3 Minute Showers

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
turn on both elec. & propane water heating. It''ll help some on water heating and recovery.
Check your propane only heat temp, elec. only heat temp. A cooking thermometer in a glass of heated water may show the thermostats are set too low.
120 F is optimal, legal commercial. You may set your temp higher on your ' cold' water heater to give you longer showers.
Elec. water heating is notoriously slow and 'cool ' used alone. By law, they are set at a max.of 120f. 6 gal. just cant do what you want at that temp. and slow 10 Amp 10360 btu recovery rate.
An option for you is
Burn Propane, its 30,000 btu heat rate. set your propane regulator thermostat higher. you will get the hot water for what you wish. Educate all your family that it is very hot, to be careful of scalding.

OPs water heater:
Preset FIXED 130*F t-stats for electric and for propane
Electric heat element is 1440W
Propane is 12,000btu

No adjusting regulator/no adjusting t-stats---it is what it is.
Only thing OP can do is run both at same time, not let water run and change out t-stats to the optional 140*F FIXED t-stats

wbwood wrote:
Get an oxygenics shower head and use less water and your shower will last longer...

X2

Along with running both propane and electric we can get 3 adults and 2 grandkids without running out of hot water.

How we solved the problem with an added on , on demand HWH .

Click here

I solve this problem by staying at a camp ground and using their showers.
bumpy

Use the campground shower.

Although we are in our mobile mansions, we still need to remember when off the grid to be conservative and deal with it. We can go about a week 5 to 7 days, maybe longer without any replenishing of water or dumping any tanks. We only have about 50 + or - of usable water. This is with a shower each a day, dishes, bathroom and the periodic washing. about 5 gallons a day for us, that is her and I. When we have company, grandkids etc., we may use a bit more. Just got to get used to it. Good Luck & Be Safe ! ! !

There are several options, ONE may actually work...

First: Atwood makes a "10 gallon water heater that fits in a 6 gallon hat" by heating the water much hotter than normal then mixing cold and hot via a thermostatically controlled valve it can deliver 10 gallons at 120 Degrees..

Downside, uses a lot more energy, and is much more complex. but that is 2/3 more hot water.

Second. Some water heaters you can use GAS and ELECTRIC AT THE SAME TIME and if you use the cut off valve when soaping up this can last much longer.

Finally you can get a "TANKLESS".. now these play to mixed reviews and there is no practical Electric option for tankless (You simply need too man BTU's. on 30 amps you do not have enough watts.. So they must burn propane)

Theory is unlimited hot water

Final option.. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR INDOOR USE unless you have very good ventelation.. Coleman portable water heater with optional shower attachment

I actually had one of these, kind of wish I still did... Worked great.

It too burns propane and is in fact a "Tankless" water heater.

Running on the water pump, I turned my shower hot and cold full on and caught the water in a 2 gallon bucket, it took 1.5 minutes to run 2 gallon. Length of time for shower to start running cool depends on the temperature of your cold water you are mixing with your hot water. On my MH with a 10 gallon water heater, on average, we could easily go 10 to 15 minutes without running out of warm water. 15 minutes would be 20 gallons of water. We had a 100 gallon water tank so unless we were off the grid for several days we never worried about it. Normally we were in an RV park every couple of days to restock.

I would think under the same conditions with a 6 gallon heater one could go 8 to 10 minutes. Who needs a longer shower that that?

Get used to your new reality - RV's have closed system with limited resources. As others have suggested -buy a Oxygenic shower head, consider bigger hot water tank - or use the campground showers.

wa8yxm wrote:
There are several options, ONE may actually work...

First: Atwood makes a "10 gallon water heater that fits in a 6 gallon hat" by heating the water much hotter than normal then mixing cold and hot via a thermostatically controlled valve it can deliver 10 gallons at 120 Degrees..

Downside, uses a lot more energy, and is much more complex. but that is 2/3 more hot water.

Second. Some water heaters you can use GAS and ELECTRIC AT THE SAME TIME and if you use the cut off valve when soaping up this can last much longer.

First off...
OP has a Suburban 6 gal and the Atwood WHs (6,10 or XT models) will not fit on Suburban opening w/o sidewall mods

Secondly....
Both Atwood and Suburban can be heated using both electric/propane at same time IF they are combo water heaters.


OP has a 6 gal combo WH so his choices are Both heat sources, not leave shower water running, changing out t-stats to higher temp/mixing in more cold water and changing out shower head.

Anything else will require modifications and replacement of WH