tankless water heater

funpilot wrote:

64thunderbolt wrote:

BBFD wrote:

64thunderbolt wrote:
I boondock & use as much water as needed. I carry 122 gal fresh water and I have enough waste capacity so that is why I have it. Another thing is I am usually the only one in my toy hauler. So I am happy with my Truma.

So your boondocking theory does not apply to all. I have camped with hookups only 1 time in 16 yrs when working out of town.

If I want to be frugal I can stay a week in the forest.

Maybe the theory does not apply to you but when you have smaller gray tanks and a family of 4 with two girls who will stay in the shower all day if the hot water is 'limitless' compared to a 6 gallon unit then the theory very much applies. We hardly ever have hookups either....

LOL, I see your point. You could be out of storage & fresh, maybe you should keep the tank. I highly recommend the oxygenics shower head. Gives you the feeling of a home shower with the flow of the rv water pump. I love it.

That answers one of my questions...does it work with the oxygenics shower head as I have that.

As long as you don't mind a cold water sandwich every now and then.

Bruce

64thunderbolt wrote:

BBFD wrote:

64thunderbolt wrote:
I boondock & use as much water as needed. I carry 122 gal fresh water and I have enough waste capacity so that is why I have it. Another thing is I am usually the only one in my toy hauler. So I am happy with my Truma.

So your boondocking theory does not apply to all. I have camped with hookups only 1 time in 16 yrs when working out of town.

If I want to be frugal I can stay a week in the forest.

Maybe the theory does not apply to you but when you have smaller gray tanks and a family of 4 with two girls who will stay in the shower all day if the hot water is 'limitless' compared to a 6 gallon unit then the theory very much applies. We hardly ever have hookups either....

LOL, I see your point. You could be out of storage & fresh, maybe you should keep the tank. I highly recommend the oxygenics shower head. Gives you the feeling of a home shower with the flow of the rv water pump. I love it.

That answers one of my questions...does it work with the oxygenics shower head as I have that.

BBFD wrote:

64thunderbolt wrote:
I boondock & use as much water as needed. I carry 122 gal fresh water and I have enough waste capacity so that is why I have it. Another thing is I am usually the only one in my toy hauler. So I am happy with my Truma.

So your boondocking theory does not apply to all. I have camped with hookups only 1 time in 16 yrs when working out of town.

If I want to be frugal I can stay a week in the forest.

Maybe the theory does not apply to you but when you have smaller gray tanks and a family of 4 with two girls who will stay in the shower all day if the hot water is 'limitless' compared to a 6 gallon unit then the theory very much applies. We hardly ever have hookups either....

LOL, I see your point. You could be out of storage & fresh, maybe you should keep the tank. I highly recommend the oxygenics shower head. Gives you the feeling of a home shower with the flow of the rv water pump. I love it.

64thunderbolt wrote:
I boondock & use as much water as needed. I carry 122 gal fresh water and I have enough waste capacity so that is why I have it. Another thing is I am usually the only one in my toy hauler. So I am happy with my Truma.

So your boondocking theory does not apply to all. I have camped with hookups only 1 time in 16 yrs when working out of town.

If I want to be frugal I can stay a week in the forest.

Maybe the theory does not apply to you but when you have smaller gray tanks and a family of 4 with two girls who will stay in the shower all day if the hot water is 'limitless' compared to a 6 gallon unit then the theory very much applies. We hardly ever have hookups either....

Our 2015 Starcraft TT came with the factory 6 gallon hot water heater (HWH) with the usual "feels like 9 gallons" claim. Y'all know the drill; No washing dishes while showering, Quick showers, spacing the showers to let the HWH make more hot water.... I shopped for factory made RV gas fired on demand HWH and found they run about $1200 and had to be professionally installed. I am too cheap thrifty to spend two grand for hot water.

Then I had another McGyver moment - why not add our existing Ecco Temp 5 On demand hot water heater to the TT to have endless hot water?

The new install works excellently. Last weekend we hosted 12 people showering (they are in tents) with no want for hot water all weekend. They did have to bring their own towels.

