alex, I'm watching your content in a very odd order ! But wanted to say how much I'm enjoying it. 👍🏻
Thank you very much, I’m glad you are enjoying it. Watch in any order you like!
Its a smart and compact way to make hot water without a huge and expensive electrical system.
If there was a damper that diverted hot air to the water coils and exited the bottom of vehicle that would prevent heating the van in summer. When in air heat mode the water coils would be out of the loop. So install a “Y” duct after the heater before the water coils.
Some people do use a diverter to duct the hot air out of the vehicle after the water coils. However, I generally find that so much heat energy from the hot air has gone into the water that the remaining hot air coming out of the van is hardly warm. Particular in my set I haven’t found it an issue.
As you may know, Landrover fit from factory diesel water heaters as part of its quicker engine warm-up times on its frugal BMW diesel-powered Landrover Freelanders, mine sounds like a gas turbine firing up at the first start that I found assuring, to be honest - NO silencer fitted from the factory though.. Thanks for your videos, as my son has the Chinese air heater In his VW hightop camper van and loves it..
I do know :) I have actually got 2 second hand 5kw Webasto Thermo top V engine pre heater from scraped Discovery 3 & 4. One of which I retro fitted to my transit engine to do that exact job, particularly on the Arctic trips. I’ve got a few videos on how to get them working and retrofit them.
Although I do think I would want to run a coolant loop and a plated heat exchanger through one of those heaters and not water directly.
I’m glad your son has found my videos helpful
@@MispronouncedAdventures A water fed heat exchanger may work out well considering the btu`s the heaters put out, hope it goes well.. love the Transit warming up boost unit too.
Nice, i just discover this kit, and think about adding the 12v ressistance as backup, just as you did. nice.
It’s a great kit. I’m so impressed with it and became even more when efficient enough to run my recirculating shower system off.
I haven’t set tested the 12 V water heater and I’ll makes a sure video about it when I do.
Learned lots. Thanks
Glad you found it helpful, it’s a great kit and I’m still happy with it after a year
I know this is a old video, but when I saw this system, i started to think about laying small tubes under the floor, and you would've had floor heating all over the back, and you can even route them up the walls, so you will radiant heat from the floor and the sides, and then you could use the radiators if you needed hit air....
It’s heated floor is now a bobilvan kit they sell and I’ve seen it implemented a few time with this system. It’s uses a smaller heat exchanger normally,( although you can use the big one if you want ). To be a sort of combination floor and air heating.
@Albert hello! Do you mean legionnaires over salmonella In water? Anyway, it’s meant to be above 50° to start to kill off legionnaires and 60 it cannot survive altogether. I routinely, always heat my tank to 60° for showers. Both of the versions of this kit mention good hot water tank storage routines and planning is in regarding to this.
@@albert6220 I think legionella would struggle to reach a dangerous threshold on such a small tank due to the high rate of water replacement. In a domestic water cylinder, there’s always a risk that a high volume of water just stagnates in the tank, which makes an anti-legionella cycle (or just a higher temp setting) wise.
I’m guessing legionella is one of those things that’s always present in tiny quantities and only causes illness at high concentration.
I was thinking of the same idea. Unfortunately I could not find such a kit at bobil vans.
Bobilvans makes a underfloor heating kit
I use the same type of heater that I have in my Range Rover which is a webasto thermo top c to heat swimming pool
I have seen those units they are pretty powerful! I’m interested in having a play with one of those in the future
Nice unit thanks for sharing
No problem. It’s a great unit have it in for a few weeks now
Great vid, thanks for sharing.
No problem
Impressive install! Way above my skill level.
Thank you. The step by step isn’t too hard to do. I just had to build a bit of a elaborate frame and mount due to space restrictions
saw this Kit somewhere it does look like a game changer :) all interested in your Dump load LOL
Yeah I’m interested in how the dump load will turn out as well. Technical plan wise my Victron MPPT has a built in relay. Which can be activated under a number of conditions, from reaching certain System voltages or switching to Float mode, or a mix of other options can be used to trigger the relay to turn on the dump load heater. But since those criteria are system voltage based. The DC to DC Charger could also bring the system up to that voltage and fully charge the batteries and still tripping the relay on the solar charger which mean I could have the immersion heater/ dump load turn on during a long drive and have hot water when I arrive when there is Excess energy potentially coming from the Dc to dc charger
Young Man, " The whater in Majorka , don't taste like what it oughta " ! Lorraine Chase .
I have no idea what you are saying!
@@MispronouncedAdventures Your pronunciation is appalling even for an Englishman .
Not a Englandman, a Scot. Have have you seen channel name? I’m Scotish, grew up in the south and lived on the north east of England for 10 years. Pronunciation change all over the uk. You should hear how they say “Book” in the north
Great video
Thank you
I was just looking at one of these- thanks for the video :)
No problem at all. I’ve had mine in for quite a few weeks now, love it
Cool stuff
Thank you
Looks like a great system mate, well sourced 😉👍
Very happy with it. For me it’s seems like a perfect solution for me, Even better is the incredible price of it
Fancy setup!!
