thoughts on Camco 11673 Hot Water Hybrid Heat Kit ?

I installed an instant heat kit into a 33 year old water heater. It works absolutely great! I highly recommend it if you regularly have full hookups. I found that my tank actually had two ports for an anode. If yours also has that second port, you could put the heater in it. Otherwise you have to take out your drain and replace it with the heater element. You can still open it up to drain, though.

Jose

One only needs to check Atwood manual concerning 'Aftermarket Heating Elements'


THE USE OF AFTERMARKET HEATING ELEMENT DEVICES MAY ALSO RESULT IN DAMAGE TO COMPONENTS OR WATER HEATER
. Atwood’s written warranty states- “failure or damage resulting from any alteration to our water heater is the owner’s responsibility”.
ANY ALTERATION, LIKE THE ADDITION OF AN AFTERMARKET HEATING ELEMENT DEVICE, WILL VOID THE WARRANTY

• Temperatures produced by these heating elements can exceed the 190 ?F. limit of the ECO on pilot model gas control valves. This gas control valve contains a one-shot ECO. When this ECO blows, the control is completely non-functional and must be replaced.
THIS WILL BE A NON-WARRANTABLE SITUATION
.
• When Aftermarket heating elements are inserted into the drain plug, customers are more prone not to flush their tanks.
Not flushing the tank accelerates tank corrosion on both our pilot and electronic ignition water heaters creating a situation where the tank may have to be replaced.
THIS WILL BE A NON-WARRANTABLE SITUATION

Reality...
Owner can decide whether to use on or not
Kit comes with thermostat controls, power switch etc.
Remove unit couple times a year and thoroughly rinse/flush tank


Suburban needs an anode rod.....
Some heater kits come with a small anode rod
But it is very small compared to OEM 3/4" X 9" so owner needs to frequently check status of the 'kit rod' AND if replacements are available and at what cost.

Use one and be responsible for it.

I have not seen any real reason. I know they do not want anything other then their nylon plug in the drain.

Wijames wrote:

enblethen wrote:
We have an Atwood water heater, This type of add on heating element is not recommended. Sure it is out of warranty and may not hurt it. I would be careful about installing one and then again during winterizing be sure it is removed to drain unit.
Camco water Hybrid Heat

Do you know why it's not recommended for the Atwood? Luckily here in FL we dont have to Winterize.

I suspect it's because Atwood WH's use an aluminum tank, where Suburban WH's use a steel tank. The metal used in the Camco heating element may cause electrolysis with the aluminum tank.

I'm thinking I could use this kit with our Suburban SW6DE, which has an electric element, to use less power in summer camping. Come summer, many RV's running A/C drop the campground voltage a little and I can't run much more than A/C plus converter in the heat of the day on 30A service. Water heater on 120VAC is a breaker popping deal breaker. This heater might let me slip in under the amperage limit. We've found that we can run the water heater on electric early in the day and late at night. If that doesn't leave us with hot water, the DSI LPG part heats fast and doesn't have to be on very long.

enblethen wrote:
We have an Atwood water heater, This type of add on heating element is not recommended. Sure it is out of warranty and may not hurt it. I would be careful about installing one and then again during winterizing be sure it is removed to drain unit.
Camco water Hybrid Heat

Do you know why it's not recommended for the Atwood? Luckily here in FL we dont have to Winterize.

We have an Atwood water heater, This type of add on heating element is not recommended. Sure it is out of warranty and may not hurt it. I would be careful about installing one and then again during winterizing be sure it is removed to drain unit.
Camco water Hybrid Heat

I installed one on my water heater about 6 years ago. The one item I like about it is the low wattage it uses when on 30 amp power. It only use 600 watts instead of the 1300 that a full size electric heater uses.
If you put one on a Suburban water heater. It will require a small anode rod be installed every year. I get replacement parts off Amazon.
Some state that installing this item will void the warranty. Mine was way out of warranty when installed.