Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I did a search here and saw many ideas for water heaters, with most posts pointing to the Coleman. I found this one from Amazon, and traced it back to Sportsman's Guide. Has anyone used one of these? I just ordered one as it is half the price of the Coleman, and seems to have everything I would need for a shower setup. Waiting for it to arrive this week.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=347698

I also bought one of these from BassPro for the stall.

Bass Pro shops

Both look really good. The brown might be kinda warm in the sun though.

Now to win the lottery.

heck with the price of oil you could use that for your shower in the house :-)
get one for you kitchen sink and skip the dishwasher cool product :-)

Jason

That is interesting. I didn't know they made portable ones. I changed the one on my house to a tankless last year and my propane use dropped 40%. You can take a shower for as long as you want and not run out. I also got a $300 energy tax credit.

I might have to add that to the ET.

Mike...

I will let you know how it works out. My next camping trip is March 7th, and hope to have it delivered, and ready to go by then. I still have to buy a tank, and due to space on the tongue, will probably go with a 5 pound refillable. Still should give about 3 to 4 hours of shower time on a tank which will be more then enough based on the duration of my trips. Longer trips will call for bringing the 20 pound tank from the outside deck heater.

Water heater arrived today, can't wait to try it out. It is built better then I expected, plus has a really nice hand held shower with an on/off control on the shower head. It even came with a regulator and hose for an lp tank. So for $119 I think this is a great deal considering the regulator and hose is worth about $30. Now to find out how it heats water.....

Nice find!
That look like a much better solution than the Coleman for those who want to include a water heater as part of their build..Assuming you can vent it and what not, its nice and flat with the outflow on the bottom.
The Coleman unit I have pretty much needs to be used on a table top.

Paul the unit is designed to be an outdoor only type heater as the vent is through the rectangular top of the heater. It does have a deflector, and perhaps could have a rectangle exhaust fabricated to fit it. I will probably use one of those iron hanging plant holders to hang it near my shower privy. The shower head has it's own on / off water flow, so once the temperature is adjusted on the main unit, the on off could be done inside the shower. The unit shuts off the heating flame if the water is not flowing. Once the water starts to flow, the flame comes back on. I believe this will be well worth the money not having to use the campground bath houses which was my primary goal.

Used my new water heater this weekend. Did a weekend road bicycle event at FDR State Park in Georgia. Was a very cold weekend - had snow Saturday morning from 6:30am until 11:00am - the real stuff not just flurries. Took a nice long shower Saturday night - outside temps in the mid 30's. Used the Outback Privy see my original post for links. The water heater performed flawless. It has a unique feature - once you turn the switch on, nothing happens except the heater is enabled to go on.

On the hand held shower nozzle, there is a water on off option. Once water flows, the self igniter on the unit engages, the propane ignites, and in about 2 seconds, there is hot water to your desired temperature. I preset the temp outside the shower to what I wanted, then shutoff the water flow at the shower head. Then once inside, turned on the water flow, and the temperature was exactly as I set it a few minutes before.

The nozzle has three flow options, one is a pulsed jet, one a standard jet, and one more high pressure mist. I used the last option to "steam up" the privy, so the temperature in the privy was comfortable considering the near freezing outside temp. Took about a 15 minute shower and stayed extremely warm. The advertising states about 18 hours of shower capability on a 20 pound lp tank.

No electric is needed (or recharge batteries). The unit takes 2 d cells that only function to power the igniter. Water input takes a standard garden hose and uses the campground water pressure for the shower. The unit also has a valve to drain the water from the unit when you go to pack it away. I store it in a plastic bin in the teardrop. When you shutoff the water (for those military shower buffs), the flame goes out until you turn the shower head back on, then the ignitor clicks into gear again starting the whole process. This way you can save both water and propane as both are shutoff by the shower head valve!

This heater you have sounds like a good one. I do a lot of dry camping so I would have to add a pump and a deep cell battery. What I like is the gas shuts off when there is no water flow and then starts up heating again when water flows. Unlike the one that I have from Wal-mart (Zodi). Hey do they have a battery pump to supply the water for dry camping?
Would anyone know if I can use a 20 Lb. tank on my zodi shower? The shower hose is too short when set on the ground and the water pump hose is too long. If I would use a tri pod to get it off the ground I think it would work better for me and I hate to have to buy the small tanks they cost too much for the amount of fule you get. You know it is like falshlights I have to have D cell for mine AA for my wifes light and AAA for the shower light and the camper light. Oh also C cells and a 9 volt for the radio clock. I have a battery store in a bag for back ups and if I keep on going I will have every type of fule for stove, shower, lantrens, and heater.
Kevin

I am thinking of adding one of these to my build.. How hot is the Exhaust? Can you use it laying on its side with the Exhaust coming out of the side or is it up only?

The unit is designed for up only as the exhaust comes out the top. There is an exhaust deflector which allowed me to hang it on a small broken branch on the trunk of a tree.

On its side, the flame would not effectively heat the coils.

I purchased a wrought iron plant holder to hang a hanging basket planter. I use that next to the shower to hold the main unit and it works fine. The only modification I am going to do is to lengthen the water hose to the shower head. There is not enough for it to mount to the top of my shower privy. Other then that - unit is perfect.

Looks like it's made by Eccotemp.

http://www.eccotemp.com/gas.htm

You can download the manual online. I might be interested in one of these too.

That is the heating unit that Sportsman's Guide is selling. Found a smaller propane tank today at REI of all places. It is 4.5 pound, but a big price of $52. I would like it as it would fit on the tongue in front of my camping box, but can't justify the price so will stay with the standard 20 pound tank.