Hit water in caravan
Discussion
Hi all,
We bought our first caravan in February this year and have had some great trips away already. I feel like I’m getting to grips with most things but one thing that’s still an issue is hot water.
I tend to get a shower using the site facilities whilst my wife has been using a combination of on-site and the caravan shower on a 50:50 basis so far. We’ve found that if my wife makes her shower a quick one there’s enough hot water - so far so good.
For our 18 month old we’ve been putting a plug in the bottom of the shower and have been filling the shower-tray so she can have a bath. The lip is quite deep so we could get a good 6” of water in there which will suffice. The problem is there is never enough hot water. It starts hot but eventually runs cold. We’ve taken to topping up with kettle but it’s far from ideal.
Is this normal? I didn’t think there was a hot water tank that could run empty. I assumed the water was heated on demand therefore if there’s enough in the water butt we would have essentially unlimited hot water.
Sorry if this sounds stupid. We are still relatively new to this.
For reference we have a 2016 Sterling Eccles 640.
Thanks in advance.
Rob
We bought our first caravan in February this year and have had some great trips away already. I feel like I’m getting to grips with most things but one thing that’s still an issue is hot water.
I tend to get a shower using the site facilities whilst my wife has been using a combination of on-site and the caravan shower on a 50:50 basis so far. We’ve found that if my wife makes her shower a quick one there’s enough hot water - so far so good.
For our 18 month old we’ve been putting a plug in the bottom of the shower and have been filling the shower-tray so she can have a bath. The lip is quite deep so we could get a good 6” of water in there which will suffice. The problem is there is never enough hot water. It starts hot but eventually runs cold. We’ve taken to topping up with kettle but it’s far from ideal.
Is this normal? I didn’t think there was a hot water tank that could run empty. I assumed the water was heated on demand therefore if there’s enough in the water butt we would have essentially unlimited hot water.
Sorry if this sounds stupid. We are still relatively new to this.
For reference we have a 2016 Sterling Eccles 640.
Thanks in advance.
Rob
The hot water system in caravans is meant for washing up and quick showers only, running a "bath" even a small one isn't going to happen.
From https://www.alde.se/uk/support/faq/
How much hot water is available?
The Alde Compact 3000/3010 has a water heater with a volume of approx. 8.5 litres of hot water at >50 °C. When the hot water is mixed with cold water (approx. 10 °C) to normal usage temperature (approx. 38 °C), this gives you around 12 litres of hot water every 30 minutes. The colder the water, the longer it takes to heat up. If a 230 V immersion heater is used to heat the heater instead of, this reduces the capacity slightly.
The "extra hot water" functions on the digital control panel for the Compact 3010 increases the water temperature to > 65 °C for 30 minutes. This means ? 15 litres of heated water, mixed and ready to use.
From https://www.alde.se/uk/support/faq/
How much hot water is available?
The Alde Compact 3000/3010 has a water heater with a volume of approx. 8.5 litres of hot water at >50 °C. When the hot water is mixed with cold water (approx. 10 °C) to normal usage temperature (approx. 38 °C), this gives you around 12 litres of hot water every 30 minutes. The colder the water, the longer it takes to heat up. If a 230 V immersion heater is used to heat the heater instead of, this reduces the capacity slightly.
The "extra hot water" functions on the digital control panel for the Compact 3010 increases the water temperature to > 65 °C for 30 minutes. This means ? 15 litres of heated water, mixed and ready to use.
Sounds about right. I'm not sure about some of the more modern systems but it's unlikely that any are on-demand.
Ours has a Truma water heater that works off either gas or electric and has a 10L capacity. It's enough for me to get in the shower, get wet all over, turn it off, use shampoo and soap, turn it back on again and rinse off. I doesn't generally go cold during that process, the wife has said it's a bit of a struggle if she wants to wash her hair. It's fine for us though if we have chosen to be on a site with minimum facilities. We had a week on a CL in the New Forest last year with just hook up, managed for all four of us. The kids we can shower off quicker than us.
Ours has a Truma water heater that works off either gas or electric and has a 10L capacity. It's enough for me to get in the shower, get wet all over, turn it off, use shampoo and soap, turn it back on again and rinse off. I doesn't generally go cold during that process, the wife has said it's a bit of a struggle if she wants to wash her hair. It's fine for us though if we have chosen to be on a site with minimum facilities. We had a week on a CL in the New Forest last year with just hook up, managed for all four of us. The kids we can shower off quicker than us.
Thank you everyone, especially JFDI- great post that.
Any suggestions what we can do with the little un then? We have bathed her in the kitchen sink a couple of times. Strangely enough she loves it but it does get a bit messy haha.
Not the end of the world as we’ve managed fine so far.
Any suggestions what we can do with the little un then? We have bathed her in the kitchen sink a couple of times. Strangely enough she loves it but it does get a bit messy haha.
Not the end of the world as we’ve managed fine so far.
I think the previous posters have answered the question re: hot water tank.
I would suggest though that a lot of Club sites have Family rooms where it's possible to bathe children. They take the form of big, deep sinks, but I remember bathing my little one (when she was that age) in a few.
I would suggest though that a lot of Club sites have Family rooms where it's possible to bathe children. They take the form of big, deep sinks, but I remember bathing my little one (when she was that age) in a few.
My wife and I have the typical 10L of hot water, we both manage to have a shower and still have hot water left. Get wet, shower off, soap up, rinse.
We also have the hot water temp very hot so that we use more cold water than hot water, also means new cold water into the tank is warmed up to a more reasonable temperature.
We also have the hot water temp very hot so that we use more cold water than hot water, also means new cold water into the tank is warmed up to a more reasonable temperature.
Showering in a motorhome or Caravan will never be pleasurable like at home. Its designed so that you can wet yourself with warm water. Shut of the tap. soap yourself up and then rinse yourself off using the minimum amount of water possible. It works but I always have in the back of my mind that I will eventually have to refill the water and empty the waste so keep them down to a minimum.
I've never had an issue showering in a caravan, in our last 3 caravans both the missus and myself could easily grab a shower each without exhausting the hot water, we would nearly always be heating with the gas but if you're on hookup most systems allow you to use both gas and electric for a quivker heat up and recovery time.
We now have a campervan with hot water heated by diesel, pretty much instant compared to the caravan and will supply 60c hot water continuously until our 60L tank is empty.
We now have a campervan with hot water heated by diesel, pretty much instant compared to the caravan and will supply 60c hot water continuously until our 60L tank is empty.
JapanRed said:
Any suggestions what we can do with the little un then? We have bathed her in the kitchen sink a couple of times. Strangely enough she loves it but it does get a bit messy haha.
try searching for a blow up baby bath on amazon, they are superb and well worth the £10 quid. we used one many times for a static caravan holiday but would work equally as well in a tourer, in a static we used it in the lounge and kitchen, works great.linky:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intime-Inflatable-Childre...
rgv250ads said:
JapanRed said:
Any suggestions what we can do with the little un then? We have bathed her in the kitchen sink a couple of times. Strangely enough she loves it but it does get a bit messy haha.
try searching for a blow up baby bath on amazon, they are superb and well worth the £10 quid. we used one many times for a static caravan holiday but would work equally as well in a tourer, in a static we used it in the lounge and kitchen, works great.linky:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intime-Inflatable-Childre...
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