Allied Precision The Premier Line 742G Bucket Water Heater, Electric Immersion Heating Element Heats 5 Gallons of Water in Minutes with Auto Shutoff, Submersible Design is Heavy Duty and Portable 120V

This is one of the best purchases that I have ever made. Like several have written here, my hot water pipe burst under my slab foundation. And it will take awhile for me to afford the repairs. In the mean time, I have been either using a couple of coffee pots to heat enough water to take a "sink bath" or using the stove to heat buckets and carry them upstairs to fill the tub. While researching the cost of a point of use hot water heater, I saw this item. It is perfect for my needs, I use it to heat a 5 gallon plastic bucket to take a shower; (Using one of the manual pump showers sold on this site); or I use it to heat a lager galvanized steel tub (30+ gallons) to fill the bath tub. It works great.Many have asked how long does it take to heat water. Well that depends on the starting temp of the water and the outside temp of the location where you are heating the water. I normally fill up my receptacle in the upstairs bathroom with the door close. It is mid summer and the starting temp of my H2O is normally between 70 to 78 degrees. If I am using a 5 gallon plastic bucket it takes about 12-15 minutes for the temp to rise to about 110. If I am using the larger 30+ gal galvanized steel tub, it takes about 2.5 hours to get the water to over 120 degrees. I then add a bit of cooler water to the tub before entering. The bath remains very very hot for well over an hour. More than enough time for me to get a good soak. I've also used the unit in a smaller galvanized steel dish pail (about 3 gallons) to heat water for washing dishes.(The reason I don't put the unit in a tub filled with water, is that once filled the water in my tub barely covers the safety guard leaving much of the heating element above the water line; I tried this ONCE and after 5 hours the water in the tub was still barely luke warm. I find that heating the water outside of the tub to be more efficient)What I've noticed is that in order to take full advantage of the unit, you should use a receptacle that is deep enough to cover much of it's heating element. For example, it takes less time to bring the water of the 5 gallon plastic bucket over 110 degrees then it does the water in the 3 gallon galvanized steel dish pail. That is because the plastic bucket is not as wide and more of the heating element is submerged beneath the water. Although, I love being able to heat the larger volume of water for tub bathing; the 2.5 hours is a lot of energy usage. And due to the size of the tub; much of the heating element is above water. I'm going to invest in a 6 gallon steel bucket, (which is recommended by the unit) , to see if that lowers the time required to heat enough water for a tub bath. Also, I use one of those metal candy thermometers with the side clip and attach it to the metal guard to keep check on the temperature.Some have said that they keep the unit submerged while bathing; The instructions clearly states that this units handle and cord should not be submerged. And although the guard seems to be adequate to keep this unit level; it is still a bit top heavy. I wouldn't take the risk keeping it in the bath with me. Also, because the unit is a bit top heavy; I've kept the box to use for it's storage.This is much better than using coffee pots and carrying buckets of scalding hot water throughout the house to take a bath. Enjoy!

I have only had this for four days, but wow - what a miracle. I bought a 12'x30'' pool this summer and the water was freezing for about a week. I had a cheap solar cover on the pool, which did a great job heating the top 6". I would get in to "stir" the water, but it was still FREEZING. I was looking everywhere for an affordable way to heat this pool, because I have a two-year old that cried (for good reason) if I even tried to dip her feet in. I live in Ohio, so early June can still be cool (60's, 70's if you're lucky). Anyways, I have had this in for 4 days now (along with the solar cover 3/4 of the way on), and have ran it without a break. I did not have a thermometer in to give the exact differences in temperature - but I'd venture to guess it has gone from 50/55 degrees to 75/80 degrees and climbing. Today the temp. is 65/70 degrees. I'm going to take it out now because the pool is getting too warm. To keep this in without getting the cord wet I propped an extra half-fence panel that I had laying around up against the pool, and draped this in (just the round part with the holes was submerged). I was able to push the cord partially between the fence pickets to hold it securely. I worried about this being hot to the touch. I was actually surprised - I can hold the outside without feeling any heat (in the water), and if I touch the coil inside, it's not "hot," but I can feel warmth coming from it, and coming from the bottom. Honestly, after initially plugging this in and running it from an hour, I felt around it and didn't really notice a difference in water temperature...I thought I made a mistake or got a bad unit. Then I felt a small amount of warmth coming from the bottom. Still, I would feel comfortable letting this touch the side of the pool - you will need to build a makeshift prop that will not get knocked over in the wind. Note: I hung this right in front of the filter output so that the water flows out of the pump system, it pushes the solar cover away from the heater at from this at the same time. This thing is awesome. I was worried that my days in my new pool would be limited (August, some of July), but this thing will help us enjoy our pool much more. I can't vouch for the dent in my electric bill yet, but I will keep my solar cover on, and I'm sure it will be worth it.