Thank you, it’s quite a simple kit, but due to it being build it yourself you can make it fit your own requirements and how do your own flair for the finish on it
I want thisss, love the orange as well x
Thanks. It’s. Great kits and I like using that orange paint
Ul be using that heating element more in summer. With more solar available so not to heat the whole van for water. Great idea and nice set-up
Generally that’s the idea, it’s pretty inefficient and power use to actively turn on when I want hot water but I like the idea of setting up a passive automated water heating system with it. One which can just flick on automatically in the summer when there is a lot more when solar energy to spare or in the winter at least if I’m driving a fairway and the DC to DC charger finishes charging the batteries up
I agree I think slower passive water heating is a great idea.
As you mentioned Alex people should be aware of the dangers of Legionella in a hot water system.
Indeed legionella would be a pretty bad thing and the reason I mentioned ramping up the heat once a week, which is directly from the information Bobilvans also provide regarding recent legionella! My other solution is the recirculating shower system also includes a UV filter as part of my system
Hi mate,
Currently deciding on options for heating/hot water for our current build. Only issues/inconveniences with this setup i can see (please correct me if wrong) is 1 - having to heat the van in order to get hot water.. can imagine this being frustrating in the summer when you just want a shower. 2 - having to find somewhere to fit a second water tank.
Apart from these, this seems a solid option as diesel heaters are an easy & cost effective install.
thanks
Hey, your first point comes up a lot as a asked question. The thing is you don’t really heat up the van because that heat energy is been taken out of the hot air and put into the water instead. The remaining air is hardly hot at all. additionally it only takes around 15 minutes to heat a tank. And I found there is absolutely no effect on the vans overall cabin temperature. Another option which Bobil van is actually offered now is a diverter where you could have the heat exchanger and blow out the bottom of the van.
Second point yes he will have to find a place for the hot water tank but it’s quite easy to fit it into your build if you’re planning in the early stages.
Hope this has been helpful
I'll be looking into this setup to produce hot water. But something you said about
not being able to hold your hand in front of the blower because it was too hot.
Thats not the case with my 8Kw diesel heater, it's not that hot. My realize now, heater is
on the outside of my workshop taken in outside cold air.
Now I'm thinking about recirculating
the already heated cabin air back into the intake to get most out of my heater.
Taking the warm air intake from the inside will help a lot.
@@MispronouncedAdventures I'll take your advise Thanks.
I would suggest use an intercooler OR a exhaust heat exchanger to achieve higher temperature difference AND you will use wasted energy anyway .. since the exhaust is crazy hot some times up to 150C
I don’t like the idea of using the intercooler or exhaust heat exchanger. Then you would be you need to have the heater on max inside the van to in the summer to heat hot water and heat the van up. With the bobil kit the air hot it’s exchanged into hot water so does heat the van up.
The other problem with a exhaust recovery system, if you wouldn’t want to run water for it. As if it was the winter and you didn’t have the tea heater turned on, it would be set for freezing and damaging the exchanger. You would want to build entire new glycol / coolant loop and then pipe that in out of the van and have a second heat exchanger to convert the coolant heat into water
Awesome
Cheers
4 minutes faster than the Carver I had - I am ordering this system and will get someone to fit it for me :)
This is cool but I would much rather use an EGR cooler to extract the waste heat from the exhaust. Like you said by using the bobils kit yes you get hot water but also very little hot air for the cabin. I am planning on having a small water pump run continuously extracting waste heat from the diesel heater exhaust to keep my 140 liter interior aluminum tank hot. This will also serve as a small heat sink to help keep the RV from cooling down so fast after the heater shuts off. Bobils kit might work good for 10-20liters but I dont think I want to wait 3 hrs for it to heat 120 or so liters while I'm sitting there freezing. Super nice ride BTW. Cheers mate.
Which is fine for my planned use. EGR means I’ll have to drill more holes in the bottom of van to the the water in and out again and any water in the pipes would be susceptible to frost. As it’s only taken 15 minutes to heat a full tank of water, Lack of hot air in the cabin isn’t much of issue. In the summer I had a EGR when I’d have to be pumping hot air into the cabin.
I think a EGR ( on a Diesel heater exhaust ) would work better in a fixed or static environment like a offgrade house, shed or garage. Over a moving one in a van
It's a nice add on to prepare some hot water for a shower. But what to do when it's not cold outside so you don't really have to run the heater? You'll be wasting a lot of diesel heating some water for a shower in summer with the bobilvans dump valve. Though possiblity you could finetune the diesel heater fan speed as low as possible to maximize heat transfer.
Word of warning: these computer heat exchangers will likely be soldered together using the regular old leaded solder, probably leaking some lead into the water. I wouldn't use the hot water for drinking/cooking in.
