Cheap Hot Water For Camper Vans/Motorhomes - Bobil Vans Diesel Water Heater System

It needs to heat a pressurised tank so it can be pumped and used under pressure...

Something to keep in mind: 40°C won't kill a lot of dangerous bacteria. You'll want to make sure you drain and clean the system regularly.

If you were to pressure rise your main water tank with air you could have a water system like your house where the cold water would fill up the hot water tank through the bottom or go to the cold side of your faucet at the sink or the shower

any links were to buy

Could someone pls help with a link to the product? Or a name 🙂

Ok. I love this but I'm gonna just try putting my Kelly Kettle around the exhaust pipe and see what that does first.

This is so well done. Great job Bobil Vans!

Can they ship to US?

Love this system!

A second three way on the exit from the hw heater would complete the install. Then one could choose to either expel to outside or inside the van for summer winter use.

Would be neat if it had a little wifi servo controller w/ temp &humidity sensor(ESP32?), and RC car servo for the diverter, that way can monitor tank temp, room temp, and ambient temp

If the exhaust air from the heat exchanger pipe went back to the intake side of the diesel heater it capture the heat left over…

Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the hot inlet below the cold? Heat rises and if your adding hot to the top of the tank, as it’s less dense it’ll sit on top of the cold water, leading the a temperature gradient within the tank. If you do it the other way around, the hot water will rise through the cold, to even out the temp in the tank. It’s the same as in a house hot water tank. The hot inlet is usually towards the lower part of the tank.

Also as others have stated, The legionnaire's disease bacteria breeds at the sorts of temperatures you spoke of so it would be best to use this as a secondary heating source and get the storage tank up to at least 60° because at that temp the bacteria will die off in as little as 2 mins. At 70° they die off immediately. The thought of loads of people using this system for showering concerns me as aerosolised contaminated water is the most effective way to get the bug deep into your lungs.

Not the best idea and not what I call cheap either ! 40-50 degrees is bacteria breeding temp if you do it you’d need to be extremely careful or it could make you very sick indeed

I paired a 90mm kit (which is basically 2 of the large heat exchangers) with the Planar 4kw heater. The main difference with my installation was that I did away with the hideous 1970's car choke cable and I move the diverter with a 50mm linear actuator via a rocker switch. I also have my main water tank gravity feed into the warming tank, controlled by a normally closed solenoid valve and float switch.

You simply turn on the heater, make sure the actuator rocker switch is in the direction of hot water. Press the next switch to open the normally closed solenoid valve for a few seconds to fill your warming tank, it automatically stops when nearly full. Lastly the third switch to turn the bobil system on and off.

What about system of toile tank that soon as the level is Dow full this one up will not work

Would this system work with a recirculating shower?

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Very interesting, will have a think about how I would integrate it with my 12v water heater system.

Huge question on your simple 12v system ,,did you wire in your charge controller to the fuse board or did you go direct to the battery and is it ok to wire the 20amp controller into the fuse board ,cheers great vids by the way

Where are you 2months since last vid ridiculous

This video would be so great in English. I wonder if anybody could translate it for us here in Canada.

Wish I'd seen this before committing to my heater placement. Very clever

I like. Could it be converted to Instantaneous so no tank? That would impress even more.

Anyone using this needs to be aware that although 35-40 is indeed a nice shower temperature, it’s also perfect for breeding legionella bacteria. The tank would need to be heated to 60+ degrees on a regular basis, or emptied and dried out each use for it to be safe. Much better to heat a smaller amount of water to 65-70 degrees and mix with cold to get the temperature you want 👍

You can buy a kettle for £10.

Hugh, Thanks so much for putting a link to my channel, its only small, but i'll be adding more van build content soon, thanks again.

I finally put mine through its paces in the real world last week, I have an 18ltr tank, enough for 2 quick showers. The water heats really quickly at full blast... like 15min gets it to 35 degrees which we found a nice temperature to warm up after the cold sea. Next time, I'll leave the heater on middle of the road for an hour and arrive back to a warm van and a hot shower! Cushty!

Great to see you back. Bought mine a while ago. Should be fitting it all in the next week or so

It turned the water pump off but did it turn the diesel heater off you would need it to turn the diesel heater off.

Looks complicated and messy

Just in the process of installing one myself and If you wanted an automatic ‘push to fill’ option, you could use a solenoid and a level detector with a
relay which is explained on Bobil page .

Just boil a kettle ffs 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😋

Great idea and works a treat. However for my next build I'm going to source the parts myself minus the 3d cowling and save a third.

Brilliant idea. Thanks 😊

The bobil systems are great. I hooked mine up to a fully insulated electric heater. With an added pressure relief valve and upgraded pump it runs at the water system pressure, so doesn't need manually filling. Definitely against the bobil recommend setup but it's not exploded yet 🤞🤣 plus electric heating option too 🤘
Keep the great channel going!

That is a fantastic piece of kit. I will seriously think how I can best integrate it for my use.

sounds great, thank you..

I have a 1992 toyota townace with the water heated from exhaust as well as the little diesel heater, for ages I thought i,d left the heater on when I got home and emptied a tank of hot water , Duhh!

Crackin item 👍

Can you buy them from China?

I've just fitted the same to my ambulance conversion 👍 i like it, but then i like the whole DIY thing, i already had a really good diesel heater fitted but space constraints meant i needed a small quirky water heater and the bobil system was just the ticket 😎
If pushed to find an issue it would be the pump, it's a bit on the cheap side so i may upgrade later to a bigger better tropical fishh tank item but as i say that's really nit picking and looking for something to find wrong 🤔 .
Enjoyed the vid as usuall buy as I fitted mine 3 days ago it was a bit late 🤣🤣 👍

great product, truma actually make a small water hearer which utilises the feat from the diesel heater ducting. It has a much smaller capacity but also incorporates a heater element which is used when the diesel heater is not on. I have one fitted in my transit custom and it works really well.

I think these things are awesome! Great video! Could probably as you say do a little less user input but then again mostly self builders would by these!

Is this available in the USA..??

Anyone using a calorifier heater in their van...?? Use them on boats as standard..

I saw this kit on the Mispronounced Adventures channel and he did a great in depth walkthrough of the system. Great bit of kit at an affordable price.

Thanks for the review , confirm i won't bother il stick to boiling my water up

Great overview Hugh, thanks for showing everyone our bit of kit-we are certainly trying to keep the big boys on their toes :)

hasnt been that long , last time you was in them dinosaur undies