Gas or electric water heater

MAKE SURE the tank is full of water before you turn it on electric,if its not full of water you,ll burn out the element.

MikeInOregon wrote:
Electric when in a campground with electric hookup.
Propane when dry camping.

This.

I have no choice, our 96 Southwind has only gas for hot water. :(

We always use the electric...we will use the gas simultaneously for a quicker recovery after "someone" has taken a very long shower:-) Once the hot water has recovered, we turn off the gas.

Propane when boondocking or we need quick recovery. Other times electric as it is already paid for

I use BOTH at same time for fastest recovery rate

Pennies here ....pennies there.....it's RVng
DANG the costs :B

Unless someone has changed t-stats.......electric and propane are set for SAME temp control even when they use separate t-stats

Electric is slowest recovery rate
Propane is almost twice as fast recovery rate than electric
Electric/propane together is almost twice as fast recovery rate as propane

Regardless they control to same OEM water in tank Temp setting
Atwood......140*F (Except XT Models then it's 160*F with 130*F outlet temp)
Suburban ....130*F


It's 'self-contained' designed to run off propane with AC as back-up luxury source when available.

It's your RV so use it and the components like they are yours :B

I use electric.
If not plugged in I use propane.
If I am using the air conditioner 24/7 I switch to propane.

Electric is first choice. So unless dry camping or if the electric is marginal, we are on electric.

Of course, if we are struggling with enough electric for the air/con we usually aren't needing a lot of hot water.

Depends.
-If on 50 amp hookup I use electric only.
-If on 30 amp hookup in hot weather and running the A/C I may use propane only if running other high current devices to avoid tripping park power.
-If cold weather and incoming water is cold I run it on both electric and propane at the same time to improve recovery rate so as to not run short of hot water in back to back showers or shower while running the washer/dryer.

Ok guys, that makes sense. Electric it will be for full hookups.