On Board HW Heater for L4000 - Any alternatives?

[ScottV]

My 9yr old HW heater on the L4000 has a cracked housing and is leaking quite a bit of water. I checked on a new one and my distributor wants $1,800. Does anyone have an alternative source for these box type units? I'm considering removing the L4000 this spring and replacing it with a new Tandem unit. Hate to drop $1,800 on a HW Htr for few couple months of time.

 

[DiamondWash]

If you are going to replace it why not the new Protouch ICON system from PDQ?

 

[PEI]

Is this LW4000 at a site with self serve? If so, then you can use the self serves hot water and bypass the onboard heater.

 

[bigleo48]

The biggest problem I have with replacing the onboard heater is the delivery and temp rise time.

Since the heater is on the bench, hot water reaches the car quickly. A heater that is located elsewhere may take more time to reach the car, unless you install a circulator pump.

 

[ScottV]

My distributor came up with a solution. They can order me just the outer housing / tank and use my heating element, etc from the existing unit. Cut the price in half. Good enough for me.

I appreciate your comments.

 

[Mike]

A lot of site I have seen just plumb a hot water line to the intake of the solution pump.

I would just plumb a hot water line from your site water heater to the inlet where the water heater is hooked up now, there will be time delays but if your wash a few cars it should warm up the line. Insulating the line will help also.

I personally would not stick that much cash into a water heater if you are going to replace the machine in spring.

You could run with out it also for the winter, depending on your cleaning issues, if you are just rinsing salt off the cars like everyone in the northern half of the US, you can probally get away with out warm soap. It WILL effect the soap effectivenss, but you may be able to go one tip larger to compensate for a few months.

Hope this helps
Regards
Mike