Zodi heater

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

I've was thinking of building my own since my Coleman On Demand unit has proven itself fallable at the most inopportune time...
At first I thought the battery was bad, but the damned burner goes out instantly right after ignition... Might be a stuck impeller on the pump. (After scouring the internet and reading scores of complaints about the same problem I have)
Will just have to tear the damned thing appart to know for sure.
Besides a burner about all you'd need is a pump and a coil, but then I saw a simple little setup that a father and son from New York had at IRG2.0.
It was a garden sprayer with a shower head and hose.
The dad had a mark on the side of the jug, which showed how much hot water to add, which he'd heat up on his camp stove... After that, he'd just top it off with cold water to get his desired water temperature.
A moment or two of pumping and they had a portable shower... No batteries or anything else to worry about.
A pretty simple, fail safe system if you ask me.

[doug hodder]

Dean...I spoke with Cherokee Geo and he put one of those type sprayers together also. Haven't heard how it worked for him, but the one at the IRG looked like a slick set up! Doug

[rlphoto]

Any I am going to have a 12v electrical tap permanently in the ceiling, So I thought about making sure my 12 volt power supply is 15 amp plus, so I will get a 12 volt car heater,defroster that can be suspended from the ceiling.

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/12volcerheat.html

Been there done that and took it back for a refund. Those suckers will put the hurts on a 12v battery in no time, and not produce enough heat to notice any change at all. In fact out body heat made much more of a change in cabin temp compared to that type of device. Those are primarily meant for a running automobile not a static battery.

If there is 110v available, we use our electric ceramic which will RUN you out of the TD naked in the middle of the night if you turn it up enough!!

We just got back from camping in Northern Michigan, hit 41 degrees a few nights...we were in NF campgrounds without electricity, and with those temps outside we were still at 58-60 inside, with no heat whatsoever.

Give it a try, but save the receipt!

I was only going to try to run the heater when on shore power with a converter. I am not going to carry a battery other than for led lights and a simple fan. Trying to save weight. Trying to find a heater in the middle between a 120v ceramic and a 12 volt defroster is proving troublesome. 120V is too big, 12v defroster too small. Nothing in the middle. Thanks for the advice though, did it make any difference with the vehicle running?

[07rascal]

....did it make any difference with the vehicle running?

Very little. Seems the 150W must be too small for our space, or the rating is a bit generous....and by the looks of it your trailer is bigger than the Rascal we have.

We use a ceramic 110v when needed and there is shore power. It has a thermostat on it and we just turn it way down. Comes on for a few minutes then shuts off and cycles that way. We also keep the roof vent cracked for air and adjustments for inside temp. About $20 at Wally World will get a guy one.

One thought on 12v power. We also did not want an onboard battery either, so instead we carry a small power pack jump starter in the trunk of our car and use it to hook up our 12v power when we are in camp. Powers all our lights and an accessory power port in the cabin of the TD. Pictures are in our Album on what the hookup looks like.

[del]

Here is a thought. I have a 12volt electric blanket, run off of a lawn mower battery (charged when the car is running). Push the button on the blanket controller and 45 min. of heat. Have run it 4 times in one night (was 15f in Nebraska) and still had power in the morning for lights.

del

[rlphoto]

Thanks for the tips, Looks like a ceramic heater for shore power and a blanket for boon docking if I can charge the battery every day. For the ceramic heater I will have to build an arm reaching from the outside of the tent to the inside to elevate the heater since there is no room to set it any where and to heavy to hang.

On the zodi thing, I believe it is a good concept. Some reason they are all out of stock everywhere. I would like to see a combo water heater and furnace. Then I might bite.

[fpoole]

I have one, the two bottle type.

Heat is controled by the settings (flow) of the flame. Works great for hot water.

Have upgraded to the Bulk Tank adaptor, with the stand as i want to run a camp fire pit too so trying to figure out how to put both on one take and not worry about switch bottles all the time.

The Zodi is great, has an auto ignitor - push the button, it's a little tricky as you turn one bottle on and quickly.... I say QUICKLY?!!!!... click the ingintor... hehehe... Whoooommp... and it starts right up.

Biggest thing to worry about is starting the pump first (just put shower nozzel in the water supply and THEN start the burners. Comes out hot and is controled by the valves. If too hot, just run one burner. If not hot enough (it does get hot eh?) turn them both on. Believe it's burning about the same as a Colemen stove. Run it full blast - go through the bottles faster. The only other thing it to watch the batteries - 4 D-Cells for the smaller pump as if the water doesn't flow, it heats up real fast.

As I mentioned, I"ve upgraded to the Bulk Stand and the 12 volt battery (cig light adaptor - Camp Inn Drop).

Can't say how it will all turn out, just upgraded and will be trying it out this weekend in Oregon TOW meet...

So if you see a flash and Cloud, well.. you might try another technique.

FYI - I also have the "Green Hot Water Machine" by coleman... works ok too, but just too bulky and hard to make it easy to work ie. faucet only goes one way left side and yes, I tried the shower nozzel.

