Suburban IW60 Nautilus Tankless Water Heater?

Hi Alabama, I to would like more reviews about bv this on demand water heater as I just purchased one but haven't installed it yet. I'm with ya on no reason to co exist continually heat a tank of water when not being used or have plenty for back to back showers. That's why I purchased it and I did locate a few reviews that were good and this unit is way better price than a Truma which RVers talk about as well but its way more pricey. :-)

Bean67 wrote:
Hi Alabama, I to would like more reviews about bv this on demand water heater as I just purchased one but haven't installed it yet. I'm with ya on no reason to co exist continually heat a tank of water when not being used or have plenty for back to back showers. That's why I purchased it and I did locate a few reviews that were good and this unit is way better price than a Truma which RVers talk about as well but its way more pricey. :-)

Wow, old thread! :) Anyway, I can honestly say that the Suburban tankless WH has been fantastic. I think we settled in 107F for our particular setup. Even a partial flow (maybe slightly less than “half on?”) from the kitchen faucet will kick on the heater. Love it!

Hi Alabama yes old post I was so hoping that you would still see it and get back to me so I could find out your thoughts if you had purchased one. Thank you kindly for letting me know that you all love it. I won't regret my purchase then I'm sure anything is better than Navy showers especially considering I dealt with the military for 30 years lol. Did you have your ears professionally installed or do it so? I was thinking of doing my myself but not sure if it's above my skill set. Thank ya again I'm glad now after hearing from ya I purchased this suburban IW60 on demand it should be a good investment.

audiodane wrote:
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. :)

Your number one reason?

Tank maintenance, just because a tankless water heater doesn't have a tank doesn't mean there is no maintenance. Tankless systems are prone to mineral buildup in the water tubes, To combat that there is a maintenance procedure that needs to be followed which flushes the mineral buildup out of the tubes.

Water naturally has minerals suspended in it, some sources the mineral content can be considerable. Municipal water systems tend to have lower mineral concentrations, water well sources without a softening system can have extremely high mineral content.

Something else to consider, you may need to make some propane system upgrades, regulator and hoses to the tanks may be undersized and the propane line to the tank may need to be upsized..

Tankless systems also have some limitations in just how much temperature rise you can get, the colder the input water the lower the temp of the output water.. The faster you draw the lower the rise in temperature and the slower you draw the faster the rise..

I will also note, I do not have to do any "maintenance" on my tank water heater, just fill and go, drain out the water at the end of camping season..

Bean67 wrote:
Hi Alabama yes old post I was so hoping that you would still see it and get back to me so I could find out your thoughts if you had purchased one. Thank you kindly for letting me know that you all love it. I won't regret my purchase then I'm sure anything is better than Navy showers especially considering I dealt with the military for 30 years lol. Did you have your ears professionally installed or do it so? I was thinking of doing my myself but not sure if it's above my skill set. Thank ya again I'm glad now after hearing from ya I purchased this suburban IW60 on demand it should be a good investment.

I had i installed by a local RV shop, since at the time we’d only had our (first) camper a handful of weeks or months. At this point I could probably do it myself, but would be cautious regarding the propane line… don’t want to mess that up! If you’re handy and know how to work with the pex tubing and propane lines, it’s probably a day to a weekend job to remove the old and install the new. If you’re not comfortable with either of those, then just play it safe and have it professionally installed!

Gdetrailer wrote:
Tank maintenance, just because a tankless water heater doesn't have a tank doesn't mean there is no maintenance. Tankless systems are prone to mineral buildup in the water tubes, To combat that there is a maintenance procedure that needs to be followed which flushes the mineral buildup out of the tubes.

Water naturally has minerals suspended in it, some sources the mineral content can be considerable. Municipal water systems tend to have lower mineral concentrations, water well sources without a softening system can have extremely high mineral content.

Something else to consider, you may need to make some propane system upgrades, regulator and hoses to the tanks may be undersized and the propane line to the tank may need to be upsized..

