Forum Discussion

audiodane's avatar
audiodane
Explorer
Oct 18, 2019

Suburban IW60 Nautilus Tankless Water Heater?

We currently have a 10gal Suburban Tank model that has a leak.... It seems the Girard, the Suburban tankless, and a replacement 10gal Suburban tank heater are all priced fairly comparably to each other (the tank being the cheapest but not by a massive amount).

I've looked at Girard... The Truma and the Precision are way out of our budget range, unfortunately. Then I found that Suburban has a tankless, but I haven't seen many reviews on it.

I noticed that the Suburban claims to come on at 0.5gpm, whereas the girard needs a higher 0.9gpm. I've also noticed the Girard is around 40kBTU and the suburban is over 55kBTU.. But still, I don't find many reviews or youtube videos about the Suburban.

Does anyone have any practical thoughts about the Suburban tankless?

thanks!
..dane
  • wanderingaimles's avatar
    wanderingaimles
    Explorer
    Oct 18, 2019
    Can not speak to your specific question but i will point out, propane provides a maximum burn of 91,000 btu per gallon. consider how the run times will change how long your propane last as well as water availability.
    If you are in an rv park with full hookups, you may love the "unlimited hot water"
    Does the tankless offer any form of electric water heating when you have electric available?
    Just points to consider.
  • audiodane's avatar
    audiodane
    Explorer
    Oct 18, 2019
    great points, thanks. We plan to be using primarily full hookup sites, don't plan to boondock very often and when we do, maybe only one or two days at a time tops (perhaps while on a long trip). These less expensive tankless are LP only, which we are certainly aware regarding LP-only systems.
  • Old-Biscuit's avatar
    Old-Biscuit
    Explorer III
    Oct 18, 2019
    Seeing that the Suburban IW60 Nautilus operates on Propane ONLY you will ALWAYS be boondocking per se regardless of being at a FHU CG Site.

    Consumes 15,000 btu at minimum flow of 0.5 gpm up to 60,000 btu at maximum flow of 1.5 gpm.

    Suburban 10 gal uses 12,000 btu.

    How often do you camp?
    How much propane do you currently have?
    How often do you fill propane now?

    Just remeber ANY tankless W/O electric option will ALWAYS require propane even when FHU.
  • ScottG's avatar
    ScottG
    Nomad
    Oct 18, 2019
    Multi stage with the highest BTU is the best - in theory, but I too wonder about the reliability. There's very little information out there.
    Do people have them and just aren't having any issues?

    Most of the time these discussions digress into arguments over why you need to take a shower that long - which is none of anyones business.
    Please, lets try to keep on subject because this information is valuable to some.

    Hey OB, do any of the tankless RV units use 120VAC to heat? I thought they all only used 12V and propane.

    EDIT: Truma, Girard, Suburban, Dometic/Atwood all look to be only 12V/PP.
  • Old-Biscuit's avatar
    Old-Biscuit
    Explorer III
    Oct 18, 2019
    NONE that I am aware of....12VDC and Propane only

    Electric would need couple of 2000W 240VAC elements for Instant On Demand Hot Water.......
  • wanderingaimles's avatar
    wanderingaimles
    Explorer
    Oct 18, 2019
    Here is the data from AP tankless that makes a lot of these units. This is not a specifically RV model.

    tankless

    The AQC 3.1 is the only 120 Volt model, it will warm a half gallon of water per minute, 40 degrees F. And will be drawing 25 Amps doing it.
  • Lwiddis's avatar
    Lwiddis
    Explorer II
    Oct 18, 2019
    Seems like you are unhappy with what worked for you for years.
  • DFord's avatar
    DFord
    Explorer
    Oct 19, 2019
    You'd use your full 50amp/240v service to provide instantaneous hot water without a tank for storage. You can't heat water fast enough for electric to be practicable in an RV without a storage tank. It's just not possible to instantaneously heat water with electric for RVs - it takes a lot of heat in a hurry to do that and RVs just can't do it.

    The 12v is used for control purposes only. Propane is the only source of heat that makes instantaneous hot water an option for RVs.
  • ScottG's avatar
    ScottG
    Nomad
    Oct 19, 2019
    I've searched for reviews on the Suburban but find very few and most are really bad. The "good" reviews are suspect. I wouldn't get that one.
    It looks bad for all of them. Very few reviews and lots of stories about surging temperatures during use or having it refuse to heat at all. It also sounds like waiting 7~10 seconds for the burner to kick on is somewhat the norm.

    I wounder if the best route is just to go with a 10 or 16 gallon if one has the room and needs the extra run time.
    FWIW, My wife and I take "Navy" showers one after the other and never run out of hot water with our 10 gallon Suburban. We could do that with the old 6 gallon in the last TT but had to be quick about it. The ten makes it easy.

    Scott
  • audiodane's avatar
    audiodane
    Explorer
    Oct 19, 2019
    ScottG- can you link the reviews you’ve found? I haven’t found any!

    To everyone trying to convince me rather than provide useful information:

    - it’s less about 30min showers than it is about two things:
    1) tank maintenance
    2) the fact that we DONT need hot water that often and see no reason to be continually heating it.

    Also, if our family of five does come back from a full day of hiking and all WANT to take back to back showers, we can. Most likely some will go to the bathhouse and some will use the camper.

    Given that the girard, sub tank, and sub tankless are all comparable, I’m looking at all three...

    FWIW, There are a few people on Facebook that I’ve spoken with who have the sub tankless and have had no complaints about it... but I like to cast a wide net for opinions. :)

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