For my purpose of use in the for circulating shower system it’s been great. Running the heater for hot water isn’t really issue in the summer or as much as you might assume, so much heat energy from air has gone into the water the remaining hot air is hardly warm at all by the time it comes out a vent, additionally I can always be vented directly into the shower room was this extractor fan which is normally what I do when I’m having a shower anyway . As it would only be for 10-15 minutes to heat a hot tank that would be about 140ml of Diesel ( considering I normally using the heater on 5.4hz heater ) primarily I use it for my recirculating shower system. so normally a total of a 20-25 run time from starting heating to finishing a 10 minutes shower. So a little more heater run time with the runtime of the recirculating shower. So around 20-40p In fuel a nice long shower which is a satisfactory trade-off.
I’d been interested to if slower fan speed equal higher energy transfer. Might need to have a play with that
I never consider any of the hot water from the tank, fresh any longer, just for shower are use and maybe washing up
@@MispronouncedAdventures Thanks for the long reply. A diesel use of 140ml does not sound too bad at all! Hardly noticeable on the overall fuel consumption and cheaper than the average campsite shower :)
I'm amazed how efficient these radiators/heat exchangers seem to be! Getting the booster sounds like a smart move indeed.
A later thought: recirculating the air back into the heater, instead of dumping it outside, might be an idea too. But it's probably not necessary. And I'm not sure if the heater would shutdown gracefully if the inlet temperature gets too high. My own van build is still some time (and €€€) away, I'm looking forward to experimenting with such things :)
Great video, thank you. Out of interest what sort of pump do you use for pumping hot water to taps/shower.?
Seaflo 33 series diaphragm pump are what I use. As I use the shower set at 42c and the max recommended temperatures for those pumps is 60c
I like it 😂
2 year later I still like it
Much more efficient would be using the exhaust pipe ( which has 200-300°C ) to heat the water.
Also metal to water will be a better heat conductor than air-to-metal-to-water, a lot of energy will be lost ;-)
And it is free heat ( waste heat ) when you need to run the heater to heat your Van ;-)
Whilst waste heat recovery would be an option. I generally don’t think it’s a good idea for this application.
Waste recovery in this way it could be done using something like an EGR cooler, or even as simple as wrapping copper pipe around the exhaust. But those become systems become more complicated than most people consider. As you don’t want to be running water through an EGR cooler or pipe when the exhaust pipe is external. Any occasion it was below freezing and the heater isn’t on and you had water in it you run the risk of the freeze expansion, cracking and destroying the system you’re using the heat exchange. To do a system like that properly you’re going to want to coolant loop or Make your own hydronic loop which needs a pump, reservoir coolant and then a secondary heat exchanger inside the vehicle to exchange hot coolant back into hot water.
The other thing I would consider with the Chinese diesel heaters, particularly is, they don’t particularly like restrictions on their exhausts, or you would need to tune it afterwards to get a decent burn as you would probably increase the back pressure by adding a some types of heat exchanger.
One thing you’ll find if you let the water boil off in the rad, is that you’ll get limescale develop and reduce efficiency and eventually clog the rad and kill the pump
Almost all of the bobil van kits, now ship with a diverter. So no longer an issue with boiling off off.
Ac and or a fridge from the heat exchanger too if you put more into it with a genny on it too.
Total tiny solution
Not sure what you mean. Can you explain it a bit more to me?
I would bang one together out of old auto heater cores and other bits .
yay hot water :)
Indeed! I’m enjoying having hot water. I should probably plum the sink in sometime soon so I can use it 🤣
I like that. I was wondering whether the exhaust heat could also be harvested, but I guess sooting up would be a problem.
There are other systems that use exhaust gases as heating. But if you use exhaust gases it means the heater is on full and none of the internal heat energy being put into the water. Because this system uses the hot air from the heater it means in the summer if you turn the heater on the heat the water you don’t heat up the cabin that much
look up David McLuckie - EGR coolers can get 500/700w from the exhaust. Reverse flow the water for most efficient heating
@@CosmicSeeker69 thanks, I'll look it up. He's done loads of vlogs on the diesel heaters.
@@jonathansmythe6273 personally I've got 2 x Jaguar 2.7 units which I'm bolting face to face to pre feed the heat exchanger I've designed... Fingers crossed 🤞
Just an idea on a proper budget.
What if you got a metal tank and had the outlet of the heater directly underneath blowing up towards the bottom if the tank, then had a pump inside the tank, like those 12v showers you can get
Yeah we’re is not reason that wouldn’t but I can’t imagine it would be very fast.
Can you Recommend where to buy the 18 Ltr Water thank to use with your 300watt Ammersion heater .thank you.
Made by wydale plastics, a few companies like Kingfisher direct also sell them
I got a 30kw Diesel Engine heater (Webasto Type) from China for less than the price of the diesel heater and this kit. It will be doing all the hot water and heating on my coach conversion :)
30kw! When you say coach conversion? You mean like full size massive coach right? If I had a 30kw heater in a van my size. It would be a scene reminiscent of the ending of Indiana Jones and the Ark of the Covenant. What’s the fuel consumption per hour like on that?
