Customer Reviews

Coleman Hot Water-On-Demand Portable Water Heater

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I used this heater last summer, for washing dishes, and showers while boat camping. Heater works off a propane canister, so have extras of those. Pump depends on a small battery that has its own compartment. I carried a spare battery out of caution, but didn't need it on my longest trip of three nights with three people. I would guess 6-7 short showers were taken, along with washing dishes and hand washings during meal prep.

Easy to use. Variable temp. control, from cold to scalding just like a water tap at home, (though a much lower pressure) The water gets hot very quickly.

Instructions say not to use lake or stream water. I decided that applies if you are going to use the heater for cooking or drinking water. Since I use mine only for dish-washing/hand-wahing/showering, I ignored this instruction. There is an attachment for hooking to a garden hose, but I didn't get this as I don't camp where potable water is avialable. If you camp with kids, once it is used with non-potable water, I stongly recommend that you make sure they understand that they are not to drink water from the tap.

I found that a large three gallon collapsable bucket was much handier than the collapable container supplied.

As I remember, I purchased the shower attachment seperately. After our first camp trip with the heater, I replaced the hose on the shower attachment with a longer piece of plastic tubing bought at the hardware store, as the original tube was too short to work well. This was real easy to do and not very expensive and I would recommend it if you are more than four feet tall and want to use the heater for showers.

This is unit is not for pack-backing. But it you car camp or boat camp away from hot water and like the luxury of running hot water, this is a great unit. Not that heavy and and no bigger than a small cooler.

I have a Zodi which I used before I got this. The Zodi does a good job of heating water and is somewhat lighter and more compact. I like the Coleman better however. The swing-out spout on the Coleman may look like a gimmick, but if your are washing dishes over a dishpan it realy is an advantage. The instant on/off feature of the Coleman is a also great advantage
especially when showering. You can rinse off, shut off the water, soap up and turn on the water for a final rinse with just a turn of a dial. Since even three gallons of water goes fast, the ease of shutting off the unit "in between" is very handy. With the Zodi the best approach I found was to put the shower-head in the water supply "in between." This works, but it means the burner is continuing to run, using fuel, and if your are not quick, the water can get hotter than you may want. (Shuting off the Zodi means you have to get out the lighter or matches to relight, which can be a pain if you are wet and soapy.) With the Colman's built in igniter, a simple turn of the dial gets every thing going again. By the way, so far the igniter has worked as flawlessly as the one on the gas range top at home. You turn the dial, you hear a little "swoosh" as the burner comes on, and you have hot water.

I also bought the carry case which I recommend.

Coleman Hot Water-On-Demand Portable Water Heater

I bought this product to wash my dogs and use in the barn. The heater worked wonderfully! It took the water from my well (temp around 55-60 degrees) and warmed it to 85-90 degrees in literally seconds. I bought the bulk propane connect, hose connection, hand spray and case. The hose connection was broken on delivery (not purchased from Amazon). The bulk propane connect was a breeze to setup, and without the hose connect I simply put the pump in a large bucket of water and left the hose running to keep it filled. The hand spray (also a breeze to hook up) put water out the equivalent of a shower set on low to medium pressure. I have to say my dogs thought they had a day at the spa, and even the most squimish of them quickly settled down enjoying the warm spray (smile).

I'm thrilled with this product, but the only downside is the battery. The battery (running) life is 2 hours. When the battery switches to 'low battery level' the water goes cold in seconds and then the whole unit shuts down, and it takes 8 to 9 hours to recharge the battery. It's so sad that Coleman didn't (1) design a system that would quickly recharge the battery or (2) design a system that could alternately be run with electricity or (3)design an external battery charger (like we use on our battery operated tools) where you keep backup batteries charged (considering the 8-9 hr recharge time).

So campers/outdoors people beware you only have 2 hours running time on a battery, so before you pack this unit into the backwoods purchase additional batteries that you can swap into the unit.

=========
Thought I'd give an update to my review since it's been over a year since my inital review.

I still love this product...my dogs are in 'hog heaven' also (smile)!! I finally got a working 'Hose connect', but save your money and don't bother with it. Granted I'm on a well with a pump that puts out high pressure (26 gal/min), but with the hose turned down to minimal output all I experienced was water spraying all over the place at the connection and minimal water coming out of the handheld sprayer - so needless to say I dumped the connection and replaced it with the 'pump in a bucket'. I tried all the work-arounds - aka new washers, etc. - but still had water spraying all over the place at the hose connection...so bottomline the hose connection is a waste of money.

I also bought 6 replacement batteries - heck I have a pack of dogs (from young to old) to wash. I still recommend buying 'backup' batteries'. Batteries are always on 'back order', so order them from Colemen when you purchase the unit - it will take a month or more to get them (in my case 3 mos.). Coleman's support line has been fantastic (at least to me). Come to find out my 2 hr battery life is unusual - the Help Line passed my battery life 'complaint' to the design engineers - their response was the battery should last less then 2 hours.

I'm counting myself lucky on the battery life I'm getting on this unit, and I have to say I love this heater.....and my dogs are in absolte heaven! I haven't had any problems with the heater, and I have to chuckle every time I see my skidish dogs melt to the ground under the warm spray baths. My older arthritic (100+ lbs) dogs no longer struggle to get into tubs....they can stand and enjoy their day at the 'spa'.

