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| Portable Tankless Water Heater | 
 enlarge | Brand: ECCOTEMP SYSTEMS
Category: Sports
Buy New: $119.97
Buy New from $119.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  (6 reviews)
Sales Rank: 6900
Media: Misc.
Shipping Weight (lbs): 11
Dimensions (in): 22 x 6 x 14
MPN: L5
Model: L5
ASIN: B000UVLW4C
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Portable Hot Water | | • | Battery Ignition | | • | Liquid Propane Powered | | • | 80-150 Degrees F | | • | Up to 1.4 GPM |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Endless hot water, in a FLASH! LP - powered Portable Tankless Water Heater. Hot water, instantly and exactly where you need it! Great for camping, cabin use, washing boats and cars, etc. Switch this Heater on and an intense flame instantly heats the water as it passes through. There's no reservoir to deplete like at home, as long as you feed water in, HOT water is coming out! Battery ignition starts flame ONLY when water is running, no overheating! Delivers 1 gallon of hot water per minute; Adjustable water temp from 80 to 150 degrees F; Adapter attaches to any standard garden hose style nozzle; Shower nozzle with on / off control; Includes hose and regulator for attaching to standard LP tank; For outdoor use only; Folding handles; Uses 2 D batteries for ignition (not included); 1 standard LP tank is good for approx. 18 hrs. of continuous use, depending on set temperature; 12 x 15 x 4", 10 lbs. Order Today! Portable Tankless Water Heater
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 An Off-Grid Review: Installation, Operation, Praise, Concerns November 26, 2008
Greetings!
I have a lot to say about the L5 as I am pushing the limits of its functionality; I have been using it daily for the past six weeks, completely off-grid, and am thrilled to have it! To distill the following details into a few words:
Pros: A Godsend for someone completely off-grid, living under extreme conditions! There is nothing else available like it (that I could find).
Cons: It is designed to minimize any risks, no matter how used--thus limiting its versatility and, possibly, its long-term reliability, though it has functioned perfectly for the past six weeks.
The following notes are in four parts:
- Installation (where I have it installed)
- Operation (how it must be set up under such conditions)
- Praise
- Concerns
Installation:
I am using the L5 completely off-grid. It is inside a custom-built, remote-camping, clear polycarbonate trailer that was built to test the infrastructure of the Lotus Dome ( LotusDome dot com ). The trailer is currently at an elevation of 7,500 feet in the mountains of Utah. The temperature range here can get above 100 degreesF during the summer and can get down to well below zero during the winter. Great conditions for testing purposes!
The roof of the trailer holds a custom, 218-gallon, aluminum water tank (it needs to be on the roof to keep ice from clogging the drain). The drain feeds down to the L5 which is suspended about six inches beneath the tank. A 12VDC SHURflo Nautilus pump is mounted directly beneath the L5 pumping water up into the l5's water intake fitting.
Operation:
To get this pump to work under these conditions requires very strict installation and operation, as the Nautilus pump is rated at 1GPM, 10 PSI, max.:
- The pump must be installed directly under the L5's water intake fitting.
- The set screw for adjusting the pressure needed to open the L5 diaphragm (located under the right side of the water regulator, pointing straight down), which controls whether the L5 will ignite or not, needs to be unscrewed (i.e. "backed out") until water starts to drip out around the screw. The screw is then re-tightened about one-half turn.
- The L5 water regulator (the dial on the right side of the front panel of the L5) needs to be turned fully clockwise--to the "MIN" setting
In setting up the L5, I have discovered--through repeated trial and error--that the L5 WILL NOT IGNITE if these conditions are not met. To reiterate: if the pump is not _immediately_ below the L5, pumping up into it; if the set screw is not backed out to minimize the required water pressure; and if the Water Regulator dial is not set all the way clockwise to the "MIN" setting, the L5 will NOT ignite. This is my experience, "your mileage may vary." (It may be possible to remove the spring that controls the diaphragm, but I have not tried to do so.)
Praise:
The L5, when functioning as intended, is a spectacular unit; there is no other water heater that can generate 37.5K BTUs worth of hot water in such a compact, portable unit. It has no competition; it is a Godsend for me. The L5 with a 12VDC Nautilus pump is perfect for my showering needs, pumping a minimum amount of water through the L5 and out through a Zodi shower head--at one-half gallon per minute!--provides a wonderful amount of water, at a very comfortable pressure and temperature. It even has a drain for use in sub-freezing temperatures!
Pumping much less water through the L5 than it is designed to handle, results in water that is _much_ hotter than when using the included shower head. This is a great help when the water is at or below 32 degreesF (and, yes, this is possible if the water is flowing) and, of course, it then also uses much less water and much less propane!
It has also been noted (and often not favorably) that the control unit will shut the burners off after seventeen minutes. I, too, was very concerned about this. However, after talking to John at GES, he confirmed what is stated in the user's manual: "[the timer] is reset each time operation stops or the shower head is turned off and back on." What this means is that if, during your shower, the burners are suddenly turned off by the timer, you need only turn the On/Off switch (under the unit) off and then immediately back on again, and the burners will immediately fire back up. I tried this out a few times and found that if you just quickly turn the L5 off and back on again, you will have just a very few seconds of _slightly_ cooler water and then the water temperature is restored. It really became a non-issue for me . . .
