Posts: 32
Threads: 7
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,557
Threads: 50
Joined: Oct 2012
I use the Eccotemp L5 and and am mildly surprised by how well
It works. The water gets waaaay hotter than what you would care to use.
Posts: 7
Threads: 0
Joined: Sep 2012
I also use the L5. It was very inexpensive and works perfect for my family of four for our showers. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles but does the job and built well.
Posts: 3,188
Threads: 216
Joined: Sep 2007
Good units - L5 works well for me for navy showers at my off grid place
The L10 good for filling a bathtub or a "real" shower or washing the dog.....
going on 6 years on my l-10's have 2. one needed some help with corrosion on the battery holder and a little solder on the heating coil year 4. I think it was a small solder flaw that the acid catchment water made worse.... took 20 minutes to solder it up.
Posts: 32
Threads: 7
Joined: Nov 2010
Thanks all for your comments.
Bull would you recommend the L-10 for more versatility?
Also a pump and strainer too?
Posts: 3,188
Threads: 216
Joined: Sep 2007
inline strainer - I use the mesh centered washers downstream of a 5 micron filter... .020 or .030 mesh (home depot - drip irrigation inline "mesh" and sealing washer combo really good - and cheap
I think the 5 L output on the light side.
5L = 5 liters (about 1.25 gallons) 20 degree rise per minute
10L = 10 liters (about 2.5 gallons) 20 degree rise per minute
even the 10L is 20 minutes to fill a bath tub - I would not use an L5 in a laundry application....
Posts: 2,490
Threads: 222
Joined: Dec 2005
I bought Eccotemp L5 Portable Tankless Water Heater off of Amazon. Shipped perfectly been using it for 4.5 months ... no problem. Sips propane for us (2 of us). My friend has the L-10. It's not any better than the L5 except it has a temp guage. Not worth the extra $ IMO.
I know a lot of folks here and on the mainland have the l5 for over 5 years and still going strong. The only thing I did was hard plum the input line and hard plumb the output line CPVC to the hose fitting as mine started to leak. But the same thing happened to my friends on the L10 so matter of fact it came with the same cheap shower head hose. If I were to do it over I'd probably just throw the shower head and plastic line in the trash and buy a good quality one form HD.
We only use are's for showers and maybe an l10 would be better for hooking up to a washer but we don't have plans to hook up to anything but the shower. So if your thinking of hooking it up to a washer/tub later maybe an L-10 would be better for you.
Also... we max out the water pressure (we are on private water) in hawaiian beaches and set the temp to the lowest setting. I find 90% of the time the water is a perfect temp. Except sometimes in the morning you want the to take a STEAMING hot shower... What I do is lower the pressure from the slider on the shower head. Kinda hard to adjust it but just lower the flow of water and it's a perfect Hot/Steamy shower when the water in the pipes are cooler in the mornings.
Posts: 142
Threads: 9
Joined: Apr 2012
If you're considering the triton...you'd prefer the Eccotemp for customer service. They walk you through ANY problems you have on the phone.
I've installed so many L5's for peeps I've lost count.
We have the L10..Awesome little bugger it is! No problems yet, but parts are easy to repair and easy and cheap to order.
Posts: 2,490
Threads: 222
Joined: Dec 2005
Hmmm, what goes wrong with L5's? Where do you get parts? Hope I don't have a problem with mine. I never thought about what I'd do if I had a problem with it. I guess taking cold showers would be fun again!
Posts: 142
Threads: 9
Joined: Apr 2012
We try to anticipate what can go wrong with anything we buy and see if we can buy parts, ship parts to Hawaii, and install them ourselves.
Here's the website for Eccotemp; specifically the parts page for the L5:
http://www.eccotemp.com/eccotemp-l5-parts/?sort=featured&page=1
You can check out the trouble shooting page before calling them:
https://eccotemp.zendesk.com/home/
You can call them for technical support at 1-866-356-1992 There's 2 screws to remove the whole front panel and everything is exposed and pretty easy to get to. You can stand there, on the phone, and they'll tell you what to look for. It's primarily the screen needs to be cleaned and then almost always the thermal-couple or the battery box wiring because of corrosion on the wiring from not being enclosed in a box.