Good - bad - or indifferent - Coleman (when you call them) have stood behind this product (at least for me)-and have kept me informed (e.g. the design engineer(s) responding directly to me and the Help line with my battery questions). Heck, everything is made overseas these days (not that I like it) - but if you can find a company that will stand behind their product that has to count for something. In my case I bought the heater from a vendor that didn't back the broken hose connect they sent me - Coleman (no questions asked) sent a replacement. I didn't have to ship them the broken item - they just sent me a replacement. So KUDOS to Colemen.

This really is a GREAT product - just beware that there is a low battery usage life, and you need to have fully charged backup batteries. As another person noted, keep these batteries charged regularly and you should not have any problems.

Plus I'm up'n my rating from 3 stars to 4 - I'm in love with this product - I just hate the battery usage issue (sigh)

We bought this for camping since we do it year-round in all sorts of weather, but it's been invaluable during natural disasters as well. The Coleman Water Heater kept us provided with hot water during an ice storm that killed power, and four hurricanes. Highly recommend.

We're dedicated car-campers and have always heated water on the stove for cleaning dishes and ourselves. Never again. The Hot-Water-On-Demand product works very well. You get hot water almost instantly and there is enough temperature control to use this as a shower with the optional sprayer attachment. We still use a sun shower for ourselves due to the hose length, but for cleaning our kids, washing dishes, washing your hands or face, etc this is fantastic. Battery life has been fully acceptable. We charge it before a trip then keep it plugged into the car when we're moving between camping locations. The propane cylinders last a reasonably long time - we've gotten 6 days out of the current cylinder and it hasn't run out. The unit is light enough to easily move it to where you need it. Ours tends to live at one end of the picnic table and we put a small basin below it to act as a sink. I fully plan to use this for the upcoming tailgate season.

I have been surviving camping quite well for 4 yrs. by heating water on a high-powered propane stove and using a battery-powered shower head for bathing. Then one day I looked at a Zodi water heater and started researching what was available. All I can say is the Coleman Hot Water On Demand is slick and that's the one I chose. The way the spout tucks away into the handle along with the quick response by just turning a dial is simply jaw-dropping. Even water for a cup of coffee can be had by holding the dial temporarily at its hottest setting. The last couple of years I have been looking for some shortcuts so that I have time for some additional activities, and this is ia milestone. No more doing dishes and showers late at night because I wasn't around enough to heat water earlier. I can make quicker camping set-ups by using this device. I can even give my horse warm baths after he's done working. I'll probably get through half a year on one propane bottle and battery charge. One thing did happen: I first purchased a unit that failed to charge properly even after a long period of time (the green light would only come on if I used the DC adapter - even after that was green, if I plugged in the AC adapter, it would go back to red - maybe a bad AC adapter?). This was probably just a fluke, and I ended up returning it -- the second unit was fully charged within 10 minutes! I have to be careful since rechargeable units and I don't always get along. I think this device will make my most favorites list along with my LED, remote-controlled lantern. The people I camp with have sophisticated trailers and I've been keeping up very well even though my trailer is smaller and "primitive". Since they don't let their hot-water heaters run all the time, they have to wait about half an hour until their water heater gets up to speed before they can take a shower. I won't tell them if you don't that I have hot water in 5 seconds! It will probably be noticed, though, when I show up all spiffy in a fraction of what it used to take.

I had a lot of trouble getting the hose adapter to stop imitating a garden sprayer. I took the brass fitting off, put some teflon tape on the threads, re-installed it and added another hose washer, now it works much better. Coleman needs a licensed plumber on their design staff. The heater will not start while the battery is being charged, Coleman's rechargeable lanterns display this similar design flaw.

I highly recommend this hot water heater.

We like to camp using a teardrop trailer. This device provides hot water for coffee, washing dishes and taking showers. While it can operate on the small propane cyliners we bought an attachment that allows use to use the larger propane tank on our trailer. We also purchased the shower spray nozzle and garden hose adapter. It is easy to change from the sink to the shower.

Also we got the bag which I recommend. It keeps all the stuff together nicely and is made for the unit.

This may be viewed as a luxury when camping but if your in remote camping sites this makes life nice and you can spend more time fishing, reading or sitting around the campfire!

Like a Coleman adjustable electric electric lantern I had to trash two years ago, this product has a very limited life and no product support. The weak link seems to be a small rechargeable lead-acid battery that refuses to take a charge after about two years of sporadic use. Replacement parts are not available. The first Coleman heater I bought cost me about $120. Now the prices range from $200 (but out of stock) to about $500. It's worth $200 but not much more. It was difficult getting product support or parts from Coleman. A complaint letter and part order was not answered for three months.

Postscript:
Coleman later relaced the entire unit free of charge, with a more up-to-date Version 3, which wastes less water while heating up. I was surprised that they never sent me a letter or email saying a new one was on the way. It just appeared at the house of a neighbor who receives my deliveries when I am not there. The replacement unit is working well, but has a crack on the outer case. The failure of my original unit was apparently due to the water pump, not the battery. If they get the bugs out of this unit, provide product support and keep the price below $300, I recommend it.

REVISED 2/4/08 We're dealing with more Chinese-made problems here. I no longer rate this highly, see "Comments" for full information about why.

Make sure to have your potable water source parallel or below the unit when it's pumping/serving the water. Another person told me they ruined theirs very quickly by not following these instructions and by also leaving the water in the feed line without allowing it to drain down/away/out of the unit, when they were finished using it.

The hot water on demand only worked after you fixed some of the hose fittings. In fact the hose adapter broke and we then put in a brass replacement with Teflon tape and silicon caulking. OK but then the limit on the shower hose meant you had to put the unit up on a box to take a shower. Great idea that needs some improvement to be practical for any but the most hard core camper.