 | Home > Maintenance & Modifications > Shower& heater system build |
 
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| Badger110 Member Since: 06 Feb 2018 Location: South hams Posts: 1039   
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There are many ways to do hot water/shower systems in vehicles.
Here’s mine. Parts; Webasto Thermo top c (eBay £115) Plate Heat exchanger 65kw ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253218337036 ) Jabsco 11lpm 12v pump ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/263320264287 ) Bullfinch Shower outlet ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164032659147 ) Various flexi hose & 22mm & 15mm fittings Webasto Expansion tank ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333606352327 ) The idea is for the thermo top to do 2 jobs; to provide heating via a fan assisted heat exchanger ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292371832189 ) and to provide hot water to a shower output for washing dogs, bodies and anything else that gets muddy. Installation was best set up out of the vehicle due to noise and fuel but tucked away so as not to get damaged. Behind the rear NS wheel was the best set up where I used to house a gas canister. 
I made a box out of some aliminium chequer plate and began to mount it all inside. There are 2 water circuits in the system. Webasto circuit; This is a closed loop circuit. From the webasto we enter a plate heat exchanger, from there it goes to the fan assisted heat exchanger, then onto the expansion tank and back to the webasto. Water levels are regulated by the expansion tank. Shower loop; This is an open loop system. Water is collected from either a natural source or a bucket via the hose. The hose is attached to the pump which draws the water into the pump. From there it’s split to the shower outlet and to the other side of the heat exchanger shared by the webasto. From the heat exchanger is then goes to the shower outlet where it is mixed with the cold to produce a desired temperature. The pump has an inlet which is currently a length of hose about 5 metres long. I may put an inlet point on the bodywork and hard wire the pump to it at slater date, but for now this works. Does it work? Damn right it does! From very very hot to cold water is achievable via the shower mixer point. The pump will only pull water through when the shower head trigger is pulled and creates instant hot water. A few pictures;
Some pointers; The pump is a multi use, it will draw water from some distance to fill jerrycans/containers. It will also drain a 20 litre container in no time ! Showers will require natural feeds for water or to be used conservatively! The cold water can be isolated for when the heating is on inside the cab so no heat works it’s way back to the pump. I haven’t run the heater in anger yet but I may need to add some more ventilation to the box as it gets warm in the there! Any questions, ask away  Last edited by Badger110 on 30th May 2020 11:31am. Edited 2 times in total |
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29th May 2020 6:22pm |
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| Badger110 Member Since: 06 Feb 2018 Location: South hams Posts: 1039
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The shower head is a trigger operated small head, pretty basic but great for washing dogs or muddy stuff.
Click image to enlarge My plan is to cut the shower pipe near the head and use a push fit union which will allow me to attach different heads to it for some flexibility If i need to pump water from a source into containers or wash the dawgs, i can use the original head For showering of humans, i can use a standard bathroom shower head. I will check tomorrow to see which push fits i can use. Took more pictures tonight without the sun so you can see in the box a little more clearly Click image to enlarge This shows the pump on the left hand side with the isolator when just using the heater inside Click image to enlarge This one shows the heat exchanger in it's jacket. The fittings are all flexible as movement inside will cause hard soldered joints to fail. Click image to enlarge The fuel line is currently fed from the tank via an adapter located by the intake pipe. I will update this to feed from the tank pump and use the current intake pipe to supply the engine webasto when that gets fitted. the wiring will be tidied up, so ignore the wego's  |
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29th May 2020 8:44pm |
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| jst Member Since: 14 Jan 2008 Location: Taunton Posts: 8264  
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Got any pics of the fan assisted heat exchanger for heating the interior?
