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Calfont


El Toro

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My mates very kindly gave me a calfont when I got married... Ive tried to convince the wife that it would serve a much better purpose to be on the side of the house, alas to no avail, something about babys needing hot water..so, Im looking at putting it on The Good Ship, but I'm barryatling to find a suitible place.

I need a second opinion and probably someone to install it for to be compliant with the gas piping and stuff, can anyone help me here or point me in the right direction.. the bloody thing just simply doesnt fit anywhere that I can find, bar one place, but I'm not sure if it would be compliant.

 

help? where does everyone else put them?

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Hi Pork Chop, I moved mine from a bulkhead in the head to a new position - bulkhead mount by the companion way on my Beale 37 ( ex "Dreams", now "Entropy").

 

It was better ventilated there, I could see it and note if the flame went out with gas running. Note that this shouldn't happen with an inbuilt gas cut out switch, but after having a few people in my ICU post gas explosions, having it a long way from the cockpit mounted shower always worried me.

I also ran 2 separate gas lines from the bottle to the stove and califont. when I bought her, she had a "T" under the sink..... (single line from bottle to a T and from there off to stove and califont.) I decided to check my installation after I looked after a guy who had a gas explosion on his boat in Opua, I then changed my set up.

I found that the "T" was plastic and broke in half when I lifted the lines!!

I was very happy with my new set up, however I am a Doc not a gas fitter so am not an expert by any means. Someone better qualified than me is probably better to advise

I hope this helps?

Cheers

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don't know if it is legal to do your self but you can by the copper lines and the jointers for not much more then the rubber hose and it will last much longer and it is just about idiot proof :thumbup:

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Thanks Dr Dave for the info..

 

After several opinions it was decided that there was no way to do it legally with a califont, so Ive elected to go with a 22l hot water cylinder...(dont tell the race crew!)

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Hi Pork Chop ,Happy to help, but that is 22kg + wt of cylinder to carry around... is there a legal requirement re califonts now? I wasnt aware of one , but installed mine some years ago

I really like them if installed safely as lighter than a cylinder, dont require motor to be run and instant hot water

Cheers

Dr Dave

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Luckily only when full!

Yes seems that they all need to be vented now and must be not in your living area but in a seperate area that is approx 4m2.. or something like that.

Is not retrospective, but since I want cat1 potential, there was little point just whacking it in illegally.

 

Yes, it is not instant hot water which is a pain, and I have to run the engine for hot water, and it will now fight the fridge for some juice... I have no idea exactly how this is all going to work and how long the water will stay warm, or how long it will take to get hot.

 

Overall, its not the solution I wanted, but was the only one available to me (Legally) due to some pimple headed sh*t for brains osh muppet, living in Wellington deciding that a carravan blowing up twenty years ago, means califonts are the devils spawn.

 

Personally Id rather they ban doof doof music instead but there ya go....

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I had a 50L hot water cylinder on the last boat... 1/2 an hour of motoring would give us hot water for a day. The weight was a bit of a pain but it did have one unexpected benefit... we lost the raw water impeller on the way into the marina once and the extra heat capacity of the system gave us enough motoring time to get back in the berth with the engine only getting up to about 10degrees hotter than normal. Probably could have gone for even longer if we left the hot tap on!

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I had a 50L hot water cylinder on the last boat... 1/2 an hour of motoring would give us hot water for a day. The weight was a bit of a pain but it did have one unexpected benefit... we lost the raw water impeller on the way into the marina once and the extra heat capacity of the system gave us enough motoring time to get back in the berth with the engine only getting up to about 10degrees hotter than normal. Probably could have gone for even longer if we left the hot tap on!

Haha. Bonus! That's actually quite impressive. A day's hot water from 1/2 hr motoring...

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Dont know how many litres but 1/2 hour motoring would give us a days hot water 1hr would give us 4 showers and still pleanty of water to do the dishers and clean up. or if we are careful we can get 3 days (water is warm enough for dishes)

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Dont know how many litres but 1/2 hour motoring would give us a days hot water 1hr would give us 4 showers and still pleanty of water to do the dishers and clean up. or if we are careful we can get 3 days (water is warm enough for dishes)

 

Mine is the same, 60 ltr hot water tank under the chard table. It will get to 86*C if motoring for more than an hour. Several days of hot to warm water. In fact its to hot to start with.

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Depends on how hot you want your shower and how cold the ambient temp of the cold is.

Crusiers on limited water crossing a big expanse often have a rule of...get wet and turn off water, lather up, then turn on water and rinse.

Some showers will use a total of about 6ltrs of water. Ours is a major water blaster and I just love it.But dang it's hard on the water supply.

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I was talking more along the line of: a household H/W cylinder is at 65*C and and the diesel engine thermostat is at 86*C causing our marine H/W cylinders to be substantially hotter. This requires less H/W and more Cold Water to have a 30*C shower.

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