Anyone swapped water heater for a Tankless On-Demand?

Bumpyroad wrote:

why do you need to match a RV water heater as it is never seen anyhow
bumpy

As far as matching- its matching the color of new heater door to campers exterior.
Which if replacing an Atwood water heater (larger), cut out size is different and new door required to retro fit.

As to OPs question I haven't swapped. But my brief research left me with thought is it wouldn't do what I was looking for, instant hot water.
It would on initial fireup supply hot water sooner-not having to wait for tank to heat but time between opening faucet and hot water delivered same, might actually be a longer wait. And also concluded might see slight increase in water use.

Endless continuous hot water for the 2 of just not a need, which seems to be biggest plus. That and end point use-say in residence or large coach, but doesn't apply to small camper IMO.

As little as our heater lights, if just using momentarily throughout day, not sure on gas consumption. Depends on hot water usage and would vary. I just didn't see justification-

However I did note 3amp 12v power use. Constant stand by draw of control boards .2 amps could be minimized by tying to water pump switch. But the 3 amp in use draw every time water turned on gave me pause.
Physically installing not sure what would be involved to retro fit/plumb-its a bear accessing back of ours. Which I also noted the flow control valve-if its as appears, on back of heater, and if need arises to adjust-just not practical.

Overall, given the price and complexity of unit itself compared to tank heater, added 12v use, questionable gas consumption savings nixed the whole idea. The remote pretty cool though. Just my observations-

We. Use tankless water heater in our fishing camp where we have water by garvity and it is fantastic
The first one we bought was over $600. Now you can get one for less than $200.
Compare to tank you may have to wait a few seconds to get the water temperature you want but it is going to save a lot of gas, as you d'ont have to keep warm 6 or 10 gal of water.
A very good investment
Gaetan

I researched these recently as a possibility in our new Host build and found they are energy efficient but not water efficient.

I'm hoping the OP gets some good info on this as I want to do the same when my WH quits.
I know they used to be lousy but there's been a few positive comments in the past from members here.

The only issue is the amount of water flow before it gets hot. The early Giards had a few minutes of water flow before it started getting hot, fine if you're on hookups, wasteful if you're on a tank, especially with a small tank.

Also, an issue my neighbor found is they don't like hard water very much.

Have thought of this as well and have decided to stay with the tank. I have an instant at home (one that does the whole house) and LOVE the fact that when you turn it on you can run water 24/7 and never run out of hot water, great for a large family that showers one after the other. Hate the fact that when you turn it on it takes a while to fire and you get cool/cold water for a few seconds, not good for applications where you turn water on and off like rinsing dishes with hot water from the tap(my wife does that and gets SO MAD).

We used some instant units at a church youth camp last year and they really impressed me (ran on D cell batteries to fire the flame) but the same issues at home, if you turned off the water to shampoo your hair when you turned it back on you had a burst of cold. Many screams from the girls side when this happened!

We don't use enough water that it matters, so I haven't thought about it much. They seem to be becoming standard on many RVs, so they are probably fine.

Before deciding search this Forum for `tankless' and read on. I see where some new RV models have the tankless as standard. Sure hope they work...
IMHO I would never have one in an RV unless I was holed up in a site for the season and had full hookups.

I've been using tankles for 50 years (they were/are pretty popular in Europe) and have mixed feelings about them.
Great thing in household application is small space and options of easy installation of 2 or 3 in the house, so you don't have to wait for warm water to come. That doesn't apply in RV
When you are buying one, buy the biggest flow you can as it will always be "not enough".
Bare in mind that tankless has limited temperature raise so when it is giving you 5 gal/minute raising from 70 to 100, it will be 2.5 gal/minute starting at 34F

It seems my rv doesn't have that great of water pressure. I would not want to make it worse by installing on demand water heater.