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

You can have the output from the heat exchanger go to the place your storing your hot water tank so it keeps the water warmer for longer and helps heat it faster 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

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 👍

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.

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

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.

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

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 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!

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

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

We once had a chat about using CDH exhaust to heat hot water and as it turns out, there are heat exchangers that do this on the market. This looks like it has legs, but needs some work. Many would have to completely reconfigure their heater system. As I said before, the Truma units are just too big for a one unit instalation. One look and they were off my options. Truma are okay for coachbuilts. I think there's massive potential to build a compact heater and hot water system which is plug, play & forget, & most importantly, designed to fit in a typical van conversion. As to September plans, probably back in lockdown after new super deadly varient release. 👍

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 🤣🤣 👍

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

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!

I’m thinking if you wanted you could use this system to hook pex tubing that you embedded in the floor and place antifreeze in the tank. You would then use the system only for heating the floor in a camper van.

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

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.

10:26 you can redirect the exchager outlet to other pipe that it wilo still go to inside to cabin etc. Just use T joint there. You will use flap to reroute air to heatexchanger first and use still heat the cabin

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!

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…

Can you buy them from China?

Sorry mate,I was thinking of a 40 ltr internal tank which is well insulated.Thanks for the share mate.❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙

Great video, but it would have been nice to know where to get this kit with a link to the store that sell it.

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.

Nice one Hugh. Really valuable review. Stay safe mate. Thank you. 😊👍

You can buy a kettle for £10.

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

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

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

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

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.

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!

Hi Do you need some great lighting for your car to help you better driving, off-road. We're the pro auto lighting manufacturer for nearly 20 year and we're looking for sponsorship!

Is this available in the USA..??

Well... It's been awhile Hugh... 😄 Looks like you've had some fun! Looks like I've got rather a lot of videos to catch up on... 😆 🦇

This is so well done. Great job Bobil Vans!

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

That's a nice bit of kit. Thanks for sharing.

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.

Can they ship to US?

Thanks Hugh. Really interesting 👍

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

Brilliant idea. Thanks 😊

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

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

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

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 .

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

sounds great, thank you..

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

was you at hereford rowing club?

Hi Hugh,do you think it would work if you used a larger water tank.

Great info Thx

nice one great idea

Crackin item 👍

Would this system work with a recirculating shower?

Looks complicated and messy

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

Where are you 2months since last vid ridiculous

Love this system!

Second!

First Looks a good bit of kit mate

any links were to buy

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.

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

Just boil a kettle ffs 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😋