How to Choose the Best Marine Water Heater for Your Boat

How to Choose the Best Marine Water Heater for Your Boat

A marine water heater is an important boating appliance and is responsible for heating up the water used for showering, washing-up, and other personal hygiene applications related to marine sanitation. There are several water heaters used in the boating industry, each with various functions, heating capacity, build quality, and power. This can sometimes make it difficult for buyers to find the right water heater for their maritime needs.

There are a number of factors to consider when purchasing a new water heater for your boat:

• Strong build quality with protective features
• Adaptability and dynamic performance
• Size and model variation (because one size does not fit all)
• Reliable warranty

A Closer Look at Torrid Water Heaters

Just like your marine toilet needs a specific pump to handle your business, your boat needs a specific water heater to meet its own size requirements. Look for an established brand that carries multiple models with variation in both gallon capacity and power configurations. Torrid water heaters have been made in the United States for more than 40 years, offering 35 models for boat owners to choose from with horizontal and vertical placement options. The Torrid line offers a wide selection of capacity and voltages ranging from 6 to 80 gallons, with 12 VDC, 120 VAC, 240 VAC, and Three Phase power configurations.

Marine water heaters are exposed to high-humidity, aggressive water conditions and other harsh environmental factors, making build quality a top factor in selecting the right unit. Torrid produces high-quality and feature rich water heaters complete with glass-lined inner tank vessels to mitigate the risk of corrosion and reduce bacterial build-up. This is unique to Torrid water heaters, and compliments other enviable features such as foam-insulation, replaceable magnesium anodes, and an improved Integrated Heat Exchanger (IX) model with twice the heat transference as earlier models.

3 Tips for Choosing the Right Water Heater

1. Think Long Term

A boat’s water heater is an investment, and not one that buyers should set out to repeat year after year. To extend the life of a water heater and make the investment worthwhile, boat owners should look for water heaters with stainless-steel outer jackets. Units with aluminum outer jackets aren’t as durable, and the level of protection degrades over time. Torrid water heaters come standard with 304 brushed stainless-steel outer jackets with optional powder covering to ensure the highest level of lasting performance.

2. Pay Attention to Brand

Buying a generic or less established brand might make sense when it comes to household items or office supplies, but not when choosing a marine water heater. That’s why boat owners have turned to established brands like Torrid, which has been manufacturing “yacht quality” water heaters since 1979. Each heating unit is made in the USA and undergoes an extensive quality control and pressure check before being shipped out from the factory and is covered by a five-year warranty.

3. Go as Big as Possible

One of the most common questions people have when buying a marine water heater is how big of a unit they should get. As a general rule of thumb, it’s almost always best to get the biggest unit that will fit in the available space. That’s because while people might think they won’t use very much hot water, they often don’t have a good sense of how much they use in practice. Underestimating hot water usage can become a bigger problem if an additional passenger (or two) is aboard for a long trip. Having a larger water heater is also good for vessels that use hot water for both the bathroom and the kitchen area. A bigger tank also doesn’t need to be heated as frequently, which is especially important if electricity is being used to generate heat instead of waste heat from the engine.

Environmental Marine Has an Unbeatable Selection to Choose From

Selecting the best marine water heater for your boat is an important decision, and one that requires research and understanding of the various water heater models, functions, and warranties. If you have trouble figuring out which water heater is best for you, contact the team at Environmental Marine and we’ll help you pick the model that best suits your boating and sanitation needs. After all, when you use your marine toilet – you’ll need to wash up! 

We carry the very latest marine water heater models from Torrid, which are widely known for being the most durable and longest lasting on the market. Visit our online store or call us today at 800-522-2656 to check our stock and availability.