Water heater temp rise

[Yankeesouth]

Does anyone have any real world experience with a point of use water heater like the Ecotemp L5 or L10 and expected realistic temperature rise?   I am wondering how warm say 38-42 degree ground water would get in one of these units?

[MountainDon]

No real life experience. But the info listed on their very popular L5 model does not look all that promising to me. They state a 30 - 35 degree temperature rise at 1.3 GPM. That would not do it for me. Don't know about the other models.

[MikeOnBike]

I have an L5. I don't have any empirical measurements but I do know that it will raise the water from ~60F to hotter than I can stand under which is probably over 100F. I think it easily lives up to its claims of 35F rise. That still only puts you at 80F or so.  I'm not trying to over sell it, just saying that I think it will do at least the 35F, probably 40F, if you turn down the flow and the temp up.

http://www.eccotemp.com/eccotemp-l5-portable-tankless-water-heater/

Do you have any way to store some water above ground so it can get warmer before you use it. Maybe you have a pressure tank in your system that allows the water to get to cabin temperatures so that it can heat to above 80F?  I guess I'm surprised that your well is so cold but I don't have much experience with that.

[davidj]

We have an L5 and an L10!

The L5 could get our well water (maybe 45F?) up to shower temperature but only at a very low flow - somewhere between a trickle and a shower. It's pretty much retired at this point. The L10 works much better - probably not quite up to a regular 2GPM shower output but close - good enough to get you clean and even keep you warm if the outside temp is starting to drop in the evening.  We still use it in the outdoor shower over the Summer even though we've got an indoor shower now (run by a 200K BTU/hr Takagi unit, which is nice but requires the gennie to be running).

Remember these guys have an auto-shutoff - if it suddenly gets cold when you're having a longer-than-usual shower, just switch off the water and switch it on again.  And be careful if you run these through hoses lying in the Sun - you can generate some seriously hot water as they haven't got thermostatic controls.