Propane Water Heater for Outdoor Showers and Heating a Spa

Update 2-2020:
I recommend the Camplux 5L portable Liquid Propane Tankless Water Heater rather than the Eccotemp.  It seems to be a higher quality, and the gas runs more continuously even in a little wind.  It does not require you to turn on any switch or button to ignite the gas; this is done automatically when the unit is turned on.  In short, the Camplux unit runs far more dependably and continuously than the Eccotemp -- which maddeningly turns off in the slightest bit of wind.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B01CJPU6JI/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all

I also recommend the Seaflo Water Diaphragm Self Priming Pump rather than the Flojet.  It comes with a strainer and barbed hose adapters, so using 1/2" vinyl ID tubing is easier than the Eccotemp.  I don't like the fact that the threaded connectors on the pump are plastic, but the supplied plastic strainer and hose adapters are also plastic, so there's less chance of stripping threads on the pump.  The outlet connector/adapter combination did leak a bit, so I bought another plastic barb adapter from Amazon, and changed the tubing from stiff braided tubing to more flexible clear vinyl tubing.  This stopped the small leak.  The Flojet pump has been a bit maddening -- it leaks constantly.  The Flojet accepts proprietary plastic fittings with O-rings in them, and these snap in place on the inlet and outlet ports of the pump.  These fittings often leak, and when they do, it's hard to get them to stop.

https://www.amazon.com/Diaphragm-Priming-Gallons-Marine-Demand/dp/B00P8BE6S8/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=seaflo&qid=1580918986&s=hi&sr=1-2

This fitting replaced one of the leaking connectors:
SHURFLO 244-3926 Elbow Fitting Wingnut Swivel-Nylon 14 Npt (F) X 1/2" Barb
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IZJ7D6/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

With the Camplux water heater and Seaflo pump, I was able to heat water for a spa every day for two weeks, with almost no trouble at all.  With the Eccotemp and Flojet, I find myself running over to the heater every five or ten minutes, constantly messing with the connections, and constantly having to turn the unit on and off again to get the burners going.

*******

Here's my earlier post: 

I discovered an Eccotemp propane water heater on Amazon, along with a very helpful review.  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.

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.  There are about a dozen sellers and makers on Amazon that appear to sell the exact same unit -- probably all these are made in China from the same factory; US distributors import them and then slap their own labels on them. 

I did buy my first heater from Home Depot, and it was an Eccotemp.  I also bought a Flojet water pump from Eccotemp without realizing it -- just bought a new unit on Amazon and realized later that the seller was Eccotemp. 

First, don't ever give your email or phone when shopping on the Eccotemp website!  I did check out their website before buying the unit from Home Depot.  Their website would not apply a coupon and was generally hard to navigate.  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!

In later interactions with the company, I did not find customer service to be helpful.  They demanded to know irrelevant information like the serial number and did not bother answering my questions.  When I decided that I had enough problems with the Flojet pump, which had arrived in a repackaged, reused state -- the agent from Eccotemp refused to consider my return request and told me that all items are sold refurbished.  I sent her my Amazon receipt, which clearly stated: New.  After that, she stated that I could return the item but did not supply a return shipping label.  Obviously, it would be up to me to pay for shipping of this item back to them. 

Again, I'd recommend not buying from Eccotemp.  Their customer service was not helpful, and I think that they spend far more time and effort on trying to sell units than trying to support customers.  I see many sellers of propane water heaters -- Camplux, Triton, Camp Chef, and the list goes on. 

I actually did not want to return the pump and heater.  It would have been a pain in the butt to package everything up and ship it.  I just wanted to have some help in solving the problems that I was having with the items.  I kept reading tips on the internet and eventually figured out solutions to the problems I was having: leaks, an overheated pump, and the heater not staying lit for more than a few seconds at a time. 

Leaks:

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!

Eccotemp L-5 propane water heater fittings for hoses: propane, shower hose, and 1/2" male pipe fitting from left to right.  

OK, so this Eccotemp 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 (which seemed fine, but is not a good thing to do - more later).  Easy.  No leak, there's a washer on the inside of the connector. The hose attaches to the bottom of the unit easily and without leaks, with just hand-tightening. 

The Flojet pump is awesome and is a well-known brand.  The Flojet pump takes water from hot tub and pumps it into the 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.

The water input to the water heater was a huge pain in the ass.  I spent hours trying to get the correct adapter so there was no leak either at the heater end or at the Flojet end.  Here's what I discovered:

On left: Delrin (plastic) 1/2" pipe fitting adapter with brass Eccotemp-supplied adapter to fit 3/4" garden hose fitting.  The brass part was too deep for the plastic part.  Using two O-rings instead of one solved this leakage problem.  On right: Eccotemp-supplied 1/2" pipe fitting to 3/4" garden hose fitting.  This adapter leaked in the middle at at the garden hose end initially.  

