Atwood water heater VS Suburban
Our last couple of trailers had Suburban water heaters and my new one has an Atwood. What an unbelievable difference! For starters, even when trying to run the heater out of hot water in the shower ...
Forum Discussion
dougrainer wrote:If you had said, The Atwood will heat up a little faster due to the aluminum tank...I might agree with you. as aluminum is a better/faster conducter...But that works both ways. When the atwood is not running, the aluminum tank will cool the water faster as well... Net effect, is probably a wash.Huntindog wrote:
So the Atwood "uses"8800 BTUs a hour and the Suburban 12000 ?
That is a measure of heat output... You burn propane and it produces heat. The more you burn, the more heat that is produced.
I think it is likely that the OPs new Atwood has a electrical element that his Subs did not...or they were not turned on. And that is why his propane is now lasting longer and producing more hot water to boot.
I have had both brands, and see no difference... Which is as it should be.
The design of the burner tube thru the interior on the tank and the Aluminum Atwood tank makes the Atwood a little more efficient on LP. They both heat up about the same rate, but the Atwood will burn less LP. Doug
At any rate I don't think the BTUs is the proper measurement for what you are trying to say.
BTUs is simply a measurement of burner output, which is based on how fast the propane is burned.
So the 12000 should burn propane faster and heat up quicker. But then there will be more off time once temp is reached... A wash.
