GASLANDOutdoors BS211 Propane Water Heater 8L, 2.11 GPM Portable Gas, Instant RV Camping, Overheating Protection, Easy to Install

1st I want to give a kudo’s to Mary, Gasland Customer Service Manager. I am very happy with the fix to my problem, my experience has been with a great Customer Service Department that stands behind their product.My set up.I used an old steel / porcelain bath tub. I plugged the over flow with a bolted on piece of cedar and then raised the tub water height by bolting on two cedar 2x4’s at about a 15 degree angle around the top, this lets me have a deeper tub for my 6 ft. frame. I can put my feet up on, the once the top but now, ledge with my feet still mostly under water. I have used marine spar varnish and silicone caulk to seal the cedar, but have to refinish every few years. So I am going to try “Pond Shield” with I refinish the cedar this winter.A piece of 1” clear suction hose is connected to the tub drain with a 1 1/4 ” to 1” clamp on type rubber reducer. With 1” hose connectors at tub and pump. Going to a 1 horse, stainless steel housing lawn irrigation pump (more forgiving then iron if accidental freeze up happens), I like the Utilitec pump. I built a small ‘pump house’, basically a hinged roof on an open sided 2x4 box frame. Keeps rain off in the summer and the pump is easy to pull when it starts freezing at night.I run a ¾” hot water type garden hose (I got a 50’er from Sears, which I cut to the lengths I need) to a standard house water filter.Then a 3/4“gated wye at the filter output. One for attachment to the Gasland outdoor water heater and another to bypass the heater, straight to the tub for running cleaning cycles.And again a length of the hot water garden hose for the water heater to the tub, the cut end just hanging into the tub. I made an 8” copper pipe to hose extension piece so connecting the output to the garden hose would be easier. For the intake side just another piece of garden hose coming from the filter. Both the intake and output have quick disconnect type connectors. All the garden hoses’ are wrapped in water heater hose insulation, available from any hardware store that has plumbing stuff.And then the brains of the outfit is an Inkbird 308 temperature controller outlet thermostat.The water circulates from the tub through the water heater till the water gets heated to the desired preprogramed temperature. The pump, which is hooked into the Inkbird receptacle, shuts off automatically at the selected temp. You can also set the thermostatic range for how cool it gets before turning the pump back on again.I use a heavy 12/3 outdoor extension cord with a GFCI. In the summer I use the GFCI to turn the pump on via the Inkbird. In about 10 or 15 minutes the tub water warms up to the 112 degrees I like.In the winter as long as it’s mostly above 20 degrees in the daytime, I take the pump and filter inside, drain the hoses and make use the of Gasland’s handy drain plug, I added a 2” long bolt as an extension to make pulling the drain plug easer. There is a female threaded end on the drain plug.When temperatures start hanging out between 0 and 20 during the day I will pull the heater as well. Takes me about 10 minutes to set it all up, a bit longer to pull and drain the hoses and all. When it’s this cold I never let the water not circulate, except when I’m actually in the tub. Just turn off the propane and set the sensor out of the hot water to keep the water circulating.If it’s going to start staying below zero with no warmer days in sight till spring, then it’s time to ‘pickle’ the whole set up till April. Thanks to global warming, in 2019 that was the 2ed week of December, 2020 mid-November and still hot tubbing. 20 years ago I would not have made it to Halloween.The tub is insulated and I use 1 ½ blue foam, double thick, to cover the tub, with a ¾ hole for the hot water hose, melted into the cover. Then a rubber cork to plug the tub drain. Even at zero the water is liquid for 3 days (or perhaps a thin crust of ice) and still doesn’t take more than 30 minutes to heat up from 33 degrees.For the summer I have a tub size wood frame with a clear plastic roof on poles with a mosquito net canopy held against the tub sides with elastic bands. It’s about 4 feet above the tub. I cover the water with a piece of plastic just to slow evaporation and keep the water cleaner when the tub is not in use. This canopy setup is replaced with the foam insulation covers, once the leaves and snow has fallen.Then 34% food grade H2O2, (or 29% for H2O2 used for hydroponics) and some chlorine, plus filtering the water a few hours every couple days like a swimming pool. I don’t like to use chlorine (bleach) so use as little as I can and put it in after a tubbing so it’s gone before I tub again but H202 is too expensive to use exclusively here in Fairbanks. I use about 15 filters a tub year, buying them in boxes of 50 each. In the summer I change the water every other week of so, using the tub water to wash vehicles or water the lawn. The 40 gallon Tub now holds around 70 gallons of water. Another cleaning must is a skimmer, I use a piece of 1 ½” PVC pipe, belled at the top, which friction fits over a piece of irrigation pipe. The irrigation pipe friction fits into the bath tub drain, with a little help of poly tape. The PVC end I can raise or lower to just the right level to create the skimmer effect. Just sucking off the bottom doesn’t clean the water nearly as well or quickly. I also use another piece of clear 1” suction hose which can be stuck into the “sunken skimmer” end and using one hand to seal the hose to the skimmer I can vacuum the bottom of the tub, stuff too heavy to float.I used an Aqua star on demand water heater for 20+ years, which took a lot of nursing and repairing over the years. It had a pilot light which ate the propane so I always had to manually light the Aqua Star every time I wanted to heat the water. The Gasland water heater has worked so much better, it always ‘just lights’ every time I turn on the water pump and seems to use less propane, I love it. Though after 6 months of living outside under an eve I made to keep rain off the heater, I did have to clean the connectors in the battery box when I changed the batteries, power wasn’t getting out of the battery box.Two small critiques of Gasland. It would be handy if they had manuals and troubleshooting guides on their web site. The only online manual I found was for one model posted by Home Depot. And while the manual states in three places to “orientate” the batteries correctly there are no + or – markings visible on the battery box. I guess they just expect everyone to ‘know’ the spring side is the negative side.

