Water Heater replacement

I,ve heard a lot of bad about tankless.

midnightsadie wrote:
I've heard a lot of bad about tankless.

Same here. Daughter has one in her home. It keeps the bills low, but cycles in LOUDLY if the Hot is turned on even for a second and that's annoying. Her home is also connected to a Natural Gas Line.

I don't think Tankless will save any Propane in an RV application. But the biggest issue I find with daughter's tankless is that it seems to need a LOT of water flow to get the Hot and Cold balanced to a comfortable temperature for usage like a Shower. It's easy enough to get the right temp for washing dishes, but Shower seems to fluctuate uncomfortably. So, unless you're always on Full Hookup providing unlimited Fresh and Gray Water capacity to dink with temperature balance, I'm gonna stick with my premise that Demand isn't good in an RV. What it DOES DO is for the Coach builder. It saves a fair amount of Weight and a LOT of space. Sounds "High Tech" too.

EDIT: You don't say which Make/Model of Water Heater you have, but I want to suggest you replace a Brand (usually Atwood or Suburban) with the Same Brand. If you replace Atwood with Suburban, your space may not be long enough down the side of the coach, and you need to cut the wall opening larger. Suburban with Atwood, you have too "long" a hole in the side of your coach, and may come up short on depth crosswise into the coach. This is because Atwood's tank lies lengthwise and Suburban's is crosswise.

when I was in the rv business, they first came out people were lined up to get them. not so much anymore, there has to be a good reason for that. there is, they are not cut out to be as good as the hype is

If it's an Atwood, the tanks are aluminum and can be heliarc welded if cracked, or a new tank can be purchased and replaced, instead of the entire unit. Not sure on the Suburbans, I dont think the tanks alone are available.

I think you will find that most people with tankless W/heaters are not to thrilled with the performance.

I have a Noritz tankless in my home. I absolutely love it but I don’t think it’s a good idea in a RV. They do need a minimum flow to kick the burner on so quick on and of showers wouldn’t work. Stick with the tank.

We had a continuous installed in our Fuzion because we are full-timing with access to water and sewer so no issues there. When we go “camping” or just living in a campground for a few days it’s not an issue unless we don’t have sewer. If I was just using it for camping trip I would absolutely stay with the regular water heater but ensure it was gas and electric. I always turned on the electric on our old unit once we got setup and never had to worry about hot water. We also had a 10 gallon and that helped too.

Hopefully this will be a non-issue for you once you get to inspect the rig.

Installed first tankless 37 years ago. Main advantage of them is that you can put them almost anywhere, what is crucial in small condos.
The older, with pilot gave you hot water without waiting, but then wasted gas when seldom used.
New, electronic technology saves energy by not running pilot, but waste water as you have to wait for the system to run the igniting process.
Main problem with them is that people buy smaller output than they need.
With undersized unit, in cold weather the flow is very small as there is not enough heating power.
Had big tankless in previous house and could not imagine anything else with 60 gallons whirlpool tub.
From what I read, RV tankless are still not very reliable, so you'll be Guinea Pig in testing them.
I ditto on using electric element on traditional RV heaters whenever you can.
I add such element to our 5 gallon heater when we fulltimed last winter and we could take 2 showers back to back just fine.
Electric element not only will give you higher temperature, but being lower than propane burner - will heat whole tank, not only upper part like propane.

OK thanks everyone, sounds like if I have to replace it then just go with the standard. I think it is a suburban.
I was just wondering how much work I had to get to the lines to disconnect it. I can't believe I can't find a video or someone online that has replaced one in a Fuzion 302 but all the searching last night turned up nothing.

Amazing! Every time the subject of tankless water heaters come up all the posters saying bad things about them. Problem is none of the negative comments come from folks that actually have one. Most of this is pure speculation and fear of the unknown.

As one that actually has a tankless unit, Precision Temp, I can say that they work quite well. In fact, ours really does use less propane than a tank style.

Keith

Bowhunter61 wrote:
Anyone replaced a water heater in a Fuzion 302 or comparable? Wondering where I will have to access the water lines at? Thinking it is behind the panel in the basement area where the pump is located.

Here's a screen shot of a 2010 Fuzion 302 ...



The water heater hatch door is the one on the right, just below the bed slide and just in front of the dinette slide ... the connections to the water heater tank are inside the rig in the exact same location. According to this 2010 Fuzion Brochure your rig has a 12 gal DSI gas / electric water heater. Brochures never indicate the make / model of water heater, for that you'd have to ask either the manufacturer or dealer. However, if yours has an anode rod then it'll be a Suburban, if it doesn't it'll be an Atwood.