**** 12-17-19: I have an update on how to install and use this propane water heater, with helpful tips. This Eccotemp L5 water heater is EXTREMELY fussy and I have finally, after several hours of testing, hopefully figured out how to make it stay on consistently. I do NOT recommend Eccotemp as a company. See my more recent blog post for the tips and the problems that I encountered with the company and my unit ****
I discovered this product on Amazon, along with a very helpful review. It's pretty great. It's made for providing hot water on demand for showering when camping or otherwise outdoors. I am using it to heat an outdoor spa with propane gas rather than using electricity, which is a huge cost savings here in California. A disclaimer: the instructions for this propane water heater state that one should NOT use this heater for a spa.
Here's the product description:
Eccotemp L5 1.5 GPM Portable 37,500 BTU Liquid Propane Outdoor Tankless
Water Heater
https://www.eccotemp.com/eccotemp-l5-portable-outdoor-tankless-water-heater/
Eccotemp L5 Portable Tankless Water Heater
Simply attach a garden hose and a 20-pound (lb.) propane tank and you
are guaranteed to enjoy the luxury of hot water anywhere. The Eccotemp
L5 Portable Outdoor Tankless Water Heater is the original and
best-selling portable water heater on the market today. You get instant,
endless hot water wherever you are. The Eccotemp L5 is perfect for
campsites, cabins or simply around the house. Wash your car, wash your
boat, take a hot shower, or even wash your horse and the Eccotemp L5
will help make daily tasks much easier. This model includes an
electronic ignition powered by 2 "D" cell batteries making it great for
off grid or any location where electricity is not readily available. The
ideal operating range for the L5 is 20~80 PSI with a 1.5 GPM flow. It is
compatible with 12-volt pumps and works perfectly with our EccoFlo Pump
& Strainer.
Here's the review from Amazon (thanks, reviewer!):
Update: living in California and running the spa 24/7 @ 104 degrees, it
has been costing me upwards of $130.00 a month in electricity. I monitored it's consumption using a kill-a-watt.
So I put together a propane powered water heating system and it heats
the spa at about 1 degree every 2 or 3 minutes so it only takes about an
hour or two to get it up to 104 and costs me pennies. I've attached some
photos of it (without the propane tank inside the container). Now I just
flick the switch on the front, an LED turns on, pump stars up, heater
automatically fires up and the spa starts heating. Couldn't be easier.
And now I don't need to run the filter all the time either. Much nicer.
In case anyone is interested here is the parts list, all purchased from
Amazon except for the 20lb propane and hoses I got at Home Depot all
hoses are 3/4" clear so they are barely noticeable going into the spa:
Eccotemp L5 Portable Tankless Water Heater
Flojet 2.9 GPM pump
Kastar LCD AC Adapter 12V 6A
Bond 67635 Tank Hideaway
30 Amp 12 Volt LED ON-OFF Rocker Switch
20 lb. propane tank
Here's my experience.
I put together the Ecotemp propane water heater with Flojet pump to heat my spa with propane. It works well but I still have to fix a small leak.
I believe that plumbing and keeping water from leaking, in general, is among the most deceptively simple tasks known to man! No matter how many Youtube videos, how simple the job seems, water will still leak if I do my own plumbing tasks! Always! And we are all living on the edge -- I was eating breakfast in my house one morning, and boom! the pipe under the kitchen sink just burst like that, no warning. If I had not been there and shut the house water down within seconds, the house would have had all kinds of water damage! This kind of blowout could happen to anyone at any time in any house, building, etc! My wife's father had this happen in his house a few years ago. She and her sister were in his house when a pipe burst. Even though they were there, water destroyed the wood floor and carpet (mold problems!) and it took weeks to repair and thousands of dollars! We are all living on the edge!
OK, so this Ecotemp water heater has an inlet for H2O and an outlet. The outlet works fine. It came with a shower hose metal thing and I just took off the shower head. Easy. No leak, there's a washer on the inside of the connector.
The Flojet pump is awesome and is a well-known brand. The Flojet pump takes water from hot tub and pumps it into propane heater. It came with some fittings. The plastic barbed fittings work great, they have O-rings on the sides and they slide into the Flojet easily, and accept 1/2" vinyl tubing. No leaks, easy installation.
However, the inlet pipe on the water heater is a male 1/2" garden hose thread. I put a garden hose with a 1/2" to 3/4" adapter on there, and it worked fine but the adapter on the Flojet pump leaked (as did the adapter end at first, until I realized the hose connector was too short, and had to buy a new hose!). I spent hours of troubleshooting on this simple effing thing!
I've tried various adapters and hope that I found the proper adapter (not at my local hardware store):
Hose Nippel (sic)- Barb Hose Fitting 1/2" Female Brass Half inch for Repair - Garden Hose Thread - 12 mm Wide
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PV9K6S4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
***update 12-11-19: this adapter does not work -- the barb fitting was 3/8", not 1/2".
I recommend this instead:
ATITOWEL 5PCS 12mm Barb Brass Hose Fitting, Connector - G 1/2" Female Pipe Fit For 1/2" Hose ID
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SRPP4DB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The barb fitting on these adapters fit my 1/2" ID vinyl hose but was just a bit too small. This meant that the vinyl hose slid on easily, but I needed to crank down the hose clamp as tight as it would go, so the vinyl hose connection to the barb would not leak.
BTW, don't ever give your email or phone when shopping on the Eccotemp website! I left the item in there and bought their unit from Home Depot. Their website sucked, would not apply a coupon, etc. I went through checkout and gave up. Then salesmen from Eccotemp emailed me twice asking why I left the item in the shopping cart. I finally wrote them back and asked them to stop bothering me. Then someone from the company CALLED ME on my phone and left another message! That's borderline stalking! You have been forewarned.
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