Monitor On-Demand Hot Water Heater

Hi,

Here is a picture of the Monitor on-demand hot water heater installed at the mine at Moore Creek. The unit is resting on a counter and there is a hole we cut in the counter just a bit smaller than the unit. The plumbing is all hooked up under the counter and so out of sight.



The water first enters a ProPlumber Sediment Filter that has a 100 mesh filter that you can check visually and drain. The creek generally flows clear but at high water this would capture larger sediment. Then into a nice little combo water pump and pressure tank I got at Lowe's (second picture). After the pump we split the line. One leg goes into the blue filter at 5 microns - again, just as a sort of pre-filter.

The main filter unit is the Model 500 "Water Fixer" which has a activated carbon cartridge that removes particles down to a half micron. This stops almost anything, including guardia (beaver fever). The pre-filtering keeps this from clogging up too fast. The ultraviolet chamber is really the icing on the cake, as on the off chance anything got though the filter, the ultraviolet gets it. Great units in my opinion. You can find them online at http://www.waterfixercompany.com/.

The other leg split yet again, one half being cold water, and the other half routing into the cabin and into the hot water heater.



Monitor makes a variation designed to be mounted on the outside of the cabin but I opted for the interior mount to protect the unit from weather and bears. Mounting it was simple - the only real work was cutting the hole through the log cabin wall with a chainsaw for the exhaust. Like other Monitor heaters the exhaust also acts as the air intake.

The hot and cold water lines were then routed to an outdoor wash station (a cheap portable sink) and a washing machine (third picture). We built an 8' x 4' shower shed (barely visible on right of picture) and installed a cheap pre-fab shower enclosure and hooked it into the system. Finally, we buried some lines and ran the drinking water and a hot water line to the sink there. You can also see the propane bottle for the water heater.



The whole system is powered by a Honda EU6500 generator. What a difference this all made to life out at the mine. The system is on demand, so just get in the shower and turn it on - just like at home. The best part is that we had as many as 20 people in camp. You could have people taking one shower after another, ten in a row, and never run out of hot water. Due to the pump the water pressure and flow were just as good as at my house in Anchorage.

The only thing I can warn people about is to make sure you have enough water pressure for the system. We ran the unit the first summer off a 12V pump system that did not really provide enough pressure to trigger the on-demand system properly and as the system surged the heater would shut off at times. The new pump solved that and the system ran flawlessly ever since. If you have any debris in the water a drainable pre-filter like you see in the picture attached to the pump is a good idea.

The water temperature is adjustable. Hotter water slightly reduces the water flow. It is possible to set the unit up for a shower with just one water line by setting the water temp to what you like so no cold water is needed at all. Depending on where the heater is mounted an optional remote temperature control is available that can be mounted right next to the shower.

I can't say enough about what a difference it made having hot running water at the mine. Just a great little product. Click here for product details.