120V Marine 5 gallon Water Heater

[Eric von Kleist]

I have a Raritan 120V Marine 5 gallon water heater for sale. My dad got it about 6 or 7 years ago to put in a boat, but then his cancer came back and he was grounded (literally -- as in "ashes to ashes, dust to dust"), so it never got used. I have lugged it around, planning on using it "someday", but never have managed to find a use for it. I looked them up a while back, and brand new ones are about $500. I'd be willing to sell this one for $200 and split the shipping with the buyer.

It is for use on "shore power" (120VAC) only, so it may only have limited use for bus converters.

If anyone is interested, contact me and I can provide the model information and more details.

[Les Lampman]

Hi Eric,

Many (most) of the Marine water heaters are built with heat exchangers to heat the water from engine waste heat via coolant in addition to their 120-volt elements. If that's the case there will be a couple of extra threaded holes in the tank (besides water inlet and outlet).

The Raritan models I'm familiar with came in 6, 12 and 20-gallon versions; they're glass-lined units and quite good.

[Eric von Kleist]

Hey, Les!

I'll have to take a look at it. It may be a 6 gallon unit. It's definitely not any bigger than that.

[Eric von Kleist]

The water heater does indeed have four inlet/outlet ports. I reckon two are for hot water, and the other two are for circulating engine water.

Come to think of it, this might actually work pretty well in a bus. If you used the plumbing from the rear heaters to circulate hot engine water through the water heater, then you wouldn't have to use the AC. Do you think that would work?

Maybe I won't get rid of it.

[Les Lampman]

Originally Posted by Eric von Kleist

The water heater does indeed have four inlet/outlet ports. I reckon two are for hot water, and the other two are for circulating engine water.

Come to think of it, this might actually work pretty well in a bus. If you used the plumbing from the rear heaters to circulate hot engine water through the water heater, then you wouldn't have to use the AC. Do you think that would work?

Maybe I won't get rid of it.

Hi Eric,

In short...yes.

You might still want to hook up the AC for those times when hot water is desired but the engine isn't running (and therefore not producing hot coolant); of course, you'd have to be plugged into shorepower.