@@MispronouncedAdventures Yeah it's a 12m Scania Van Hool, BUT they do smaller cheaper ones of 5-16kw as well that just do water. At 16kw you can do an On demand shower heater. 30kw Running at full power it will use about 3kg of fuel per hour, but won't need to run it that long to heat my 50l hot water tank (By comparison it uses 6x as much as the 5kw heater per hour) I shall be making it more efficient by putting a water to air turbo intercooler on the exhaust to preheat the water from the waste exhaust heat (you could also do the same or use an EGR cooler).
Ah yes having now googled that vehicle model definitely a wee bit bigger! A 5 kW unit wouldn’t cut it!
That is a fair amount of fuel but you are correct it’s such a powerful unit it’s not gonna need to be on for long.
Having had the system in for a few months now, it’s been brilliant for my planned use of it which was the shower. Even Though the Bobil system is only 2.1kw of water heater energy. It’s plenty energy heat for my recirculating shower system set at 42 degree running at max flow ( 11.6L per minute pump ) ,with pre heat the tank for 10-15 minutes first. So I can happily enjoy unlimited hot water showers with the system. Which was brilliant since all November December I was selling Christmas trees all day great to get to that back to the van for that at the end of the shift
I have seen a few people play with EGR coolers, I definitely see the idea of reclaiming heat waste heat, Over the repurposed thing of the diesel heaters heat. I think in my case I wanted to keep the entire system internal and didn’t want to have a drill any more holes in the bottom of my van!
@@MispronouncedAdventures Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great solution and good value considering. You also have to be more space efficient than me as I have huge lockers underneath. Nice tidy conversion btw.
Would you please send me the link to wherr I can safely on line purchase one of these you and your videos have just earned you another devoted to every video subscriber I love how you shiw step by step ur installations and the way you present yourself in a professional manner thank you so much for sharing this video
www.bobilvans.co.uk is the website, but they do ship worldwide.
Thank you watching that video and for enjoying my video style
How are you pumping the water from the shower bavk to the tank with it being higher ? Some kind of scavenge pump ?
There is a shower drain pump
Keep your eye on the radiators as they rust internally do the glass test on your hot water it may start to go orange
Which part would rust out of Curiosity? As I Presumed the internals would be copper? It’s not a major issue for me as this water I never considered for human consumption, washing dishes and shower water only, and the shower water is filtered through the filtration system so would clean any rust particles out. Long-term those radiators reasonably cheap so it’s not too difficult to replace them if need be
But its a Great idea will get one ordered
Check scan computers online menu, pc components, water cooling, radiators
The rusting comes from different metals reacting with each other ie copper rad brass and streel fittings, internals of pump materials, its all to do with circulation and it charges the water not to put you off or anything just something to look for and didnt want to link scan as dont believe in companies taking business from us smaller ones also those computer radiators are meant to be used with de-ironised water for anti rust peoperties and doesnt leak and destroy components have a read on there site hope all this helps
Ah dissimilar metal corrosion / galvanic corrosion I understand now. I was thinking traditional rust as in Iron particles
It may be worth a removalbe mesh filter ( but adding more metals to the system lol ) it shows like microscopic filings but as are non ferrous so magnetic filtering wont help been a plumber /gas engoneer for 20 years along side many years of water cooled gaming hope all this helps and doesnt hinder
hi Alex, what brand of chinese diesel heater do you have ? i also would want to connect the afterburner .. i thought you had a maxpeedingrods one so i ordered one.. but now i think it is not compatible with the afterburner 😮.. i do think it will work with the smart controller of bobilvans ? but i wonder if that unit can be controlled remotely like the afterburner... thank you for the great video's and ideas
I have a older model maxpeedingrods unfortunately I think they have changed the ECU since i got mine
I’d recommend the afterburner Facebook group they should be able to point you to eBay to buy a compatible ECU for less than £20. so you can just do an ecu swap
Have you thought about coiling copper pipe around the exhaust? All that wasted heat! Just a thought.
Things like that work great and EGR coolers as well but It’s not really practical to do in a van. As you would need to pipe it in and out of the van. Additionally any point in the winter, you didn’t have the heating on those pipes would be susceptible to freezing and damage. unless you run a completely separate glycol solution and system, but that’s really quite complicated.
The other drawback would be in the summer. You would be heating the van at full power to get hot water whilst with the current system. The hot air from the diesel heater is converted into hot water.
@@MispronouncedAdventures thanks for the reply, I was just a thought. I'm a yorkshireman and just can't get all that wasted heat out of my head. I suppose if you used glycol or suchlike you would have to overcome boiling problems as well.
Like a exhaust cutout bypass system.
Like a EGR cooler?
@@MispronouncedAdventures like for automotive cut out. Basically a bypass to the muffler to go to straight pipe.
