Hurricane/Espar Question

[Michael Kauffman]

[size=14][face=Arial]Hello All,  I hope there's a bunch of you having fun in Q this winter.  We're stuck up here in cold WA this year.  Oh, my post question, sorry, I see that some of you have made the Hurricane/Espar hydronic conversion.  I wanted to find out if you are satisfied with it, how much it cost you, and where you had it done.  Also if I remember right you can run it off of park AC or diesel?  I was trying to find Jim Rixon on the web but can't seem to come up with him searching by name.  Anybody got a website for him?

Thanks, Mike Kauffman, Issaquah, WA[/face][/size]

[Michael Kauffman]

Found Him. I was looking up Rixon not Rixen, Dah!!   :B

[Roy Mueller]

I installed an Espar heater for Joe Hipp 2 years ago.  Call him.  Jim Rixen was very helpful.  He has a good unit. It would be
worth while checking it out.  Jim Rixen has always  helped Beavers out.

Roy Mueller

[Dick Simonis]

Since I also have a Hurricane, I guess I need to ask why convert the Hurricane to an Espar???

[Joel Weiss]

Can I ask a more basic question, what's an Espar?

[David T. Richelderfer]

Espar has a website.   http://www.espar.com/index.html

The company makes heaters that work using diesel, gasoline, etc.  Their hydronic heaters are much like the heating units in Hurricanes and Aqua Hots.

The videos on the website do not seem to work... for me at least.  And there is no pricing I can find on the website.

[Joel Weiss]

Is there some particular reason for converting from a Hurricane to the Espar unit?

[Michael Kauffman]

[size=14][face=Arial]My reasoning is this.  I've had a lot of problems with the Hurricane.  I've rebuilt it a couple of times.  Not a big deal but annoying none the less.  The previous owners didn't take real good care of it.  

I stopped by Rixen's place a couple of years ago on the way up from AZ.  I had bought the Patriot in Phoenix and was on the maiden voyage home everything stopped working, no heat, no hot water.  I stopped at Jim's and he got it going.   He showed me the Espar unit that he was installing.  It fits in the same bay and has a lot of advantages.  It's about half as quiet, fully self contained, and biggest of all, it has the capability to run all of the hydronics with park ac, something that we desire.  And I've heard that they are virtually trouble free.  I also know about the Comfort Hot that you can add to a Hurricane system @ about $800 and was looking to go that way but I like the idea of a whole new (modern) system that won't nickel and dime me forever.

Now I'm just trying to get some reviews from BAC members who have done this conversion.  I remember that's it not cheap.  That's why I didn't pop on it at that original stop at Rixen's.

Lastly, Jim M. where did you guy's buy the Espar unit that you installed (model?)?  I might do it myself too.

Thanks for the insight, Mike    [/face][/size]

[Joel Weiss]

We had our Hurricane serviced last year by ITR at their facility in Vancouver WA.  We were very pleased with the work and the result.  I know from having spoken with Kevin Lambert of ITR prior to our service appointment that they could have totally rebuilt my unit and would have given me a "new product" warranty for an investment of ~$2.2k. He didn't think we needed such an extensive overhaul so we ended up investing ~$500 and the system has worked perfectly since.  Back in October when we were in Utah we had outside temps as low as ~28F and were able to stay toasty warm inside.  Last week in TX the temps were in the low 40's and that wasn't even a challenge for the system.

It's my understanding that Rixen's is no longer handling ITR products so they have no incentive to get you to repair yours.

[Dick Simonis]

OK, another question, what is the "comfort hot" for the Hurricane.  I feel like my head is spinning, all this time I was revelling in the simplicity and low maintenance of the Hurricane system and now I'm hearing that I may have been delusional.

[Keith Oliver]

Interesting!  On my boat, I had a heater built by espar.  In engine maintenance, I never spent anything close to what it cost me to service the Espar over the years, and I have twin diesels.  Eventually I pulled the Espar out and gave it away for parts.  I have considered a replacement by Hurricane!
Don't take this as a blanket condemnation of Espar, but in the marine market, Hurricane has a better reputation by a long stretch.

[Gerald Farris]

Dick,
The "ComFort Hot" system is an auxiliary heating unit that is installed into the heating loop of the Hurricane system. It consist of a tank that
holds approximately  3 gallons of coolant and two 17 amp heating elements. The ComFort Hot system allows you to heat your coach only on 120V shore power when the outside temperatures are down to the low to mid twenties when on 50 amp power, and when on 30A power, you can be comfortable with the outside temperatures down into the mid to low 40s. I have one in my coach and I love it.

Gerald    

[Joel Weiss]

Gerald--

Who installed your ComFort Hot?  We do burn a fair amount of diesel fuel over the winter and having a fully electric system (other than space heaters) would be nice.  Is the price really as low as the $800 mentioned?  Where is the storage tank located?

I assume that in order to run two 17A heaters you are doing something like tapping into the A/C circuits that aren't used in cold weather?  There's no way I could come up with >30A of available service any other way. I've already tapped my washer-dryer circuit so I can run 3 major cooking appliances at the same time!  

Joel

[Dick Simonis]

I also would be interested in where the unit is located as it would be a nice upgrade to the Hurricane.  2 elements are nice but I got the impression it's set up to be either both, one, or none which would make a lot of sense.

Does ITR sell these??? Or someone else as I would love to download the install manual and see what  it entails.  I'm thinking in the water bay would be nice as it's a short wire run to the distribution panel in the closet and should be easy to tap into the circulation loop.

[Gerald Farris]

Joel & Dick,
I installed the Comfort Hot system in my coach. My Marquis had an unused breaker and I replaced another single breaker with a double breaker to give me two open breakers to run the system. I mounted the unit on the basement wall next to the Hurricane compartment. This made for a short run to detour the Hurricane heating loop through the Comfort Hot unit. I ran the 12 gauge 120V wiring between the rear closet and rear cap down to the frame rail. I then ran the wiring inside the frame, above the holding tanks, and through the basement until I reached the front basement wall where I then ran over to the Comfort Hot unit.

The Comfort Hot unit is designed and manufactured by Rixen Enterprises, located in Portland Oregon. Jim Rixen, the owner and former Hurricane Distributor, can install the unit for you if you wish. Jim Rixen is the distributor who sold the Hurricane heaters to Beaver and Country Coach. The wiring method that Jim uses is to tie the Comfort Hot system to the A/C breakers by using a switch where either the A/C or the Comfort Hot system can run, but not both at the same time.

Gerald