6 gal electric hot water heater upgrade

Guy Roan wrote:
I would do it in a heart beat.
We have a 40 foot two year old trailer with a Suburban gas/electric water heater, and as soon as it quits I'll replace it with a 6 gallon residential all electric one like I have at home.

I figured I would maintain this in accordance with the book, and the first year I pulled out the anode to check it and it was still good.
When I put it back in no matter how tight I snugged it, it leaked.
I finally gave up and put a cheater bar on it and figure I would just leave it until it wears out and then replace it with something that is not junk.
My electric one at home is 30 years old and has no anode. I have another one in a guest house that is 20 years old with no anode.

On my last two trailer they were gas/electric with no anode and each of those were just drained once a year and I never had a problem like with this present piece of junk

Guy

Wow! You really hate gas hot water!
I love having gas range and hot water, yes use electric for heat as we get it as part of the campsite. That said I love gas hot water, for the extremely fast recovery, even with two ladies taking showers before me I always had plenty of hot water, even with a 6 gallon tank.

I would do it in a heart beat.
We have a 40 foot two year old trailer with a Suburban gas/electric water heater, and as soon as it quits I'll replace it with a 6 gallon residential all electric one like I have at home.

I figured I would maintain this in accordance with the book, and the first year I pulled out the anode to check it and it was still good.
When I put it back in no matter how tight I snugged it, it leaked.
I finally gave up and put a cheater bar on it and figure I would just leave it until it wears out and then replace it with something that is not junk.
My electric one at home is 30 years old and has no anode. I have another one in a guest house that is 20 years old with no anode.

On my last two trailer they were gas/electric with no anode and each of those were just drained once a year and I never had a problem like with this present piece of junk

Guy

I check the anode rod in my residential water heater every year. I thought everyone did.
If you change to all electric, you are restricted to camping CG with electric or carrying a gen set or being without hot water and heat. I like boondocking to much for that.

theoldwizard1 wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
You could always swap out the element for a lower wattage one.

Long time between showers ! Of course if the shower is big enough, you could always "shower with a friend" !

Lynnmor wrote:
If you do downgrade to a residential water heater, remember to have double the height available so you can pull the anode rod out the top. Yes, it has one.

You must be a plumber ! Never heard of ANYONE changing an anode, not that it is bad idea.

I just thought it would be better to have an element that could be powered as opposed to one that trips the breaker and provides no heat.

It is true that very few have a clue. The major big home improvement stores quit stocking anodes because folks are irresponsible and destroy much of what they own.

Lynnmor wrote:
You could always swap out the element for a lower wattage one.

Long time between showers ! Of course if the shower is big enough, you could always "shower with a friend" !

Lynnmor wrote:
If you do downgrade to a residential water heater, remember to have double the height available so you can pull the anode rod out the top. Yes, it has one.

You must be a plumber ! Never heard of ANYONE changing an anode, not that it is bad idea.

The members of this forum crack me up. He has an 18 foot trailer and says he wants to go to a smaller water heater. I'm pretty sure he isn't worried about having enough hot water for multiple showers.
I will agree with one of the posts above. Put in the same size dual use water heater and use electric only.
As for electric not heating up fast enough, we have a 10 gallon duel use. We never run it on propane. Three of us can take showers in a one hour period and not run out of hot water.

If you do downgrade to a residential water heater, remember to have double the height available so you can pull the anode rod out the top. Yes, it has one.

theoldwizard1 wrote:

GrandpaKip wrote:
I put a Rheem 10 gal. water heater in a cargo trailer conversion. Pretty sure it was on a 20A breaker and it never flipped.

The Rheem 20 gallon fit in a 24x24x36 space. It is rated for 2000W so you need to make sure if you plan on using a generator it will do 2000W continuously. I could not find an advertised recovery time for either the 10 or 20 gallon unit.

You could always swap out the element for a lower wattage one.

GrandpaKip wrote:
I put a Rheem 10 gal. water heater in a cargo trailer conversion. Pretty sure it was on a 20A breaker and it never flipped.

The Rheem 20 gallon fit in a 24x24x36 space. It is rated for 2000W so you need to make sure if you plan on using a generator it will do 2000W continuously. I could not find an advertised recovery time for either the 10 or 20 gallon unit.

I put a Rheem 10 gal. water heater in a cargo trailer conversion. Pretty sure it was on a 20A breaker and it never flipped. Plenty of hot water for the 2 of us. But we came from a 30’ sailboat, so we were used to taking a “small” shower.
I turned it on right after setting up so no real worry with waiting.
However, a 120V water heater is not cheap.
I would look into the electric/propane unit first if I was to do it again.