I have a promaster gas, is there way I can just buy a container to put a diesel to run this equipment?
Yes. There are lots of diesel heater kits with fuel tanks. But any type of air heater diesel, LPG gas or the petrol heater version should work as well.
Does it make your van hot? I've seen this, but I always worry about the heat. With on demand propane, it only runs when water is running
A bit of a common misconception regarding the unit most of the heat energy is extracted from the hot air by the heat exchanger. The air is slightly warm at best and the system is so fast heating water. The system during summertime is running long although. some people do choose to vent it externally.
This is pretty great. I wonder of the Propex propane heater outputs enough heat to do the same thing.
Don’t see why it shouldn’t work with a propex heater. Under the FAQ on Bobilvans website I think they’ve got that as a question is that it should work it’s just they don’t know anyone who’s tested it like that yet
Have you tested the heat flow make sure no toxic gases are given off in the hit air ? Because you never know.....
Personally it not something I’ve tested. However looking at Materials used on the cooling fins and paint I don’t have a worry . And at the same heat exchanges are often used indoors for easy water cooling, which are used throughout the world in indoor environments.
Or are you referring to the hot air from the diesel heater itself?
just got mine up n running have to say very impressed!Alex is it p2 in settings I change to have it switch on the pump at exactly the set 40⁰ and not as it is now 42⁰?
It’s definitely a great bit of kit very happy a year on. I’ll have to look at the settings on the controller it’s been awhile since I’ve played of the settings
Is there a way to stop the water being heated…. Reason is I have this system installed in my van and when the water is getting re heated all of the time it starts to taste horrible and I’d rather boil the kettle to do the dishes etc. many thanks
Most of the kits now are sold with a diverter, which I later on installed as well, so when I am not using/wanting hot water, the air is diverted down other vents
water evapouring = calcification it wont take long for the limescale to build up if the water is regularly evapourating.
It has been mentioned before but it’s not a issue long term uses have run into, or at least yet. Evaporate / boiling in the heat exchanger only takes place when the Diesel heater In used but the hot water heater is off so no water is cycling through the heat exchanger. I used a divert anyway so water doesn’t evaporate in the heat exchanger when its not in use as the hot air is not passing through it.
Does it mean in the summer if you want a hot shower, you also have to tolerate the hot air coming out of the heater at the same time?
Good question, this is assumed quite a lot, but what happens is the energy from the hot air is transferred into the water to make the hot water. So the remaining air to come out of the vent is lukewarm at best.
The heater also needs to be on for such a short span of time that that doesn’t have any effect habitation area. However, I do know a few people have also run diverters to the vent that remaining air out of the vehicle
@@MispronouncedAdventures thanks for explanation. It also means that any unused hot water in the tank, acts like a conventional radiator after you've had a shower
These are great but are expensive
The original kit was comparable to everything else extremely cheap. The version two is more expensive, but far cheaper than anything else in the market with a similar heat exchange rate.
How are you filling the hot water tank initially? Is there a feed from the cold water tank pump?
@@hayden8630 feed from the cold tank into the hot with a manual valve.
If someone wanted to a automated system could be done
@@MispronouncedAdventures thank you! How would you go about automating it?
Bobilvans give some information on it. Pretty much using two float sensors and an automated valve. I think they sell the parts on their website.
What if one uses exhaust gas to warm water? I think in that way you will get much more heat out of the system and your hot air will not lose its temperature.
Problem with using exhaust gases means you’ve got to run the heater on for inside the van which means you’re gonna heat up the van which isn’t ideal in the summer. With the bobil system, you’re converting that hot air in to hot water by the heat exchanger.
The other issue with using exhaust gases is the heat exchanger would need to be mounted external. Which means you shouldn’t run water through it because during the winter if the heating was turned off, water could freeze in the heat exchanger and cracking it if it was outside so you would need to run a separate glyco / coolant loop and bring it back into the van. I think an exhaust gas system is more practical in a static domestic setting.
But I’m also not doubting that exhaust gas energy recovery is probably very effective. Using something like a EGR cooler
Alex if I just want to use 1 controller
. I want to switch pump off when it reaches 40⁰. Will this work ,connect 12v + and neg , and connect pump pos and neg to the s2 and s2?
You could, but if you did it that way the pump would always be on trying to circulate the water because it was below your target temperature, but if the heater wasn’t turned on there would be no heat energy to heat up just continually circulating water.
As for wiring. No you would need to put a 12 V feed into S1 and the positive from the pump into S to the negative from the pump just goes to your standard negative. The relay is effectively opening and closing a switch on the positive side of the pumps wiring to turn it on and off
@@MispronouncedAdventures wiring not my forte! thanks for the info
Why not use your Webasto diesel engine heater to also heat the DHW as well as the engine? (And if you add a leisure battery switch to the dashboard fan, you can use that as an air heat source for your van too).
