Convert to tankless?

Ah I see, I meant that because we won't always have hookups I want a PROPANE or a COMBO tankless system vs ELECTRIC-ONLY tankless system. We are only expecting to not have full hookups less than 10% of the time on the trip we have planned.

And yes, for those few times we are in national parks or similar places without full hookups we will conserve water and my wife won't wash her hair those days.

We're likely to even get a portable dishwasher for convenience, and those use significant water also! We really plan to have hookups quite often, my wife might not go on the trip if its too "rough".

Our MH is a 2018 Winnebago. It came with a standard 6gal propane water heater. Now the only question is which tankless system to get! Ideally a combo electric/propane tankless system with adjustable temperature.

nosebreaker wrote:
I didn't expect to keep getting replies on this!

I say that it isn't a problem because 90% of the time we will have hookups. There are a few times we won't but during those times my wife won't wash her hair. I'm not talking about 45min showers, just more than the 6min you get with the existing 6gal system.

Well, you keep getting comments because of what you wrote in your second post.........

nosebreaker wrote:
I believe it is only propane, not electric and propane. I was planning on replacing with a tankless propane system as we won't always have hookups. Water conservation isn't a concern.

You implied that you would rarely have hookups.

My very limited experience is that many campgrounds have power, and water, but few public owned (Nat Parks, State Parks, etc) have sewer. You will be staying it private parks and "resorts" to get sewer, and paying the price.

Too late now, few read the entire thread before they make their post, so you are going to get more comments.

I agree however, you need to learn and practice the "navy shower" method for those occasions where you decide to stay in a state park or a national park and enjoy the beauty, scenery and nature, and don't have hook ups. Many parks in the west only have power.

I have the standard RV type shower head with the shut off valve, it leaves the head dribbling so the water temp stays OK and you don't forget it is still turned on.

Being constantly pressurized with park water is another whole discussion, as many have issues with having pressure on all the time (I do) knowing the design and quality of the plumbing fittings, fixtures, etc in a RV. Quality of park water is another discussion also.

You don't give any info on your MH but I find it hard to believe that any MH built in the past 15 years doesn't have 120v in addition to the propane for the water heater.

Charles

Sorry to sway a little off topic, but I looked into the tankless for my home also. There are plenty of Youtube video's on it. The flip side for tankless is they are complex, and the cost of parts and maintenance is high. They sock it to you good. For that reason alone some homeowners with tankless switched back to regular water heater. I suppose we'll find out if the principle is the same with tankless in our rigs.

Thanks for the reply T18skyguy. The on-demand unit we have in our house actually came with a wired temperature control remote that can be mounted in a convenient location. I was going to install it near the kitchen sink, but so far we've seemed to settle on the 122* setting for most uses.

You brought up another good point about trickling water to wash dishes. The system needs a minimum flow to fire the burner, so if the hot water is trickling, the burner won't fire and the water turns cold. I suspect this is what also happens in RVs with the shut-offs on the shower head which allow a trickle. The on-demand heater shuts off and starts filling the hot water line with cold water. When the valve opens up, the person in the shower gets the dose of cold water before the hot water starts flowing again.

Thanks again,

~Rick

what you need to do is combine a tankless WH with a whole house RO system so that you could require draining hundreds of gallons of water .
bumpy

Rick Jay wrote:
T18skyguy,

Just a question if I may. If you keep the water heater set at 105 degrees so you can bath without adding any cold water to the mix, is the water at the sink hot enough to wash dishes with? 105* is probably hotter than I like my showers, so I'm just curious. The tankless system we have in the house is set at 122*, and I think it should be a bit hotter for dishwashing. We keep it set low at 122 so in case any of the "little kids" visiting hit the hot water at a sink, they won't scald themselves, otherwise I'd bump it up a bit. 105 seems a bit on the cool side, but I guess it depends upon what you're used to.

~Rick

I don't know how high the thermostat will go, but the beauty of tankless is you can set it what ever you want and within a minute it's there. The issue would be if you want to do dishes while someone showers then that would be a problem. The rule for dishes would be the same. Set the temperature and turn on the faucet and leave it. Tankless does not like on and off. Where there can be a problem is when you want to trickle the water to rinse plates. If it doesn't get the flow the tankless shuts down. Tankless is not so good for people who do a lot of dry camping. It's not made to save water. We use 105 degrees for everything including dishes. I did try setting it at 112 to shower but it was way too hot for me. I don't miss the campground showers, but my wife and daughter still use them out of habit. One important thing to remember is that static pressure is always higher than running pressure You need to have the static pressure high enough so that the running pressure keeps the tankless happy. I find running pressure to be about 20 PSI lower than static. I can't say enough good things about the adjustable Rinaldo pressure gauge. Very high quality and go it on Amazon.

I wish I would have had an option when we bought our MH. Came with a Girard tankless water heater. very difficult to maintain constant temperature. Will fluctuate between freezing and melting your skin off. I designed a hot water recirculation system that has made this unit more tolerable. Have heard that Truma works better than the Girard. I'm still seeing if I can live with it but wish I had a tank water heater.

so here is the one the op should buy and let us know how it works On Demand Tankless RV Water Heater and he could add the fancy controller for it On Demand Control Center here is a video i would be interested to know how well it works Tankless Water Heater

I didn't expect to keep getting replies on this!

I say that it isn't a problem because 90% of the time we will have hookups. There are a few times we won't but during those times my wife won't wash her hair. I'm not talking about 45min showers, just more than the 6min you get with the existing 6gal system.

T18skyguy,

Just a question if I may. If you keep the water heater set at 105 degrees so you can bath without adding any cold water to the mix, is the water at the sink hot enough to wash dishes with? 105* is probably hotter than I like my showers, so I'm just curious. The tankless system we have in the house is set at 122*, and I think it should be a bit hotter for dishwashing. We keep it set low at 122 so in case any of the "little kids" visiting hit the hot water at a sink, they won't scald themselves, otherwise I'd bump it up a bit. 105 seems a bit on the cool side, but I guess it depends upon what you're used to.

~Rick