Why did it drop another star? Well, I've had to call customer service AGAIN. Now it has started making a horrible screeching noise when the water output temperature reaches 140 degrees (95 degrees input.) My speculation is that the safety shutoff that's supposed to engage at 167 degrees is partially engaging at 140 and is restricting water and gas flow. The moment I turn the gas down and the water temp drops to 120 the sound goes away. This may not sound like a big deal for showering, but I'm using it to heat a tub of water that I want to have at 105 degrees. If I turn down the gas then it takes longer. I shouldn't have to turn down the gas when it's still 27 degrees from shutoff temperature.If you want to know why I might have rated this a 2 or 3 then read on. Otherwise, skip the next four paragraphs and you'll get to the actual review (which is pretty good.)I usually like to start on a positive note with reviews but I want to explain the headline. This unit has a design flaw. I call it a design flaw because, 10 minutes into my conversation with technical support, the agent said to check something and said "We get a lot of calls that turn out to be this problem."The unit has a filter (pictured) that is in the "water inlet" portion of the unit. The agent said that sometimes the pressure pushes this filter out of place and blocks water flow. (As a side note. You see all that gunk all over the filter? NO idea where that came from. I've been running "clean" (from a garden hose" water through a 100 mesh filter since the first moment I used this thing. So was all of that on the filter straight from the factory?)The solution was that I had to do about 20 minutes of trouble shooting and THEN I had to take the face off the unit (which meant disconnecting the battery compartment) and I had to remove the water inlet pipe to get to this screen which (thankfully) had not turned the corner and gone further into the unit. If it had, then I would have been waiting for a replacement part which other reviews say can take weeks.As it happens, I'm not shy about disassembling things and my heater happened to be mounted 3 feet from my shed with all my tools. If I hadn't had the tools handy or was hesitant about taking the unit apart (or was just of the opinion that I should not have to in order to fix a design flaw) then I would have given a lower star review.*** ACTUAL REVIEW OF THE PRODUCT ***Installation and assembly : 3 stars.Pros:The product layout is pretty easy to understand.The hookups are well labeled so it's tough to mess up what goes whereCons:Understanding that everyone has their own intended use for this, there were still not enough adapters. I needed 1/2" input and output. I ended up spending $20 USD to convert their pipe/hose fittings to 1/2" hose barb.No template for hanging the unit. I greatly appreciate it when something that needs to be wall mounted comes with a printed sheet that has marks on it showing where you need to drill in order to mount it. Then you just slap that sheet up where you want the unit, drill through the paper at the indicated points, tear it off and you're done.Function/operation : 4.5 starsPros:Super easy to use once set up. Only has two knobs (heat and water pressure)I don't know if I'm qualified to rate efficiency since I've only owned this one heater but I'll do it anyway. I am using this heater to heat 370 Gallons of water. At 60 Fahrenheit outside temperature, it raises the water temperature an average of 1 degree in three minutes. So to go from 65 to 105 takes about two hours. Unfortunately, my computer rebooted after an update and didn't save the notepad I had open calculating costs but at my current propane costs of $2.65 per gallon I believe I calculated it as costing me about $4 to run it for two hours (somewhere around 0.8 gallons of propane (3.36 pounds) per hour)Cons:The stupid design flaw that I noted at the beginning. If you skipped that part, there is a filter that can break loose and block the water inlet pipe. It's a known issue and it requires partial disassembly of the unit to fix it. If you're running this with a transfer/siphon pump then you should have an external water filter set up anyway. I can understand not having that if you're running it from a garden hose.I'll put this in as a function flaw. I just spent $300 plus tax for this thing...and I had to go buy two D cell batteries? Seriously, anything that costs me over $100 should have the batteries included. AND WHY D CELL? About ZERO people have/use D cell batteries these days. How about a slot for one or two rechargeable 18650 batteries? They have amazing capacity, low discharge rate when not in use, they're used in vapes so you can get them anywhere and they're super inexpensive online.All in all, I'm pleased so far with the exception of that filter. It broke loose after only 10 hours of use incidentally. As long as this thing doesn't have any other surprises then I'm good. Everything else in it is solid state so nothing should break loose. The only concern I have left is the igniter which is a not-too-uncommon issue reported in the reviews. * crossing fingers *Oh, and it was super quick to get through to customer service on the phone. The representative was not quite as knowledgeable as I would have liked about my specific unit but he quickly found someone to assist him and he was easy to understand and work with, giving step by step instructions.