Absolutely possible! For me logistically laying out would be a bit more difficult. Would also need a plated heat exchanger for indirect energy transfer between the bobil van water loop and higher pressure and a lot hotter Engine coolant loop.
Another small other reason is the engine preheater you don’t really have any fine control. they are just programmed to heat their coolant loop to 80° and then shut down. On top of that the engine preheaters are a lot more thirsty on diesel than the air style heaters .
But it is a popular set up option in the minibus variant where there is an auxiliary heater and a coolant loop going back of the van to a air heater Matrix
Will this Bobivan kit work with a Webasto gasoline heater?
Yes, exchanges don’t mind where the hot air comes from so diesel heater, gasoline, heater, propane / LPG heater.
You may experience different heat exchange rates with different fuel sources
Hello Alex
How do you refill the water tank, even with the recirculation of shower I assume you must get some water loss from the taps. Do you have it set up to auto refill?
To refill the hot tank I have a manual valve I turn on or off which fills the hot tank from the fresh tank.
Can we have a video on your emmersion heater base load!
It’s going to be set up as an solar dump load from the my Victron MPPT build in relay as a trigger. Unfortunately being UK winter currently there isn’t really any excess solar energy to dump. it’s a 300w unit so it should be around 25amp at 12v to run. Given I have 500 watts of solar on the roof that should be more than sufficient to run the heater once the batteries are fully charged on a summers day and the solar dump load is triggered . On a good winter day a few days ago i saw about 238w of solar making 17.30amp at 12v. So it will be interesting to see it in the summer
This was an interesting idea... using a heat pad like your battery tray.
ua-cam.com/video/_u0URusLxnk/v-deo.html
Hi Alex, great install and video as usual, with regards to the water heater reducing the normal room heater function even when it's reached temperature, is there no diverter valve that can be added to only flow the heated air through the water heater when required?
Just read the comments below and see that there is, thanks
Yes at the point when I bought this, the diverter wasn’t used/stocked . but most kits now people buy The diverter bobilvans sell as well which i also I have subsequently installed
What about a hot summers day would it be wise to have your diesel heater on
I guess asked this one a lot but it’s not really an issue. a vast majority of the heat energy in the air has already gone to water by the time it’s finished, remaining air coming out the vents is pretty cool. And since primary use of the hot water heater and for me is for the recirculating shower I’ll be in the shower anyway or I can direct the heat directly into the shower room it has its own extractor fan as well. Plus it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to heat the entire hot water tank anyway.
What about the immersion heat was that part of the test and did it make a difference? What about power consumption? What about cost?
Immersion heater was so much better than Expected. There is a video on.
It was for use the solar dump load to turn on when my batteries are full during this late spring to autumn months. Being 300w @ 12v it pulled 25amp. Which is a lot but the whole purpose of it is when the batteries are full so it’s just excessive solar energy power.
I pretty much had 60° tank at the end of every day in the summer without having to use any additional power. Bobilvans even include this on the new version of the kit,
Cost was about £25 I think
@@MispronouncedAdventures thanks for the information
Would it be a good idea to use a UV lamp to keep the water sterile? as well as light up the tank to see the water level
I quite like this idea, definitely possible. Whilst I often keep the tank at 60° before use, which would eliminate and sterilise anything which could potentially be in there, it wouldn’t do it any harm to be continually sterilised
@@MispronouncedAdventures I dont really know the science behind it but I have seen them use UV before. if it works it should be fit and forget.
@@PtangPtangBiscuitBarrelSmith I actually use a UV steriliser in the reticulating shower part of this water system.
I may have missed it, did you put backflow preventers on the two lines that you ran to the gray tank? Low risk I am sure, but it would be terrible if you sucked gray water into your hot clean water. Great build and video. Thanks for taking the time to take us along for the ride.
I have a manual off on drain valve so back flow won’t be possible. But it is a good point. I wouldn’t want that to happen
That 12V water heater element seems like a great way to convert excess solar to heated water.. But how effective and/or efficient is it? There also are tanks with integrated heat exchangers for air and integrated 12V/220V heating elements (such as Elgena Compact Luft). What I like about them is that they can be fitted in line with the exsisting cold water system to add an extra "10 liter hot loop" whereas Bobil system has to have its's own circulation and all the water volume is heated.
I’m yet to test 12v element. I can’t imagine at only 300w it’s going to be particularly effective but if the energy would be unused anyway I might as well put it somewhere.
I’ve never heard of the Elgena unit before. Is the Elgena for Instant hot water . Seems it uses the hot area from the heater or a heater element
In my van I went for the larger 18L Bobilvans System as it’s primarily used for my recirculating shower system as I need to the enough water volume to go all the way through the recirculating system and back into the hot tank before the hot tank empties it self.
