Stack propane furnace on water heater?

[moorefc]

Originally Posted by rockbender

I got a Triton 5L instant hot water heater - it was about $120 or so. I plan on making an aluminum door panel on the inside of my rear door and mounting it to that. Depending on how much heat comes out the top, I may make a deflector to steer heat away from the window/door seals, etc.

Door mount would have some clever advantages; one may want to be careful re. shock effect on the unit from all those back door slams...

[Viva]

By the way I see I sightly conflated two Truma models in my memory. The Truma Combi is the combination furnace/water heater (and does sound very slick). I don't know that it wouldn't fit where a Suburban water heater does, but apparently it's a different Truma that is meant to "drop in" to an ex-water-heater location, which is a Truma on-demand water heater. (Not that you necessarily care about that anyway.)

[moorefc]

Originally Posted by Viva

By the way I see I sightly conflated two Truma models in my memory.

There appear to be several different models, with the eco at the bottom of food chain, higher end models allow 110 power as well...The thing to understand is how well they (comparatively) work...

The european prices for these units appear to be pretty high, so then it becomes a benefit/space trade.

The portable "outdoor" gas units are pretty appealing (compact and light) if they can be mounted/fit inside the back. Our use is really post hiking/biking quick shower as the day is winding down, so dishwashing or long use doesn't demand hot water. A lot of longer stay people in the baja campgrounds use these with great success next to their vehicles. Our older vehicle gas water heater is soooo convenient and reliable, if you could only make it smaller and not drag ~60# of otherwise useless water around....

Lots to research here, and when this project evolves I will update this.

[moorefc]

After looking around, the euro option is not quite ready here yet, and the Suburban instant on was vaporware when I looked. So I opted for an eccotemp L5 instant on (~$130). Seems to work quite well, and with a diverter valve on the bottom it can more easily be drained should there be freezing weather. Time will tell, and the installation tying in to the pex in the wall was a bit of a space challenge. It does not exhaust much heat (~1100W) and is only used when the back doors are open.