What we did-

1- Install a diverter tee to the stock incoming cold water supply pipe just before the stock HWH. This tee sends the cold water supply either to the on demand or to the stock heater, making the mod reversible.
2- Installed another (regular) tee just after the diverter tee to bring the water back from the on demand. Since the diverter tee will not allow backflow, the second tee doesn't need to be special.
3- Ran pex from the tees to the on demand heater at the rear of the TT, which hangs on the outside ladder, keeping the heater a few inches away from the trailer siding.
4- At the ends of the pipes outside are self shut off, brass, hose style quick connect fittings. These fittings also act as valves, preventing backflow, pipe drainage, and makes the mod reversible.
5- We made jumper hoses from the quick connect fittings to and from the on demand.
6- The on demand uses a typical 20 pound LP (high pressure) tank which also serves our outdoor fire pit. The TT has low pressure LP so we can't use the TT gas to run the on demand.
7- To keep the wind from blowing out the flame* on the on demand and add a rain shield, I installed a typical galvanized, off the shelf from home depot, 4x10" rectangle to 4" round galvanized duct, topped with a class B roof cap. These caps are designed to prevent pilot blow out. Our weekend was very windy and we had zero problems.
8- Dis-assembly is as simple as the quick connects for the 2 water hoses and the LP to the portable tank. We toss the whole thing in the rear storage compartment on the same corner.
9- To keep the fittings on the outside / underside of the TT clean, there is a short jumper hose which replaces the on demand while the TT is in transport or storage. It loops around the nearby bumper to keep it from sagging or pinching.

Counting the heater itself, we spent $286

The on demand is excellent at bringing hose water up to a much higher temperature and acts as a pre-heater to the stock HWH. The factory HWH is excellent at topping off the temperature to nearly scalding, which is how I like my showers. Use of cold water was necessary as we had endless, more-than-hot-enough water to take showers as long and as many as needed. There were times when people were in line using the shower one after another. We washed dishes at the same time. Everyone was happy.

*The Ecco Temp LP HWH's are battery powered, self igniting flame when they sense water flowing. However, when its windy, the flame can be blown out, shutting down the water heating but not the water flow. To restart the flame, either the water needs to be stopped and re-started OR the unit turned off and back on by means of the rocker switch on the bottom of the HWH. Thus the attention to wind is important as you're in the shower nekkid when the unit is running. This usually is a really bad time for the HWH to stop working. The addition of the HVAC adapter and the B vent cap eliminated the fear of the flame being blown out.

The only ones I have talked to are the locals here in Az that have it and everyone seems to like it. One has 7 children and it seems to work for him.

I have not seen any posts from other users yet. If you have any links I would appreciate them. Thanks.

funpilot wrote:
I have made the decision to buy the Truma AquaGo Comfort from the NC dealer. They also made me a fair offer for my basically unused existing hot water heater that made the pricing decision a little easier. Will certainly post my DW's assessment as this is all for her and my sanity. I know where you live 64Thunderbolt....(lol)

I haven't had a lady in the toy hauler since the conversion so I have limited liability. LOL

Have you had an opportunity to talk to other Truma users?

I have made the decision to buy the Truma AquaGo Comfort from the NC dealer. They also made me a fair offer for my basically unused existing hot water heater that made the pricing decision a little easier. Will certainly post my DW's assessment as this is all for her and my sanity. I know where you live 64Thunderbolt....(lol)

DaHose wrote:
Holy cow!!!! 122 gallons of fresh water? You are packing some serious hydration. I am not sure exactly how much I have. I think it's a 40 gallon tank. With three of us in the RV, we can make that last the weekend but not much more.

The grey fills up quick and we don't have a transfer pump. It's on the list of items I might add.

As to gas usage, I would need to see published comparisons. When I looked into home based tankless systems, the price difference on fuel usage was non-existent. I can't imagine why there might be any difference in results when looking at RV based systems.

I run a tankless commercial (180 degrees possible) heater for my hot tub. Everyone said "don't do it because you have a salt chlorinator", but it has been working AWESOME for a couple years now. I flush once a year with CLR and it keeps the exchanger flowing nicely. For the right application, tankless is great.

Jose

My 122 gal is on the small side. Some newer toy haulers carry 160 gal & have onboard power washers. Propane usage depends on how you camp. I wash dishes once a day & shower once a day so with my Truma I am only using propane maybe 20/30 min a day. It doesn't run while sitting around the campfire all night reheating the 6 gal tank. The difference on a home comparison is a 6/10 gal in an rv vs 30/60 gal tank @ home. My propane usage has dropped a lot. I did field testing for them all summer last year. Had it not worked I would have put the tank back in. Even in summer @ 7,000' it got down into the 40's. The Truma exausts through a plastic grill. Still haven't figured that out but it works.