Hot water tempering valve

[Woodsea]

I replaced the oem hw heater with another Seaward about 7 years ago. It is not adjustable and heated water to 160-180° scalding hot. I installed a hot water tempering valve to reduce the water temperature to a more realistic 120° a week ago. Wow! What a difference. Gone is the hair pin trigger of getting the right water temp. Now shower and dish water temperature is much more consistent. I wish I would have done it 9 years ago! Valve was about $65 off Amazon. Misc parts about $30. Pex tubing cutter because I took the took the other ones home was another. $20. Simple job. The pic does not show it but I used plumbers strap screwed into the beam above to support the valve.

[VB4LIFE]

Do you have the part number for the valve on Amazon? I installed a new water heater last year and agree the scalding temp is a real pain to dial in.

[Sunnydude]

We had one on last boat and installed one last year on the new one. It has a great affect on usable hot water when people are showering. We have gone three showers before all the hot water is gone.

[ksanders]

I love it, great idea!!!

[MacPhid]

I've got the tempering valve, just need to install
Saves hot water, but more importantly way safer.

James

[Destiny_4588]

Any effect on flow (ie pressure of volume of water)?

[Woodsea]

Here is the link to what I bought. https://www.ebay.com/itm/153656306972

I cannot detect any difference in water pressure. Useable pressure might actually be better because I can open the HW at faucets up more without fear of scalding.

[Cool Change 4788]

Absolutely a great mod! I have been wanting to do the same. With this installed it opens a whole new plan for me. Since I installed solar I don’t really need to run my genny but for about 30 minutes a day. (Cooking) That is not long enough to keep hot water so I want to tee into the port. Engines water heat exchanger line and plumb it to the genny cooling system with a couple valves. I think this would allow heating the water in a few minutes instead of a hour plus. Anybody tried that approach?

[kwb]

Don't mess with the genset cooling system.

Not sure how you are sustaining batteries with only an hour a day of charging.

Asides I know that I can get a warm shower 12 hrs after the genset last ran.

[Cool Change 4788]

Don't mess with the genset cooling system.

Not sure how you are sustaining batteries with only an hour a day of charging.

Asides I know that I can get a warm shower 12 hrs after the genset last ran.

My boat is not a big consumer, I run 2 refers, inverter as needed to watch TV (rare on the hook) and some LED lights. The solar keeps the batteries charging and runs the loads all day long in the spring-fall season. Winter time is a bit different for sure. Last week with 4 nights on a can, the batteries were full charged by late afternoon and that was in mostly overcast skies. I do agree that the water heater keeps the water warm a long time and it is fine for just me, maybe the admiral too but after a couple showers, dishes etc the temp has dropped a lot in the tank. Just seems like since the gen set gets up to temp very fast, it would be a easy and quick way to replenish the HW tank.

[kwb]

Impressive results on the solar.

My day job involves me in cooling system designs quite regularly - the theory of taking some waste heat to the water heater makes sense. Practical execution of getting the system right isn't as simple as just grabbing a couple of unused ports on the block or going in line with the main Heat Exchanger.

I haven't timed it but it doesn't take too long for my water heater to get water hot after being depleted. Even if you could do it for a $100 that is probably ~40hrs of generator time and doubling the time you already run.... that would be 80 days on the hook to pay back.

The best thing you can do to extend the life of a generator is to run the generator regularly.

[Cool Change 4788]

Point taken! I do like to run the genny…