[james stanley]

I was thinking about re circulating hot water through the reel and back into the tank to warm my 650 ltr tank before work ... I have the cor woods non 20 minute cut out heater and I was just wondering if any of you guys recirculate your water at all before leaving work ?

[Spruce]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

[Julian taylor]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

[Julian taylor]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

link=topic=200016.msg1753357#msg1753357 date=1450295591]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

[/quote]

I was thinking about re circulating hot water through the reel and back into the tank to warm my 650 ltr tank before work ... I have the cor woods non 20 minute cut out heater and I was just wondering if any of you guys recirculate your water at all before leaving work ?

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

why not buy a hot water system and stop being tight . We hate it  when custys penny pinch but think nothing of doing it ourselves .  You have to speculate to accumulate 😇

[Spruce]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

link=topic=200016.msg1753357#msg1753357 date=1450295591]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

I was thinking about re circulating hot water through the reel and back into the tank to warm my 650 ltr tank before work ... I have the cor woods non 20 minute cut out heater and I was just wondering if any of you guys recirculate your water at all before leaving work ?

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

why not buy a hot water system and stop being tight . We hate it  when custys penny pinch but think nothing of doing it ourselves .  You have to speculate to accumulate 😇

I haven't a clue what Julian is on about tbh. 

If the OP has a gas heater, surely the best and most economical way of heating water is as he is using it - on demand. That's what nearly all hot water users do.

If the OP has a full 650 liter tank, it will take a 5 lpm pump 130minutes to turn the water over once, that's over 2 hours. Now he is pushing that water through his hose reel. That will reduce the output of his pump as most of us use either minibore or microbore hose.

How much energy will he take out of his battery doing this? Running flat out, our Shurflo pump uses just over 2 amps pushing water through a 3 meter length of 1/2" hose. Restrict that and the amperage drawn by the pump increases.

Lets go on;  we have run our pump for 2 hours and raised the water temperature in the tank by say 20 degrees - the water in the tank would be around 30 degrees. Hot water rises to the top in a tank, so whilst the water at the top is warm, the water at the bottom where the outlet is is cooler - heat rises.
So during the day the OP will be taking colder water from the bottom whilst the water at the top is warmer. During a cold day most of this heat will be lost.

Another question is; how much gas will his heater draw everyday doing this?

why not buy a hot water system and stop being tight . We hate it  when custys penny pinch but think nothing of doing it ourselves .

I have no idea what or who that comment is directed to.

If it's me then I already have a 2 man fully operational  Heatwave Thermo 2 diesel heater in my garage that I'm in the process of modifying (when I find the energy and motivation to continue with it.)
I also have a test bench 5kw diesel heater that I tested a couple of years ago and found it totally inadequate to do the job. If I could attach a photo of it I would.
I recon I have about £1250 invested into this test bench alone; 2 Webasto Thermo Top C heaters, wiring loom, digital controller and numerous water to water plate heat exchangers.

[Plankton]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

link=topic=200016.msg1753357#msg1753357 date=1450295591]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

I was thinking about re circulating hot water through the reel and back into the tank to warm my 650 ltr tank before work ... I have the cor woods non 20 minute cut out heater and I was just wondering if any of you guys recirculate your water at all before leaving work ?

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

why not buy a hot water system and stop being tight . We hate it  when custys penny pinch but think nothing of doing it ourselves .  You have to speculate to accumulate 😇

I have a Bosch condensing boiler which is meant to be more efficient and greener but it doesn't like it when the temperature drops below freezing! It's also stuck to the gable end of the house!

[Spruce]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

link=topic=200016.msg1753357#msg1753357 date=1450295591]

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

I was thinking about re circulating hot water through the reel and back into the tank to warm my 650 ltr tank before work ... I have the cor woods non 20 minute cut out heater and I was just wondering if any of you guys recirculate your water at all before leaving work ?

I can't think of a good reason why you would do that. 

How much do you expect to raise the water in your tank by? How long will it take? What do you expect to achieve doing this?

why not buy a hot water system and stop being tight . We hate it  when custys penny pinch but think nothing of doing it ourselves .  You have to speculate to accumulate 😇

I have a Bosch condensing boiler which is meant to be more efficient and greener but it doesn't like it when the temperature drops below freezing! It's also stuck to the gable end of the house!

There was an issue with those condensing boilers in general when we had that big freeze a few years ago Alan.

Our neighbour had just had a new one fitted. They were without heat for several days. The installer eventually arrived and he removed the condensate tube from the outside drain and directed it into a bucket in the house. The boiler fired up immediately. It was the outside drain pipe to the drain that had frozen solid.

I understand that there are new regulations regarding the size and angle of this tube/pipe, but our neighbour's is exactly the way it was installed, waiting to give problems with another deep freeze.

We still have one of those old gravity fed boilers and we weren't affected.

[Plankton]

2nd December 2010 rings a bell. There is a rubber pipe underneath the boiler which like last week had to be removed for the water to drain into the bucket. British gas were supposed to fit a better outlet 5 years ago but just replaced the one I had cut of outside with the same thin crap. I had intended fitting a heated coil to it but haven't so every year when it freezes I pop the pipe of. That's progress for you.

