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marpel's avatar
marpel
Explorer
Oct 18, 2022

Replacing Water Heater

Small trailer with 6 gallon hot water tank.

Am considering, prior to next season, replacing it with a 10 gallon.

Is the difference in size that significant, and has anyone done this sort of thing, who may provide advice or things to be aware of?

Marv
  • Thanks everyone for the responses.

    Grit dog - Din't ask if anyone thought a larger water heater would fit in my particular trailer. Just wondering if anyone had done this sort of thing before and if they could provide some "guidance/be aware of" input. If someone has done this sort of thing before (and I wouldn't know without asking), they sure would know how much of a project it is to switch out.

    Marv
  • marpel wrote:
    Small trailer with 6 gallon hot water tank.

    Am considering, prior to next season, replacing it with a 10 gallon.

    Is the difference in size that significant, and has anyone done this sort of thing, who may provide advice or things to be aware of?

    Marv


    This does not seem like the type of query to "phone a friend" over.

    Noone here would have the slightest clue whether a larger water heater would fit in you RV or exactly how much of a project it is to switch out.
    But, I bet you could find the size of one on the internet in less time than it takes to write this post, and then go break out the tape measure.
  • Always curious; why go to larger water heater? More people...longer showers...
  • I did a repair on a friends 5'ver a number of years back. He had a 10 gallon tank that died in a CG we were both staying in. He bought a new unit at the local RV place and I swapped it out for him.

    The tank itself was ok, so I kept it, thinking I would repair it an swap mine out, going from 6 to 10. I wish it was that easy.

    As mentioned, physical size difference.

    For obvious reasons, the 10 is bigger. It requires a bigger opening to fit in. This requires surgery on the wall of the RV to provide solid framing all around to screw the unit in.

    On mine, I didn't have enough extra width and height to make it an easy conversion. I would have had to carve up a partition, do cosmetic repairs and more, so I scrapoed the idea.

    However, if you have enough extra width and height inside, and you're willing to enlarge the opening of the outside wall, yes it is doable.
  • According to the Suburban manual the 10 gal is about 3 1/2” wider and taller and about an inch deeper then the 6 gallon.

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