Continuous hot water

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
flagolfer

flagolfer

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 20, 2017
Posts
46
Location
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
I'm researching various RV models and one of the items DW and I have decided is that we would like to have instant hot water as opposed to a water heater.  In general terms, no specific RV model in mind, is there any reason why I cannot remove the water heating unit and tank and replace it with a an instant water unit?
 
There are a lot of horror stories about problems with those heaters. I don't understand the need for them. We've had six gallon heaters and never had a problem. If in doubt, get a ten gallon. If still in doubt, run both electric and propane to aid recovery.

Ernie
 
Ernie n Tara said:
There are a lot of horror stories about problems with those heaters. I don't understand the need for them. We've had six gallon heaters and never had a problem. If in doubt, get a ten gallon. If still in doubt, run both electric and propane to aid recovery.

Ernie
Click to expand...
I run propane and electric on mine and can take a comfortable shower.  It recovers in about 10 min and another can take a comfortable shower.
 
I think you would be surprised at how much hot water really comes out of a 10 gallon tank. Remember you mix it with cold water so you get a lot more than 10 gallons in the shower. DH and I can both take short showers one after the other and have plenty of water. Even a single long shower would be fine with a ten gallon tank. I have always heard tankless heaters work best when installed next to the point of use which is why homes have multiples installed. Hard to do that with a RV.
 
I agree with UTT.  10 gallon tank is plenty for two people to take a shower.  I am always surprised at how long I can shower without running out of water.  I like it hot, and I also took the resistor out of the shower head.  Don't try to reengineer an existing coach.  Believe me, that just gives you one more problem with which to contend.
 
How well a tank-less heater will work depends largely on the temperature of the water entering the heater. In colder temperatures they have been reported to have problems reaching a decent temperature, whatever that may be for a given individual.

As reported by many others, my 10 gallon tank has no problems serving the needs of my wife and myself. The advantage of using both propane and electric for a faster recovery works very well.
 
I second the posts on a regular 5, 6, or 10 gallon heater.  I had a Girard "on demand" which translated into "I'll make you dance 'on demand'."  The temperature fluctuations were horrendous.  Boiling to freezing, and you know the size of the shower, so dodging wasn't an option.  I finally gave up and had the on demand pulled and a regular one installed.  Ahhh perfect showers again!
 
Thank you all.  I love my long hot showers but I didn't realize how so many people are comfortable without the instant hot water (although I'm still not a big fan of lugging propane around).  I'm working on convincing DW to rental a Class A dp for a week in the spring (nothing beats research like actual experience) and that will probably give us ample opportunity regarding the hot water.
 
Alfa38User said:
How well a tank-less heater will work depends largely on the temperature of the water entering the heater. In colder temperatures they have been reported to have problems reaching a decent temperature, whatever that may be for a given individual.
Click to expand...

I had the opposite problem with the Atwood tankless heater that the previous owner installed in my Sunnybrook trailer.  In moderate to warm weather the shower was either too hot or had no hot water at all.  Turning down the hot water flow to get a comfortable temperature through the showerhead dropped the flow through the water heater below it's minimum rate, shutting off the burner.

Add to that the delay caused by the 10 ft distance between the water heater and the shower, and it was really tricky to keep the temperature stabilized at the showerhead, regardless of the outside temperature.

And forget about taking Navy showers while boondocking.  Re-establishing the water temperature after stopping the flow takes longer and uses more water than just letting the shower run.
 
I will be the voice of dissent here. I have had a tankless water heater for the last 4 years and loved it. The DW loves long hot showers, especially in the winter months when it's colder outside. Will a tankless take longer to heat 30 degree water at a campsite? Sure. But the tank WH will not heat that 30 degree water any faster.

The trick to getting a tankless to heat really cold incoming water is either to reduce pressure at the faucet to keep it in the heating coils longer,  or use the on board water tank to store and use water from. 

Either way tankless will provide a greater volume of hot water. 
 
We once ran a test with our 6 gallon water heater and my wife, her sister, and I taking our normal navy showers back to back. As soon as one person stepped out the next person got in. Using propane only, we never ran out of hot water...
 
I am happy enough with 6 gallon water heater and I have long hair to my hips to maintain.