Tankless systems also have some limitations in just how much temperature rise you can get, the colder the input water the lower the temp of the output water.. The faster you draw the lower the rise in temperature and the slower you draw the faster the rise..

I will also note, I do not have to do any "maintenance" on my tank water heater, just fill and go, drain out the water at the end of camping season..

@Gdetrailer, thanks for your reply. As I mentioned, at the time of my original post, I was QUITE new to campers. Now, I’ll say that I haven’t had any more maintenance with my tankless than you have with your tank. Tanks can have buildup (scaling), which ours did (and doing the vinegar cleaning method ended up descaling the rust off the pinhole in the tank and it stated leaking about 2hrs into the descaling process- ha!) — anyway, I haven’t had any issues with our tankless, and no more maintenance than you (winterizing and dewinterizing).

As for your other concerns; the installed used the propane line that was already there and it’s been fine. Also, as to limits on heating, sure- the tank has other issues to weigh it against— you only have so much “hot” that you set your tank to “really hot” and mix it in when using it- this poses a significant scaling risk if you have littles running around. The risk of scaling with a tankless is far lower since you’ll likely never set it that hot (if you even can? I’ve never tried).

At the end of the day, both options have pros and cons. It’s far better to politely give all the pros and cons and let the reader decide than it is to try and sway them one way or another. Sure, we all have our preferences. But let’s be clear to distinguish between pros, cons, and preferences.

We have the IW60 and have had one issue with it - the flow sensor went bad. I bought a replacement and they sent one under warranty, so now I have a spare. Otherwise, it's been great. Getting them to talk to me about warranty was like pulling teeth - they don't want to work with anyone but authorized service centers. At least parts are readily available, because like most things RV, you're on your own. They claim that is due to safety/liability with it being a propane appliance...

It comes on with very little flow, heats frigid water to blistering hot (but has great temperature control), and we've used it at 9500+ft. I'll probably buy another for our other rig.

I installed a SinkMi$er (in our wet bath) to return unheated water to the fresh tank and regularly use it while boondocking.

Hi and thank ya kindly for replying to my questions about the Suburban IW60. I'm glad to receive any information from RVers who have this unit. I will get an extra flow sensor to have on hand. How exactly does the sink miser hook up to system and do you have to have it return in fresh water tank or can you loop it to come back around? Thank ya again kindly ??

Audiodane
Alabama
thank ya again kindly for information. I'm all good doing propane and PEX as long as I don't have to be a contortionist to get into some tiny spot lol... I do have a good quality dual LPG regulator and its a bigger high pressure LPG line. I have tubing cutters for pex and would use sharkbite fittings and if I have to use threaded fittings I have blue teflon tape made for gas, water or lpg to use. There is an electrical outlet under the kitchen sink where tanked water heater is now and 12 volt plus LPG line and hot n cold water lines with shutoff valves to divert water already there as well. With this info and what ya told me I think I can do it sounds like its just disconnecting n reconnecting everything with a few adjustments to PEX lines. I'm going to have it bench tested before installing it, even though it is new. I'm concerned about the exterior opening and the panel covering the opening properly and I won't install it if I have to cut the opening larger. If you think of any more tips or issues please let me know much appreciated. Thank you again for the help. :-)

Bean67 wrote:
Hi and thank ya kindly for replying to my questions about the Suburban IW60. I'm glad to receive any information from RVers who have this unit. I will get an extra flow sensor to have on hand. How exactly does the sink miser hook up to system and do you have to have it return in fresh water tank or can you loop it to come back around? Thank ya again kindly ??

SinkMi$er or ShowerMi$er goes inline with the hot to one (or more) of your faucets. It's a diverter valve with a temperature indicator that tells you when the water is warm. One input, two outputs - one to the faucet, and one back to the fresh tank or, I suppose, you could something else with it.