[Spruce]

2nd December 2010 rings a bell. There is a rubber pipe underneath the boiler which like last week had to be removed for the water to drain into the bucket. British gas were supposed to fit a better outlet 5 years ago but just replaced the one I had cut of outside with the same thin crap. I had intended fitting a heated coil to it but haven't so every year when it freezes I pop the pipe of. That's progress for you.

The neighbour's boiler is in the bathroom. Yours in the roof space is much more of a chew on to get running and empty the bucket.

I like that idea of a heated coil or heat trace wire. They did this on a block of flats we used to clean to stop the water to each individual flat from freezing at night.

[NWH]

I run mine back into the tank purely to get hot at the brush the second I start cleaning not heat  the water in the tank you wouldn't even get it tepid ,I plug the end of the reel into the the air hole of the tank for 5 minutes to heat  it up.some people have a return pipe so what's in the reel goes back into the tank when they switch off I believe but I would think it would be a complete waste of time trying to beat the actual water up this way it would never work unless you start circulating it before you go to bed.

[Smurf]

Hi James, Regards to re circulating water in a van tank from an lpg water heater I think spruce has already summed up its not very practical or cost effective to do so. Portable LPG gas water heaters are designed to work efficiently and most cost effectively as an on demand water heater especially in our case if used for wfp work.

I know of a few lads that have fitted 240 volt emersion type heater elements into their tanks be it static or in their van.
This was mainly done for frost protection purposes to stop the water freezing and not really to wash windows with warmish water. However it seems fitting an emersion heater works quite well if left on overnight to raise the water temp as some lads have said the water remains warmish throughout the working day. You might like to investigate further this option and maybe give that a try as well.

Alternatively if you are lucky enough to be in a very soft water area and fill with tap water directly into your van tank you would have the option to use your house boiler (combi type) and fill the van tank with hot tap water directly from that. Then is just a case of using DI only to polish off the water as its being used. Mind you to fill a 650 tank from a hot water feed from the house boiler might take quite some time if you are use to fast filling from a static system.

[LWC]

Couldnt make sense of some of above posts.

When I had my heater I split the outlet from the heater, half to the reel, half to the tank. I did this as i had an issue of hoses splitting and fittings popping off, so to relieve the pressure i cycled half back to tank. When i unplugged the pole, hot water was pumping round into the tank. Also whilst work hot was still being pumped round.

By around lunchtime I had a hot tank and could effectively turn the boiler off at this point. Also meant i had a warm toasty van to as was like a big radiator

[Smurf]

Couldnt make sense of some of above posts.

When I had my heater I split the outlet from the heater, half to the reel, half to the tank. I did this as i had an issue of hoses splitting and fittings popping off, so to relieve the pressure i cycled half back to tank. When i unplugged the pole, hot water was pumping round into the tank. Also whilst work hot was still being pumped round.

By around lunchtime I had a hot tank and could effectively turn the boiler off at this point. Also meant i had a warm toasty van to as was like a big radiator

I'm aware that some do use back to tank option after the heater. Not just LPG heaters either but I've never found the need myself. You will defo use more LPG having it running more than needed and also takes more power from the battery as the pump will remain on in doing so.

[LWC]

Swings and roundabouts I guess mate, if youre able to run it off around lunch time then maybe you're saving. Probably not much in it...I just liked the toasty van as my heater was playing up in the van at the time 

[dazmond]

I was thinking about re circulating hot water through the reel and back into the tank to warm my 650 ltr tank before work ... I have the cor woods non 20 minute cut out heater and I was just wondering if any of you guys recirculate your water at all before leaving work ?

the only time i do this is if its really cold in the morning and then only for 5 mins to warm  my 100m microbore on the reel before my first job of the day.

hot water on demand.no need to warm the tank of water.

[Nathanael Jones]

I had a valve setup on my heater that I could open & it'd recirculate hot water back to the tank - - I really only used this to stop the van freezing in winter though. Originally my plan was to use it after the last job of the day, and let the tank warm up while I was driving home, hoping that the residual heat in the tank would keep everything from freezing overnight,... but with a 650 litre tank it takes about an hour of constant running at full blast to even get the water lukewarm!

In the end I got a cheap temperature switch off ebay & built a pump controller with it integrated - so when I parked up at night i just opened the return valve, flicked the switch on the controller to frost mode, and if the temp dropped below 2C the pump would automatically start, the heater would fire up & nothing froze. The pump switched off again at 3C, so it only used fuel & battery when it needed to.

[CleanClear]

Doesn't carrying/storing tepid or warm water bring about Legionaires risks ?

[Nathanael Jones]

Between 20C and 40C its a  small possibility - but because our water is purifies the risk is greatly reduced. Just make sure your tank is below 20c,.. you're only wasting energy anyway if you get it too warm.

Doesn't carrying/storing tepid or warm water bring about Legionaires risks ?