Heater Core Question for On Board Shower

The heat exchangers are in he ~$100 range. A nice pump will be in the same range also. Then there is the mixing valve/ anti scald unit. Again, similar price point. After those 3 purchases, it is just HOSE, Fittings, a little coolant and a sock.

 

Been looking at these.
http://www.shurflo.com/rv-products/...me-series-smart-sensor/default.html#series5.7

and these
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=20+plate+heat+exchanger

 

Any update on your project skygear? Curious how your setup came out.

I have used the shower a couple times since my last Utah trip and it is working flawlessly. As long as I idle at about 1050 rpm the water is incredibly hot. It is, by far, my wifes favorite mod on the truck lol

Just blew the lines out with my compressor to prep for winter. Took 3 minutes and is good to go.

 

Well, its winter.. Bitter cold and a horrible wind chill got me today. Doing a couple side jobs, trying to manage/budget for the wanted end result. Pretty sure those will be the items I get. I linked the thread in my sig

FYI - I pulled all the posts from this thread, Quoted them and put them all in the OBW (On Board Water) thread I linked in my sig.

 

Hey here to revive an old thread. I'm jumping on this project! nobody answered which hose I'm supposed to tap into, hoping someone can clear that up for me.
Also, what size is that heater core hose? I wanna buy the hose barbs & fittings while I wait for the heat exchanger to ship...

 

I will look a little later. Might be in the On Board Water OBW thread.

 

I believe you'll find the hose that is the highest on the engine will be the hottest and the lower one will be the return.

 

x2 I tapped into the lower hose to avoid interfering with heater. There is already a factory splice there. I left the short hose in. This way if I ever have a rupture in the exchanger, or hoses, I can very easily bypass the shower setup and go back to stock in the field.

I cant remember what size the hoses and fittings were, but I believe they were 5/8. Don't quote me on that though.

I've used it probably 12 times now. I definitely need to raise the idle to 1050 or 1100 to really get a "home like" temp. if I just idle, its warm, but not hot. At 1050 ita glorious!

 

Sweet!

Is there any way you could take a pic further back to show just where that is in the engine bay?

And what's the advantage / dis
To going before or after the stock heater core? Was it just the existing splice that made you do it?

 

Driver side firewall between the brake booster and the engine.

 

Either way will work, but if you connect on the input, the hot coolant from the engine will first pass through the heat exchanger before entering the heater core, potentially at a cooler temperature, thus affecting your heaters output.

 

Which, after heating up under normal vehicle use should cause a delay in heat, but not a permanent issue

Right?

Under shower use it'd cause a cold cabin heater output, but I'm not gonna be in the shower and in the cab at the same time, nor showering where I couldn't live without the heater for 20 min...

? Any reason I could be wrong here? I refuse to screw up stock functionality for mods...

 

Build a bypass for the heater core and switch between the two cores with ball valves.
No delay or impact on cabin heat, no compromise on shower temp, and if either core fails, simply rotate the valves to direct the coolant through the good core and get on with your trip.

 

Not quite. The hot water will always travel through the heat exchanger before entering the heater core. When driving down the road, the heat exchanger is working like a radiator. Air in the plates will cool the coolant before it enters the heater core, theoretically always reducing the heat temperature. How much much/if any effect it actually has in real life, I dont know.

This would definitely work. Im sure there are ball valves out there that are ok to use with 200+ degree water, im not sure, but IMO this just adds more complexity and doesnt really solve any problem. The solution is very simple.... Put the heat exchanger on the output of the heater core.

 

Aha! Perfect.
Build thread to follow soon.

Has anyone seen the "mixing manifold" I've seen on a couple other threads? I've seen em called anti scald units or something... Last loose end to tie is the hot/ cold mix manifold. The RV ones are super cheap plastic , I'll need one compact and very sturdy so I'll never have to worry about it.

 

You can just use a shower valve. But yes. I linked a couple here. They're not cheap

 

Spencer, check out the Linked unit in the other thread.

I posted all the recent posts in the On Board Water thread again.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/215548-board-water.html

 

Beautiful.
Thanks!

I'll jump off this thread and onto the other now to keep all the info in one place.

 

Bumping this thread as i am about to install on board water. I don't necessarily need hot water but am thinking about installing one of sorts. I have seen the cool setups with the heater core which is a great idea but seems a lot of work. Would an electric water heater work as good? Or will it not get up to high enough temps?

Something like this?

$11 RoadPro RPBH-012 12-Volt Beverage Heater, Black

http://smile.amazon.com/RoadPro-RPB...r=8-8&keywords=portable+electric+water+heater

You could permanently install this into a water storage tank and then flip a switch to heat the water. What do you guys think?

 

Yeah I some propane systems. Just weary of carrying around propane.

And yeah it is small but If I could find a higher output heater and maybe put two or three I think it would be somewhat feasible. Hmmmm time to google some other methods.