Backpacking season is just about upon us, after all! This thing needs to get done so I can give my attention to more important matters ;)
This week I knocked out some plumbing. I've spent a small fortune on brass fittings, but it's just about done. Bathroom sink is in (temporarily since I haven't put up the wall panels yet). And the hot water heater is installed. I went with Eccotemp FVI-12-LP - which, really, was the only game in town I could find that wasn't $1k or more. For $250 it's worth a shot. There are plenty of relatively cheap natural gas on-demand water heaters out there, but few propane ones.
I was a little dubious about the water-heater, as it has some mixed reviews. But for items like this, I take them with a grain of salt. There are a lot of variables to getting one of these dialed in correctly, and I think people make mistakes or don't account for everything sometimes - then blame it on the machine. Anyway, it seems to be working fine so far! Some of the reviews do talk about premature failures and leaks - but again, it can be difficult to discern the truth of these situations. It is the internet after all...
The Eccotemp is in indoor unit, so the exhaust needs to be vented outside. You also need to keep it from freezing (important!!). The utility closet will be fully insulated when it's done - you can see one panel of R13 Thermasheath in the above picture. It's electronically lit, so no need to have a pilot light burning. Getting the pressure right is the key thing to these. It will only turn on when it senses adequate flow.
The first time I fired up the pump and opened the sink faucet, I found I had to turn it most of the way hot before the heater came on - and man was it HOT. I immediately turned the thermostat all the way down. Wondering why it was taking so long to kick on, I quickly discovered I was losing pressure due to the water tank. The pump was sucking water incredibly fast (the Shurflo is a beast) - creating a vacuum. The water collectors (gutters) had some water still in them, and it wasn't draining fast enough through the filters.
Just realized I forgot to get a picture of the water collection system! But basically I used Camco water hose filters, along with a couple of these bulkhead fittings directly attached to the gutter, which attach with some hose and drain directly into the water tank (the one I have is a 27 gallon, but there are a variety on Amazon). Super simple, and works very well. I have gutter guards which keep most of the crud out, but the filters have a small stainless steel screen on the inlet side which has to be cleaned out occasionally.
To solve the vacuum problem I just added an air relief valve. It lets air in, but doesn't let water out of the tank. It's all working much better, but I have yet to test it with a fully - still have to complete the hookups to the shower and kitchen sink, but that shouldn't be long. Also pictured above is an Accumulator Tank - a 4 gallon version. Almost certainly overkill for this application, but that's how I roll. Accumulator tanks store pressurized water which reduces pump cycling. That way you don't hear it clanging away whenever you open a tap, and it generally just makes everything buttery smooth. This too, will need a bit of adjustment once the other fixtures are in.
In other plumbing, I ran the gas lines for the furnace and stove/oven as well. I had originally planned to just go with the Camp Chef, which gets rave reviews and certainly would have been adequate. But when I found a 20" range full size with four burners, decided to spend the extra money on that instead.
I think that's about it for this update. Sorry for the over-abundance of text and dearth of pics! The utility closet is getting quite crowded:
I still need to get batteries in there somehow, a charge controller, and inverter. The battery in the pic is just a small one from a lawnmower I was using to test the pump while I hunted for a 12v adapter (which incidentally was not easy to locate - I'll save you the heartache associated with buying crappy China made ones. This one works like a champ.) Anyway, getting the real batteries in there is going to be a challenge - I'd rather not have them in the living space. I might end up moving the propane tanks up on a shelf...I'll see what crazy scheme pops into my head when I get to that.
