Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Here imy kind of funny story about on demand

flash hot water heaters. Back in the 80's I had one of the first generation heaters by "Walther". It was all SS and looked pretty good so luckily I installed it in the main cabin. We were anchored in Montego Bay, Jamaica when we ran out of propane. I took off the tank and went ashore, found someone to take me out the plant which is a story of it's own but lets stay on point. I gave the tank to the guy and watched him fill it from a tank out back. The trip back to the boat was uneventful and I reinstalled the tank. After the trip from hell I was hot and tired so I decided to take a shower. The moment I turned on the shower I heard a "whoosh" and a scream from my number one x wife. I could see the fire above the crack over the door as well. I shut down the hot water and of course I had used the cold water to soap up with and was covered in soap. The fire went out as soon as I had shut down the water so the fire didn't do any damage. It also helped that it wasn't enclosed in a locker. It was obvious that the idiot had put something other then propane in he tank. I had to do a re-do of the trip from hell but finely got back to the plant and asked the guy what he done. He showed me the tank and it had "butane" plastered all over the side. He said "propane, butane, all the same ting mon". "Well, I can assure you that from the near explosion I had on my boat that it is not!" was all I could sputter out. I drained the gas out to air and he refilled it from the right tank. I guess what you live through makes you stronger?

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