Concerns:
That the Nautilus pump can push water through the L5 at a very comfortable (I would say "luxurious"!) rate and pressure--when used with the one-half-gallon-per-minute Zodi shower head--causes me to feel that the unit is too restrictive with its safety features. The many safety features compromise the L5 when used in conditions where its reliability is essential. Out in the field, "simple" is very important and in this regard, Zodi is king! (FYI, I found that the use of a 12VDC water pump that produces 45 PSI will either blow the fuse of the line supplying power to the pump--due to turning the L5 water regulator down so far--or it will generate an very unpleasant amount of water pressure . . . and waste a lot of water.)
The entire control system for the L5 could have been replaced with one push-button igniter and two sentences in the user's manual (and thus also reducing the price of the L5):
- Do not ignite the burners until water is flowing freely from the output fitting, and
- Do not stop the flow of water until the burners have been turned off and the water is cool to the touch.
This is why I was, and remain, a very strong fan of the Zodi products: they make very reliable (and very highly regarded!) products and their user's manuals are very clear and concise. If they made a 30K BTU version of the HotTap HP (I suggested they call it the "HotTap HP3"), I would not have found the L5.
As I have to import water from a distant town, it is imperative that I conserve water; I go through approximately 200 gallons per month, for all my water needs, including showering every day. Zodi's shower head uses one-half gallon of water per minute and is the lowest-flow shower head that I have ever found. One of my biggest concerns about the L5 is that the L5 provides such luxurious showers, I have difficulty turning it off and end up using more water than I normally would!
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For those of you who waded through this tome, blessings to you and to all your loved ones!
 Great Emergency Back-Up - Gets Hot FAST! September 5, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Living in an area prone to the occassional bad weather/loss of electricity prompted me to look into a reliable hot water alternative. Sometimes its the little things that matter - like the ability to take a hot shower after days of no hot water due to a hurricane. It makes a bad day little more bearable. Wasn't sure what to expect from this little unit but after nearly a 2 wk wait, opened the box, set it up in just minutes and instant hot water!
Connected a routine garden hose and water was instantly hot - the ability to set the temperature is conveniently located in the front and set on high it was uncomfortably hot so should do decently if your water source is colder than average. For relatively warm areas where the water remains a more or less temperate, this easily brings it to a temperature as hot as you would like...plus a little.
Very easy to set-up/take down. Unit is fairly heavy so will need solid support but overall, impressed by operation. Shower head is decent and output flow more than adequate. It won't take the place of your normal shower head but you won't feel like it takes forever to get wet either.
Unit specifies you will need teflon tape for securing seals so keep some handy. We used to begin with and unit operated perfectly - no leaks. Turns off immediately when water is shut down and turns on again quickly. Impressive little unit and exceptionally glad to have purchased. In fact, like it so much may permanently install one outside for dog washing and other quick clean-up. Waiting to see how this one endures over time...still too new to tell. Well worth the $.
This has made camping sooooo much better! August 2, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
We decided not to get an rv but to upgrade our camping gear. Our new shower with this heater is the BOMB! Getting clean with a hot shower within your campsite makes camping soooo much nicer. This unit is heavy and you have to make something sturdy to hang from, but its TOTALLY worth it!
Perfect outdoor shower July 5, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
We've been using this for an outdoor shower near the pool and it works perfectly. I was worried that the waterflow would be insufficient, but there is plenty of volume and plenty of heat. We run the heat at less than max since it gets the water very hot. The instant on feature as soon as water is flowing is great. We've been using it several times a day since April and it's still on the original tank of propane so they last a while. I permanently mounted it and built a metal shield over the top to prevent leaves and rain from getting in.
Better than a cold shower May 27, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I received my tankless water heater this morning. It was well-packed and the instructions are pretty good. I appreciated the "extras" that are usually "optional at additional cost," like the shower head, mounting hardware, and propane tank hookup.
But (there's always a "but!"), unless you have plumbing fittings handy, plan on a trip to the hardware store. The threads you must connect to are rough and not cut especially well, something that seems common on items from China, so you definitely need to have teflon tape or plumber's putty handy. On my unit, the hose connections to the shower head leak badly at both ends. Not that big a deal since it's intended as a shower, just an annoyance. And, the shower head male threads are a bit short, so one end of the hose would screw on far enough to not leak too badly, but the other end would spray water all over the place until I reversed the hose. Then it just leaked at the water output of the heater. The hose connection (another nice included item) didn't have a rubber gasket.
As far as heating water, it works pretty well. My input water is at about 50 degrees, and with the water flow turned all the way down and the gas flow all the way up, it got hot enough to be uncomfortable.
Until a slight wind blew out the flame. Be sure to plan to use this unit someplace very well protected from the wind. Even a slight breeze, about 10 MPH (guesstimate), will blow out the flame, give you a slug of cold water, and require you to turn the switch off and back on to relight the flame.
I haven't played with it enough to be sure, but my impression is that the unit won't hold a constant temperature of water output. I mention this because it may require you to use the unit in a place where you can actually reach the controls during use to adjust the temperature of your shower.
Even with the shortcomings, I recommend the unit as a camping or backup water heater. For the price, you can't go too far wrong. Just keep it within reach and out of the wind.
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