1.  Using a garden hose and the adapters supplied with the Flojet, both ends leaked.  At the heater end, there's a 1/2" male pipe fitting connector.  The heater came with a garden hose adapter that swiveled.  This goddamn part leaked endlessly.  I finally changed the hose that I was using, tightened the hose to the adapter end very tightly (have to make sure that O-ring hits the end of the hose) and problem solved - on that end. 

Another problem I found is that the Eccotemp-supplied brass adapter end going to the heater was too long, with too many threads.  The 1/2" male pipe fitting coming out of the heater only has about three threads.  The adapter has 4 times as many threads and is way longer than it should be.  Just be sure to screw in this adapter all the way up -- it is a real pain in the butt, especially if you have to unscrew this multiple times, like I did. 

Finally, the end to the Flojet also leaked.  The Flojet has a nice system where a plastic (Delrin) adapter with an O-ring just slides right into the pump and snaps in place.  No leak there, easy to install.  The problem is with the Eccotemp-supplied brass adapters.  They are all too long. To use a garden hose on the unit, I had to put a Flojet Delrin adapter with a male 1/2" pipe fitting.  I then used an Eccotemp brass adapter that converted the male 1/2" pipe fitting to a male garden hose fitting. That combination leaked.  I solved the problem by using two O-rings (1/2" pipe fitting) rather than one.  The adapter from the Eccotemp was just too deep; the Delrin adapter from the Flojet could not maintain a seal with just one O-ring.  It required two O-rings. 

2.  Using 1/2" ID vinyl tubing for all water connections: I was pretty set on using vinyl tubing rather than a garden hose for my water connections.  For the input hose to the water heater, I finally (after hours) found the proper adapters:

I've tried various adapters and believe that I found the proper adapter (not at my local hardware store):

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.

Take it from someone who spent hours trying to get the adapters and other parts to work with 1/2" ID vinyl hoses.  Just use the garden hose adapter for the incoming water to the heater, and a 6 to 10 foot RV garden hose (suitable for drinking water) instead of vinyl hoses and 1/2" pipe fittings. 

For the hose that takes water from the spa into the Flojet, I used a Flojet Delrin adapter and 1/2" vinyl tubing.  This worked fine and never gave me any problems. 

Flojet pump overheating:

Before I figured out what was going on, the Flojet pump would just stop working.  It became quite hot, as did the 12V power adapter.  I wrote Eccotemp asking if the pump had thermal protection (where it would shut off automatically if it got too hot) but they did not care about answering my question, demanding that I supply a serial number and other information. 

I finally, after much reading, decided that the Flojet must indeed have thermal protection.  It's not stated anywhere that I could find.  Eccotemp was no help.  One person in forums stated that he had the same problem and was thinking of buying a pump that was specially designed to handle hot water from a spa. 

I finally realized that the Flojet is a really smart pump, and pretty bulletproof.  It was working too hard without the shower head connected to the output hose (I had taken the head off, and water was coming directly through the stainless hot water hose into my spa).  This was making the pump work too hard.  I put the showerhead back on, and this provided some pressure so the pump was not working so hard.  This solved most of the pump overheating problems. 

The Flojet is a great unit.  Be sure to have the water output connected to something (like the shower head) that provides some pressure.  I had an open hose at first, and this provided unrestricted flow from the output of the Flojet.  Turns out that this is not a good thing -- it made the Flojet heat up constantly. 

The next problem I had was that the propane heater kept shutting off.  In normal operation, it should turn on, the two-D-cell spark igniter lights the flame, and the pump circulates the water from the spa through the water heater.  However, the heater kept shutting off (the flames would go out) and the pump overheats for some reason when this happens. 

Propane flame keeps shutting off:

Here's what I wrote to Eccotemp customer support:

Dec 7, 1:48 PM EST:

I have spent hours trying to get this L5 heater to work consistently. It just will not stay lit. I know about the heater needing to sense water pressure, and the 20-minute shutoff (sometimes, however, it stays on for over 40 minutes). Today I noticed that hot water is dripping from the inside of the heater approximately one drop every five seconds. The heater just will not stay on for more than three minutes. I bought this from Home Depot and can return it but wonder if your staff has suggestions, and if this is expected behavior or not.

Here's the reply from Eccotemp:

Tech Support M, Dec 9, 2:06 PM EST:

Hello Norbert,

Thank you for contacting Eccotemp Systems Help Desk. Our goal is to provide you with the best customer service possible. Please note we have received your request and will take all steps necessary to resolve your issue.

For your records, your ticket number is located above. We regret any inconvenience that this issue may be causing you and please be assured that we will do what is necessary to resolve it. Please don't hesitate to contact us anytime or to update this ticket as needed.

Regarding this matter, please provide us with photos of the following to better assess the issue:

* Important: Overall photo of the water heater's set up and installation (including plumbing and ventilation) is required before any parts, unit replacement or further troubleshooting can be processed

* Internal view of the water heater

* The damage or point of the problem (leak)

* Serial number located at the right side of the heater

Once these photos have been received, we will contact you to let you know how we can proceed.