@@MispronouncedAdventures Here's a link: www.elgena.de/collections/boiler/products/nautic-compact-luft?variant=14790962755 It's basically same idea as the bobil but the tank is built around the heat exchanger. I have already a water system with 70 liter tank and a Shurflo pump to pressurise piping for a sink/shower... I think the Elgena unit can be pressurised to 2 or 3 bars so installing the tank in line with such system is possible. With Bobil I should have to install an additional pump and piping because the tank can't be pressurised. There are benefits of diy setup. For example if the 300W heater stops working you can change it easily...
Ah yes, now I understand you. Yes The Bobil System is unpressurise so needs a it’s own pump. So retrofitting the elgena would be simpler
@@MispronouncedAdventures Do you have then only one water tank in your build? Meaning the one that Bobil heats?
I have a separate 70L fresh water tank which is my main water source. ( still in the process of editing the main plumbing video ) the 18L hot tank can be filled from the fresh tank with the turn of a tap.
Hi can you give us an update on how well your hot water system is doing Alex. Hope you sorted all the water leaks. Looking forward to you next vlog.
Brilliant so far. 99% of the hot water use been for use In the recirculating shower that’s been pretty faultless, even though the overall build isn’t finished yet in December I did three weeks living in the van full time whilst away selling Christmas trees so using the hot water for long shower every night. Which it was perfect for.
A change I did make however I have installed a vent diverter before heat exchanger. So when I’m not using the hot water system but I am using the Diesel heater I divert the hot air in the diverter act as a bypass. Mainly over a long period of time the water will start to boil in the heat exchanger ( it does say on their website it does this ) which can be an annoying noise and slowly heats the tank up. Bobilvan’s do sell the diverters on the website as well for this exact reason. Definitely over the moon with it for the price you pay and how effective it is!
@@MispronouncedAdventures what's a recirculating shower this is the first video I've seen of yours and I find that quite interesting.
Check out episode 36. It will explains it. Basically it allows you to have unlimited length shower in the van. The shower grey water is filtered and sterilised and then immediated added back to the hot water tank before it runs out so the shower doesn’t run out of water whilst running
@@MispronouncedAdventures but doesn't this at some point result in the water of the shower becoming too hot?
@@srikengames nope, as the temperature relay turns the heat exchanger circulation pump off after when it reaches your target temperature
Interesting video and good to see you highly rate your bobil heater. I've just ordered the 90mm bobil kit plus diverter and a Planar heater.. I plan to gravity fill the smaller hot water tank from the main cold tank simply using a switched normally closed solenoid and maybe a float switch so I can't overfill.
I've not decided yet how I'll pump my heated water to the shower and sink, what do you recommend? A pump like yours or a submersible?
I won't be using mixers, I'll just heat the water to my shower temp. I guess I'll have to have a separate cold water tap (and pump) if I wanted cold to the sink. It would never be to drink so I'm thinking I might even not bother with cold at the sink. What do you think?
I use the Seaflo 33 Series diaphragm pump ( probably a bit too powerful ) but they make smaller ones. As they were rated to a max water temp of 65c, I don’t think the submersion pumps had as high temperature rating
They should make a kit that scavenges the exhaust heat. If you could flip a switch to redirect the exhaust heat when needed. Then you would also not have the boiling off effect. Which in my humble opinion is not a viable solution. If you could have a buddy weld up a stainless steel heat exchanger for the exhaust. This would be nerdy experiment.
Problem with an exhaust solution ( which I have also seen done ) as I see you would have it external vehicle, which means any water remaining in the heat exchanger is susceptible to freezing and damaging it. Plus you need to drill more holes in the bottom of the van.
The boiling off effect is no longer an issue now as after this video I have put a hot air diverter, which Bobilvans also stock themselves too
freaking amazing. are you the guys that made this?
Bobilvans are the company that came up with the idea and makes the kits. so not me, but I have been working for Bobilvans on the newest can build over the last two weeks
Wouldn't it be good to take waste heat from the exhaust?
People do do that . But it’s a lot more complicated. you could run a EGR cooler on the exhaust. But you would have to drill more holes in your vehicle to get the water in and out again and if you run water you could run into the problem of if the heater wasn’t turned on during the winter, it could freeze the water and damaging the EGR cooler. Additionally, in the summer, you would have to turn your heater on full to get hot water, and all of the hot air will go into the habitation, with this system, if the diesel heater is turned on for hot water, the hot air energy is getting exchanged into the water, so the remaining hot air doesn’t heat up the habitation.
Why not use the exhaust heat and an EGR cooler from a truck, seems like that would be more efficient and hotter
If you do that you would have to have the heater in full inside the Hab during them summer which wouldn’t be great. With this set up the hot air is converted into how water.
EGR coopering are great but you couldn’t run water in it, freezing in winter would be a risk to damage it. You would been to make a whole separate coolant look for it
@@MispronouncedAdventures I mounted mine under the truck after heaters exhaust going thru and used a $100 ford power stroke EGR cooler so I can still heat the inside.
