Living off-grid in a tiny house has been challenging. The biggest challenge for us has been water. You need it for drinking, cooking, bathing, etc. And you don’t realize how much water you use until you handle every gallon! If you have a water well, the water has to be pumped up to the surface, filtered, stored, distributed, and sometimes heated. Pumping the water to the surface and storing it was easy. Filtering, distributing and heating was the challenge for me.
Within our “water challenge” was the biggest challenge of all. Showering! It’s not too hard to filter, distribute and heat small amounts of water for everyday tasks like drinking and cooking. However, showering is a different story! Our well wasn’t on a pressurized system and therefore couldn’t be restricted. I first had to build a mobile, pressurized, filtration system that could hold enough water for two showers without refilling. I then had to find a water heater that was portable, light weight, used propane and that had its own temperature and water flow control. Lastly, I had to build an outdoor shower which I wrote about previously. I will cover the pressurized filtration system at a later date. For now, lets take a look at the water heater.
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After doing some research, we settled on a Camp Chef Triton 5L Water Heater. It had good reviews and looked as if it met all of our requirements.
Learning curve
If you’ve never owned a tankless water heater then you will have a bit of a learning curve. We had a Rinnai tankless water heater in our previous house and it took some getting used to.
First of all, a tankless water heater has no tank! It sits quietly consuming basically no energy of any kind when it’s not being used. When someone opens a water faucet requiring hot water, the heater senses the demand by water flowing through itself and instantly ignites the propane/natural gas burners and starts heating water. It will heat water as long as you have adequate propane and adequate water pressure. You can take a shower for 8 hours if you have enough of both! When the hot water side of the faucet is closed (no hot water demand), the water heater shuts off. There is no water tank that gets continually heated and therefore no electricity or gas being consumed. Upon startup, the only noise that you hear is the initial clicking of the ignitor, the burners firing and water flowing through the heater. Overall, it’s pretty quiet.
Energy sources
The Triton spark ignitor uses 2 D batteries.
A standard 20 lb. propane tank is all that’s needed for the fuel supply and the propane connection hose with regulator comes provided.
Shower head settings
The included shower head has 4 settings (off, mist, shower, jet)
Mist
Shower
Jet
Portability
The Triton is pretty light weight, coming in around 15 lbs. or so.
Water requirements
Like all propane/natural gas tankless water heaters, it has a minimum water supply pressure requirement in order for the burners to ignite. With the Triton, that pressure is 25-30 psi. Nearly all water wells that are on a pressure tank will easily meet this minimum requirement. A gravity fed system may need a water pump to increase the pressure. Let me be clear, there is no water pump within this heater. Therefore, pressurized water must be supplied externally. Camp Chef provides a fitting so it’s simple to attach a standard garden hose.
Water temperature and pressure controls
The temperature control and water pressure control are on the front of the Triton. Like all tankless gas water heaters, low water pressure and water saver heads make fine tuning water temperature difficult at best and impossible at worst. On both our Rinnai and Triton, the higher the pressure the better the fine tuning of the water temperature. Lower water pressure is your enemy if you want that temperature “just right.”
Water temperature will also depend on incoming water temperature, outside air temperature and propane tank pressure. If your 20 lb. propane tank only has 10%-20% of propane left then you may notice cooler water temps. This will be even more noticeable with colder outside air temperatures. Because this is our sole means of showering, I keep a full spare propane tank nearby.
Be advised, the Triton has the ability of heating water hot enough to burn you! Always allow the water to run for at least 5-10 seconds before cautiously testing the water with your hand. Below are some pictures I took with the water at its maximum temperature on an 85 degree F day.
A digital thermometer showing a water temperature of 153.8 degrees F.
Thermal picture showing a water temperature of 151 degrees F.
Thermal picture of the shower head with a temperature of 122 degrees F.
Freeze protection
The Triton will need protection from freezing. It has a drain port on the bottom. We always put ours inside when the temps are lower than 40 degrees F. If you have to leave it outside with freezing temps, turn the water supply off, remove the shower head and hose, open the drain and use low pressure air to blow through the heater to remove as much water as possible.
Prohibited use locations
This water heater should never be used in an enclosed structure! Never! The combustion process of propane produces carbon monoxide which can kill you! The flue gas vents from the top of the heater. Carbon monoxide is basically the same weight as air. The hot flue gases will rapidly mix with the cooler surrounding air and begin to fill the structure. As this happens, the available amount of clean combustion air gets reduced and the heater will begin to produce carbon monoxide at a greater rate. Below is a picture of the carbon monoxide reading of our heater operating outside. (Note: It produces a bit less carbon monoxide than my truck exhaust!)
Also be aware that the Triton can get pretty hot on the front and exceptionally hot on top. Keep children, pets, combustible materials and flammable liquids away from the heater. Below are some pictures that prove my point.
Digital thermometer reading of flue gas temperature (423.3 degrees F).
Thermal picture of the top vent with a temperature of 386 degrees F.
Thermal picture of the front of the heater with a temperature of 251 degrees F.
Additionally, the Triton needs sheltering from the elements. Wind breaks are necessary when used in windy conditions. Nothing like getting a head full of shampoo only to have the wind blow the burner out!
Also, it should always maintain a vertical position. Never lay it down when in operation!
A few side notes
If you have any trouble with the heater, change the batteries, check your propane tank capacity (be sure it’s turned on too) and back flush the water heater. The Triton will not attempt to light unless there is water going through it! To back flush it, turn the propane off and simply attach the water supply to the outlet side of the heater. Turn on the water and allow the water to run backwards through the heater for several minutes. Attach everything back and retry it. If that doesn’t work, call the Camp Chef technical support line. Occasional back flushing is needed depending on water quality. The water supply inlet comes with a debris screen but very small debris can get past it. This water heater is sensitive to debris once it gets past the screen.
The Triton works great for bathing pets, showering off after working in the garden, camping or for regular showering like we use it.
Do you have a Triton? What is your experience? Let us know.
Ambitious Feller
“If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!” Red Green
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