We appreciate your time and thank you for choosing Eccotemp.

* If you have not done so, please take the time to register your product with us here https://eccotemp.zendesk.com/entries/23454072-Product-Registration.

Regards,

Vanessa

Technical Support Team

Eccotemp Systems LLC

1-866-356-1992

(Monday to Friday 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM EST)

****

Well, that did not answer my question. 

I found some tips on the internet:

- One of the common problems, why your Eccotemp L5 water heater turns off after successful lighting, is because of the insufficient pressure. If you have the old L5 model, there is a washer inside the brass fitting on the end of the regulator hose which goes into the heater. If it fell off just push it back in. Now the sufficient pressure will sustain the combustion. New model doesn't include this washer.

- If there is a high wind and water heater is not protected, it will blow out the flame.

Disconnect your incoming water line. There is a screen immediately inside of the incoming water pipe that may have clogged over time and is reducing the water flow and water pressure. (Clean that out if needed)

Fresh batteries (Inserted correctly?)

These tips from the Eccotemp website were hints -- but what the heck do the flame sensors actually do?  Do they tell the igniters to send a spark if the flame is out -- because that sure is not happening. 

Check to be sure the thermocouple located in the top left of the heat exchanger is pushed in enough. The thermocouple acts as a second flame sensor.

Check to be sure the flame sensor is hooked up and for sure connected.

This tip from an Eccotemp forum was a bit more helpful:

Prior to completing the following steps, please make sure that your L5 / L7 has completely cooled and your gas supply is turned on. Take the cover off by removing the 2 screws at top and 2 on the bottom and the knobs pull out. Disconnect and reconnect all wire connections to ensure that everything is properly seated. There is a flame sensor directly above the burner. There are 3 black rubber wires going up to the burner area. Two of these rubber wires are attached to igniters and one is attached to the flame sensor. The flame sensor has a noticeably longer piece of metal. It should be on the far right and have a piece of blue tape on its wire. The L5 / L7 has a heat sensor at the top left. This looped yellow wire is centered over a small square opening in the heat exchanger. Make sure that this wire loops slightly inside of the opening. If it is bent away from the opening, you can push on it and it will bend easily.

I did take the front cover off the heater and saw the heat sensor.  I did push it down slightly further into the opening.  Again, the post does not say exactly what the heat sensor does -- does it get the flame going again if the flame blows out? 

I also figured out, after my own experience and reading forums, that the flames get blown out if there is any wind or breeze whatsoever.  Just a touch of wind, and this heater will not stay lit.

I put a metal shield across the front of the heater, which blocked wind blowing into the top of the heater, and this seems to help greatly. 

 

Other comments and answers that I saw during my long research on the web:

-very disappointed with it, because it goes out extremely easy. It barely takes a slight breeze. I will have to return it. 

-Blows out with the slightest breeze. Switch in water wand very difficult. This unit works very well in zero wind. The temperature is consistent and comes up fast. A small breeze will however blow out the flame. The switch in the wand is very difficult to operate. I contacted them about the wand difficulties and just got blown off. ..Hate the timed on/off switch. Must be very protected from freezing temperatures when not in use. If you have an enclosed heated space w only cold water this unit might work great, if you don't get a defective wand.

-Eccotemp L5 purchased 6/14 has developed a problem with gas burner going out frequently. Always able to start, Some times it will stay lit

Answer from Eccotemp: The number one reason that the portable tankless water heater does not ignite is that there is not enough water pressure. You need a minimum of 0.25-10 PSI, sustained. Municipal water should supply enough water pressure. Most 12/18/120/240 pumps well as long as they are capable of delivering pressure of 0.25-10 PSI or greater.

*****

I finally have gotten this propane water heater to heat water, stay lit, and not leak for about a week now.  The whole project was a giant pain in the butt.  I feel that Eccotemp could provide this kind of information with the owner's manual rather than force every customer to figure this stuff out himself.  I wasted HOURS of my time trying to solve the leakage and shutoff problems. 

I never was able to get this question answered:

Does Flojet turn off if it gets too hot?

If the propane water heater's flame gets blown out, why does the Flojet pump get hot as a result?  What is causing it to work so hard?  In normal operation, the Flojet pump gets warm, but not hot, even after 40 minutes of pumping hot spa water. 

As a note, for our 250-gallon hot tub, the propane water heater heats the spa up by about 18 degrees every 60 minutes.  That's amazing!

CBS News has quietly ditched its overly dramatic "new" music

Anyone notice that CBS News has quietly ditched its overly dramatic "new" music?  It was proudly announced in 2016 and I immediately thought that it was too overdone.  Well, if you watch CBS News today, that "new" music seems to be gone.

Here's CBS News' proud story on its new music in 2016:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-evening-news-with-scott-pelley-debuts-new-theme-music/