Most folks that require long hot showers use the RV park showers that tend to have endless hot water. Bonus: Let someone else clean up the soap scum for you.

I prefer my own little shower, but when my arm was in a heavy cast and later in a brace, using the park showers was easier. I have a 6' friend that hops aboard for travel and he prefers the park showers even though he is super frugal on water, he finds they are roomier.

However, I installed Oxygenics hand held shower heads inside and outside. The builtin step up in pressure is awesome.  Heaven on earth!

I keep my water heater at the highest setting since I also do a mountain of dishes. Comes in handy when I need to wash laundry or dog bed in hot water.

Oxygenics:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl?rh=i:aps,k:eek:xygenics&keywords=oxygenics&ie=UTF8&qid=1512040510

 
SargeW said:
I will be the voice of dissent here. I have had a tankless water heater for the last 4 years and loved it. The DW loves long hot showers, especially in the winter months when it's colder outside. Will a tankless take longer to heat 30 degree water at a campsite? Sure. But the tank WH will not heat that 30 degree water any faster.

The trick to getting a tankless to heat really cold incoming water is either to reduce pressure at the faucet to keep it in the heating coils longer,  or use the on board water tank to store and use water from. 

Either way tankless will provide a greater volume of hot water. 
Click to expand...
30 degree water ?  8)

Anyways I have had 2. I had a first generation and it was bad the heat had 2 settings hi and low.
When we were in south carolina in the summer low heat and full flow was not enough to prevent overtemp cycling on the water heater in the winter it was ok on full on hot water.
That water heater froze and split the copper, so I replaced it with a generation 2 which has an adjustment for the heat. the instructions say to adjust for incoming water temps.
The latest is the gen 3 which has a digital control that allows you to select the temp of the hot water output.

The downside is that they all require continuous water flow to work properly.
I really don't have a problem with a 6 gal but DW is a different matter. ;D
 
glen54737 said:
30 degree water ?  8)
Click to expand...

Yep. Going to a mountain resort like Yosemite in the late fall and the ground water is COLD.

I have had a propane "Precision Temp" tankless, and now a diesel "Aqua Hot" tankless. Neither are perfect, but tank water heaters have their drawbacks too. Just depends on what works for you and meets your needs. 
 
30 degree water is usually called "ice"!  But even 40 degree water feels like ice and takes a lot of btus to get up to 100 or so. Most small tankless heaters struggle with water that cold.

As Sarge says, tank heaters are also effected by extreme cold water because as soon as you begin to use the preheated water, icy cold water flows into the tank and rapidly decreases its temperature.

One slight advantage with a dual fuel tank heater is that you can use both electric and LP heaters at the same time, to help with the heating. I've not seen a dual heat tankless, but maybe there is such a thing.
 
You folks that enjoy "long hot showers" are no doubt hooked up at a full hook-up site..You don't do that very long in the boonie venue's.>>>Dan
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
I've not seen a dual heat tankless, but maybe there is such a thing.
Click to expand...

The Aqua Hot system has both electric and Diesel burner Gary.  The way it is normally used is the electric element is left on and will supply enough hot water for 1 shower, or to do dishes.  Two showers or very cold incoming water temps will require the addition of the diesel burner.
 
I never thought of Aqua Hot (or Newmar's Oasis) as being tankless, though I expect that's true, or nearly so. But they're not something that's easy to add on to a coach, they're expensive, and they tend to be a (relatively) high end option on diesel coaches - I'd not want to use gasoline in lieu of the diesel fuel.

That being said, they are nice, indeed, and will give as long a hot shower as you have water for. They're generally tied in to engine heat, also, so when you arrive you already have hot water. The AH is also the heat source for your furnace, on coaches so equipped, so it's a bit more than just a water heater.

So far, the only time (with either AH or Oasis) we've had to run it on diesel (when hooked to shore power) is in very cold weather, when electric didn't keep the furnace hot enough.
 
When we bought our Bounder, the service tech advised us to not use the water heater on both elec/gas at the same time. He said it would confuse the controller. That confused me. ::)

When we bought our first class c in 1997, the service folks recommended using both for quicker recovery.

My brother has the "on-demand" wh in is Greyhawk and says it great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 982 (members: 27, guests: 955)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,929
Posts
1,387,695
Members
137,678
Latest member
David W.
Back
Top Bottom