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!
