jwhite wrote:Thanks again for the replys,I bought a small electric water heater off ebay and when I hooked it to a water hose I could not get it to heat water so I contacted who I bought it from and they said I need a
(water flow tap )to make it work?
is this a valve that slows the water flow?
What kind of water heater did you get, point-of-use or tankless? The problem as I see it is that the electric tankless units require a ferocious amount of power, for a short duration, to make them work. You would also have to factor in their temperature stability if you are thinking shower. On the other hand, a tank type unit will be temperature stable and will require less juice at any given moment...just over a longer period of time. I did check and the GE 2.5 gallon tank type does use a standard screw-in element which should be able to be replaced with a 1000w unit. For a quick shower that should be enough. I have a 5 gallon homemade water heater (400w Hott Rod heater element driven by a 750w inverter) in my van that simply heats the water to whatever temp I wish to take the shower in, usually about 105-110 degrees, and it works just fine with a low-flow shower head...throttled down. The pump pulls directly from the heater so I don't have any further temperature control, but the 5 gallons of water is very ample. I could take two back-to-back showers to clean off, or one lingering shower. No problems over the past ten years. I would think a 2.5 gallon unit running at 140 degrees would get the job done for you when mixed with some ambient temp water. This would get the job done for one person.