Thanks for the video. What's the temperature range the plastic tank can hold? I always thought it has a max of 45 degrees Celsius
The manufactures wydale plastics recommend max 70c. However this is for a unsupported tank as the plastic becomes more flexible at higher temperatures my tank is fully encased insulation and supported by a box. so you wouldn’t actually be able to melt the tank as such. Additionally these are foodgrade tanks so even at those higher temperatures from understanding the plastic does woudl not leech contaminants into the water
@@MispronouncedAdventures thank you. I appreciate the quick reply. I've been enjoying watching your videos this week 👍🏻
Does it only go to 40°c? I'd be worried about legionella at that temp.
Highest can set it to is 70c ( tanks maximum temperature ) . The manufacturer recommends the tank is regular brought up to 60 degree for that particular reason much like you would like you similar system. In my case The water is 90% used for the recirculating shower system. So when in use The whole volume of water is usually replaced every few days, the recirculating shower system also includes UV filter. Legionnaires would be something more to worry about if the system was brought up to 40° and kept there continually and stagnant. The hot water tank is heated for showers opposed to being left heating, and even whilst is heating the water are cycling through the heat exchanger visit which is in excess of 80°c
What about the hot air in the summer
The heat exchanger extract so much heat energy from the diesel heaters air flow that it’s relatively cool to mildly warm coming out of the vent. I can also close off the vent into the main area of the van I’m just sent it into the bathroom vent which has its own extractor fan
I am in the U.S.A. and am having difficulties in finding such kit. Could someone share with me a link for this. Much appreciated
Bobilvans website will help you out, send them an email. They ship world wide
Belting videos.
Where did you get the thermal relays, they dont come with the bobils do they?
Yeah. The thermal relays are part of the kit and instructions on how to properly wire them and set them up. ( or at least they were at the time of ordering them myself )
Hi, thanks for posting the video. I wonder, wouldn't be more efficient to use the exhaust pipe from the diesel heater to heat the water?
The company which made the heat exchanger on their UA-cam channel also did some tests with reclaiming the heat from the exhaust pipe. I think it’s again worked but it’s becomes technically more difficult as you then need drill more holes in the van to get the hot water back inside and also have to considered the effects of water and dirt on the equipment being located externally
Just to add, there tests were done using the own product which is primarily designed to extract heat from the airflow. If you wanted a more efficient System for the exhaust you probably need a completely different design
What thread was the immersion heater?
This one is 1 Inch BSP thread
You would get faster and more efficient hot water from a heat exchanger that uses the waste heat from the exhaust. The exhaust heat that is usually wasted is far hotter and far more efficient for heating water. .
Using that Exact heat exchanger on the exhaust switch the maker of the company used it didn’t provide any more efficient . Yes you could use a EGR cooler but then any water remaining in the pipes are susceptible to frost and You have a drill more holes in and out of your van to get the water out and back in again.
The draw back with a EGR / recovery from the exhaust in the summer id have to use the heating inside. With the current his exchange most of the hotter than diesel and produces goes into the water out of habitation area.
I feel a EGR heating for water would be more suited to a static environment like a off-grid house, garage or shed
hello, is it possible to have the link of the tank?
The tank is part of the kit. Bobil might sell it separately on their website
Your hot tank should go above 60C as often as possible (daily?), especially if filling from non-mains water. This kills water bourne bio.
Indeed, No different than any hot water tank system in that regard. Is a good hygiene schedule
Would of been genius if it used the exhaust heat to warm up water, this is not too bad but seems expensive.
Using the exhaust to heat the waters gives you issue in the summer of heating the van up . You’ll to run the heater on max. With system you don’t heat the van up as the energy from the hot air is being transferred into the water.
The other issue you can run into using a exhaust and something like an EGR cooler is in the winter if you were just running water thought it and the heater wasn’t on you would run into the issue of the water freezing and damaging the unit
How will the hot water tank be fed with cold? Will it be pressurized with the main pump? Or will you add it when you flush out the recirculation system?
Cheers,
Jonny.
The hot water System is an unpressurised. Not sure what you mean by fed with cold reason wise. Water temperature/ shower temperature is set at hot tank, So a mixer valve isn’t used as such for temperature control. For the shower I set the tank to heat the water to 42c and I just use the hot on full.
If you mean fed for cold for refilling purposes, I have a on / off valve I can open when pumps water into the hot tank from the Cold system to refill it.
As for flushing the recirculating System. I turn the cold tap ( feed from the cold / fresh loop ) on full, open the drain valve at the bottom of the hot water tank and turn the recirculating system on. That runs fresh water thought all of the filters into the hot tank which then immediately drains out the hot tank into the grey tank under the van. Once finished I refill the hot tank with new water. If I don’t want to flush the filter and just the hot tank. I can open the drain valve in the bottem of the hot tank and the fill valve in the top
Consider this system having two separate water loops, one for hot and cold, both using there own pumps.
@@MispronouncedAdventures ah I see thanks for the explanation 👍. Love your approach to the conversion and logic behind all the systems.