Alot of work gone into that. My 2nd generation one is going to go in off engine coolant as dont have another thermo top c currently. Your heat exchanger for the shower, what the rough capacity? Cheers James 110 2010 XS Utility 130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper 90 2010 Hardtop 90 M57 1988 Hardtop |
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29th May 2020 9:31pm |
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| Badger110 Member Since: 06 Feb 2018 Location: South hams Posts: 1039
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I’ll take a pic tomorrow
The shower plate heat exchanger (PHE ) is actually a 45kw stainless steel PHE. I got it from Poland, took about 3 days to get here, good service. The 45kw works with such a short distance from the webasto to the heat exchanger, about 250mm of 20mm id bore Flexi hose . From the PHE to the shower point is about 300mm of 10mm ID flexi hose. With these short distances there is virtually no drop in temperature to the shower head. Working from the engine coolant, you want to be on the hot side for the PHE? From there it’s the distance to your shower head that’s going to determine the size of it. I did bench build mine first to get an idea on size I needed. I bought a cheap PHE from a domestic combination boiler to test temperatures with the length of pipe work etc |
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29th May 2020 10:35pm |
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| jst Member Since: 14 Jan 2008 Location: Taunton Posts: 8264
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I have a 65kw one, again from Poland. 3 days to arrive. Same setup works well on my 110 with webasto heating engine coolant. Cheers
James 110 2010 XS Utility 130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper 90 2010 Hardtop 90 M57 1988 Hardtop |
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30th May 2020 6:09am |
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| Badger110 Member Since: 06 Feb 2018 Location: South hams Posts: 1039
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I did consider using the circulation from the engine but i want everything to be independent.
If a failure happens to the PSE in the uk, you lose coolant, call the AA and get towed home. If that happens in remote areas of the world it can create big problems. My build is based on a RTW journey to very remote areas, so I need to keep things simple and independent. Picture you asked for of the fan assisted heat exchanger
2nd hand unit which I paid £35 for. I want to replace the switch with a dial to regulate the fan speed. At the moment it’s either fast or tornado 
Lying in bed last night I figured it would be wise to put a drain point in the closed loop system if I need to drain it down. There are 2 isolators next to the header tank which create an air lock if I need to remove anything but a full drain down is a good idea. I soldered a t piece at the lowest point
Fitted in situ with a 22mm sleeve to stop any abrasion from the aluminium hole rubbing through the 15mm copper
Fitted a simple isolator and push fit end cap
The entire isolator is forward of the mudguard so will get absolutely filthy with mud and water. I’m working on a small guard to protect it a little bit, I’ll post up the pics when done |
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30th May 2020 11:11am |
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| jst Member Since: 14 Jan 2008 Location: Taunton Posts: 8264
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With such a small capacity of coolant that system must get to temp very quickly. How long do you have to run the webasto for to get 40deg? Cheers
James 110 2010 XS Utility 130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper 90 2010 Hardtop 90 M57 1988 Hardtop |
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30th May 2020 5:22pm |
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| Badger110 Member Since: 06 Feb 2018 Location: South hams Posts: 1039
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From cold it will run for about 12 minutes, cycle down for 15 minutes, then about 10 minutes run time, rinse and repeat. I did find after an hour it cycled down for 30 minutes and each hour thereafter ( i had it running for 6 hours whilst i worked on other stuff ).
For every hour it will run for approximately 30-40 minutes and cycle down for the remaining 20-30 minutes with a 20-30 minute gap on the hour so to speak. With the internal fan heat exchanger i feel that's plenty of time to be running to warm up the living area. The Airtop was running 10 minutes on, 10 minutes off when that was fitted as it gets warm inside quite quickly. I could lengthen the return pipe from the fan heat exchanger and maybe route it outside if i wanted to cool the internal fluid more to allow the unit to run for longer, but i don't think i'm going to need it. This was tested today with the hot sun on the truck all day, hot bodywork and the door to the enclosure shut. Add to that the ambient temperature being quite high. When the unit will be used, it's going to be alot colder outside where the unit is kept and i'm thinking longer running times overall, but even with these running times, i'm quite happy with them. I have used a 15% antifreeze mixture for the time being. |
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30th May 2020 11:21pm |
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