Stay tuned eh???

Hope that helps...
frank

[rlphoto]

Thanks for input the fpool, I was also wondering about the hot water heaters also. Is it possible to get the water to scalding temperature?.

Do you have any experience with the Zodi hot air furnace?

http://www.buytheworld.com/prod8392-Zod ... rnace.html

I have one, the two bottle type.

Heat is controled by the settings (flow) of the flame. Works great for hot water.

Have upgraded to the Bulk Tank adaptor, with the stand as i want to run a camp fire pit too so trying to figure out how to put both on one take and not worry about switch bottles all the time.

The Zodi is great, has an auto ignitor - push the button, it's a little tricky as you turn one bottle on and quickly.... I say QUICKLY?!!!!... click the ingintor... hehehe... Whoooommp... and it starts right up.

Biggest thing to worry about is starting the pump first (just put shower nozzel in the water supply and THEN start the burners. Comes out hot and is controled by the valves. If too hot, just run one burner. If not hot enough (it does get hot eh?) turn them both on. Believe it's burning about the same as a Colemen stove. Run it full blast - go through the bottles faster. The only other thing it to watch the batteries - 4 D-Cells for the smaller pump as if the water doesn't flow, it heats up real fast.

As I mentioned, I"ve upgraded to the Bulk Stand and the 12 volt battery (cig light adaptor - Camp Inn Drop).

Can't say how it will all turn out, just upgraded and will be trying it out this weekend in Oregon TOW meet...

So if you see a flash and Cloud, well.. you might try another technique.

FYI - I also have the "Green Hot Water Machine" by coleman... works ok too, but just too bulky and hard to make it easy to work ie. faucet only goes one way left side and yes, I tried the shower nozzel.

Stay tuned eh???

Hope that helps...
frank

[fpoole]

I'm not sure on the "Scalding" part.

I know i tried it long timea ago, and it got too hot for a shower... had to turn it down.. I use it for dishes for now, until I get the chance to run the shower part... you can recirculate the water ie. just run the shower end back into the water tank and keep the loop going until it gets to the temp you want. In normal temp, what 70 degrees?? (I dunno what normal would be?) it was hot, too hot to take a shower with.. so had to trun it down, believe I turned on bottle off and the other one around 1/2 to 2/3 if I remember correctly... didn't take much for a hot shower durning spring time, May 30th or so.

Haven't tried the Funace, but suspect ti will do the job. I have a heater for the TD, so I'd be using it for outside and would probably go with the "Triple Burner" heat disks that sit on the propane tank... I'm guessing you've see those, look round with the heating screen in the middle.

will have pics after this weekend and will note the water temps a little more carefully...

Hope that helps...

[Karl]

http://www.zodi.com/hotvents.html anybody try one of these, look pretty interesting

Before I saw the light and was a mere tent camper, I bought a 20K BTU Zodi propane heater for my Eureka 12' x 12' tent (9' ceiling). It worked very well although you MUST have a good source of fresh air or else you never wake up in the morning! And, you need AC or DC power to run the heater fan since it absolutely needs to pump the air through the heater in order to maximize the indoor temperature. For obvious safety reasons, I had the tent's ceiling vent unzipped plus at least 12 inches unzipped on the windows on all four sides of the tent. FYI: With the heater sitting outside the tent, you run a flexible dryer-vent hose with their fan into the heater to give it fresh air and then you run the same type of hose (without a fan) into the tent. Since I had a huge tent whose walls undulated quite a bit in the wind, I replaced the hose going into the tent with a 4’ long double-walled stove pipe. I then made a hole in the tent wall and lined the hole with a few layers of ductwork-type flashing so that the wall could slide in and out about 2’ along the stove pipe, all of which kept it from burning or melting the nylon tent wall. It also meant that I didn't have a flexible hose working itself loose from the tent during high winds. Worked great for me during the few times I used it.

Since I don't need it for my teardrop, I am probably going to sell it (and the Eureka tent too in case anyone is interested). However, I was thinking that it would be nice to have for the Hoosier Winter Shiveree, either for the main tent where everyone congregates or for my own QuikShade 12'x12' EZ-up that has all four side walls (making it a floorless tent). I would NOT enclose the teardrop within my EZ-up and run the heater, though. Way too dangerous since it could consume too much of the oxygen surrounding all sides of the trailer. Rather than enclosing the trailer inside the EZ-up, I suppose I could place the EZ-up next to my trailer (with all four walls up and one wrapped around the trailer) and then run the Zodi heater with one trailer door open as long as I had a good source of fresh air getting into the trailer.

[Galen]

I am going to use one of these eccotemp hot water heaters, for sink hot water and showers. They get great reviews and the price is right.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/eccotemp-portable-water-heater/37786

[Ageless]

I have the Zodi water heater; works great! Will be adapting it for the trailer so losing the 6V pump and plumbing it into trailer's water supply