I bought one 5 years ago for my cabin. It doesnt get a lot of use, which honestly is just as hard as getting lots of use, just in a different way. It's outside. Covered, but outside. It reliably works as well today as it did when it came out of the box. Nothing has rusted through yet.Sometimes it sits a long time and creatures make their nests in it. Its easy to take apart, clean and reassemble. Twice something has chewed through a wire and the wires have been easy access and splice.It heats cold water to hotter than i can tolerate and it does so with a completely acceptable water volume, and it does so year after year without any real maintenance.I had a garbage smaller version of this that broke after 3 uses because some casting was made from unbelievably thin materials. I paid a little more with this one and it has served me well for over five years. Strongly recommended.

I bought this unti last year to heat my Daughters 10' x 10' above ground Pool, and it has worked perfectly. (obviously you willl need to buy a pump to circulate the water). There are plenty of Videos on how to do this, get a pump, take water from the pool through the pump to this heater and back into the pool blah blah blah.here is why I am writing this review NOW, almost a year later to the day.I left this out in the elements all winter long, (my bad), not covered at all, and here in Vancouver we get lots of rain. So when I wanted to open the pool for the summer I was worried that I may have ruined it. drained the pool, cleaned the pool, filled the pool, hooked up the heater, and it fired right up. Durable. Reliable. TOUGH.over 4,000 Liters of water and in 4 hours I get the Pool from 20 degrees to easily 32 degrees on one 20 lb propane tank with (some) fuel to spare. I have gotten it to as high as 38 degrees, and have now bought a solar heater connected to the circulating pump to assist in keeping the temperature in the pool.My plan is to buy another of these (and another pump) to heat the pool faster, I have lots of propane tanks so why not. The pleasure of seeing your children enjoy an "unheated" above ground pool in the summer and not want to get out, or on the occasion when they (she) says "it's too hot" is worth every penny.I am also sure that it works for it's intended purpose haaaaa.One thing of note is that you will need to protect it from cross breeze as this will blow out the flame. Simply turn off the pump, turn it back on, the ignitor ignites and you're back in business. I have set it up on a stand (a small pallet that I put legs and bracing on) and put siders on it to protect from the wind but left 18" on each side for safety and it hasn't blown out since. I now cover it when not in use, as I should have done from day one.

product appeared as advertised, would have been 5 stars but 2 issues had to be corrected upon installation1 is battery door to loose and not good connection2nd and most important is after installation unit would not work. Getting frustrated i looked thru vents to see wtf was wrong. Saw a yellow wire hanging loose all by itself. Took off housing and sure enough a wire had not been properly affixed to a plug. Reconnected with finger crossed and unit fired up and has been working properly since. Saved a returned item hassle BUT should not have been an issue. Now worried about poor assembly for other componentsAll in allWorth the price and is working as needed.FYI. Used it to replace rv water heater plumbed it into existing water lines..very easy installation

We use two of these as pool heaters all summer long. The water gets really hot at the highest setting and it runs all summer on one set of batteries. Awesome flow rate. Had to call Gasland once when one did not appear to start with the flow of water, but they were helpful and it was just a quick reset under the hood and I was back to making hot water.

This device is works as advertised and is terrific. I have one warning for people: do NOT leave this in an unheated garage or shed in the winter. Any water still inside the pipework will freeze and crack the connections, so that when you turn it on you'll get a spray of water erupting out of the case seams and holes. Expensive mistake.

Rescinding my very negative review prior. ( Phone CSR clearly either hates his job or was having a bad day, when I went looking for deployment assistance)After a long series of threads with CSR monitoring the Amazon support, I would like to thank Cassie for being awesome, and applying understanding to what our intentions were for their product.This unit is deemed as portable, but that does have some variability in its use. it is absolutely not meant to be installed inside ( as was understood) . It does need to have some sort of a mounting though , and that can be seasonally ( as weather permits, above freezing) outside provided it has some protection from significant weather. ( as would make sense to me, and was the intended plan all along)I have built an enclosure , metal lined, with exhaust extension , and with rain cap. and they have provided their agreement to maintain supportability. much effort was made to ensure this is fire protected.... while still being accessible and breathable.Adding a few stainless braided lines , probably do a test run , and can't wait to get this running at the Seasonal RV spot.