RV tankless water heater
Good evening, Trying to get information on the value of putting in a tankless water heater in our RV. What does it cost to install and what's a good model to get? We've got a 6 gallon heater and l...
Forum Discussion
Im a plumber 30 years.. I would never install a tanless in my home let alone an RV.
#1 if you are always on full hook ups may be the only time I recommend them if you truely want to stay in the shower forever, but the drawbacks outweight any benefit.
#2 You need 1 gpm to operate the flow control. Boon docking when I do dishes I often trickle the HW. Tankless will never work. Additionally I have low flow aerators at 1 gpm. Tankless may activate or may not.
#3 waste more water, does not save as they say. Why? need to turn on full blast HW to activate flow control. Cannot deviate or unit may turn off.
#3 temp control is simply low. med, high flame dial.. Its will not auto adjust
#4 They say saves propane,, This is nonsense as The burner in attwoods is 50k btu;s. The girards are 18-36K. The tank heaters are a mere 10k btu. ( Do the math)
I for one only heat the water when we need it. Tank usually stays hot for what I need to do. If showering we take back to back showers with 15-20 minutes in between. I leave switch off most of the time. Once I heat a tank of water we can use that all day for waht we do. Ill heat the tank at night before bed and first thing in morning.
#5 Will eat up 12 volt power. These units have blowers. If I was boondocking thats the last thing I would want is another 12volt motor to eat my amps.
#6 gas line to original heater may need to be up sized due to #5 above. If the line is only sized to supply 15k btu say, then on high fire the unit will starve for LP.. Sooting and CO issues can develop... LP is higher pressure though. This is a mathematical equation that will need to be calculated...
Although at 11" W.C. this is usually not an issue but pressures need to be checked with all other gas appliances running 100%
All my opinion..
I would install a 10 gallon heater or just take shorter showers.
I have never had an issue of taking 10 minute plus showers on full hook ups and just sensing some loss of HW
Just my 2 cents... : )
#1 if you are always on full hook ups may be the only time I recommend them if you truely want to stay in the shower forever, but the drawbacks outweight any benefit.
#2 You need 1 gpm to operate the flow control. Boon docking when I do dishes I often trickle the HW. Tankless will never work. Additionally I have low flow aerators at 1 gpm. Tankless may activate or may not.
#3 waste more water, does not save as they say. Why? need to turn on full blast HW to activate flow control. Cannot deviate or unit may turn off.
#3 temp control is simply low. med, high flame dial.. Its will not auto adjust
#4 They say saves propane,, This is nonsense as The burner in attwoods is 50k btu;s. The girards are 18-36K. The tank heaters are a mere 10k btu. ( Do the math)
I for one only heat the water when we need it. Tank usually stays hot for what I need to do. If showering we take back to back showers with 15-20 minutes in between. I leave switch off most of the time. Once I heat a tank of water we can use that all day for waht we do. Ill heat the tank at night before bed and first thing in morning.
#5 Will eat up 12 volt power. These units have blowers. If I was boondocking thats the last thing I would want is another 12volt motor to eat my amps.
#6 gas line to original heater may need to be up sized due to #5 above. If the line is only sized to supply 15k btu say, then on high fire the unit will starve for LP.. Sooting and CO issues can develop... LP is higher pressure though. This is a mathematical equation that will need to be calculated...
Although at 11" W.C. this is usually not an issue but pressures need to be checked with all other gas appliances running 100%
All my opinion..
I would install a 10 gallon heater or just take shorter showers.
I have never had an issue of taking 10 minute plus showers on full hook ups and just sensing some loss of HW
Just my 2 cents... : )
