Question about propane water heater?

I wonder if you could put the WH on a timer

It is not much difference than having a natural gas water heater and gas furnace in your home. We leave them on all the time. Of course the thermostat will still control when they actually turn off and on.

ktmrfs wrote:
we turn ours off at night or if we are gone for more than 4 hours or so. more of a anal safety issue than anything else. the water will stay warm enough overnight, get up in the morning, turn it on, have my coffee and it is hot enough for showers etc.

Do you need to do this? NO. does it cause any reliability problems. I seriously doubt it.

Yeah, I turn it off at night because the bunks are directly over the hot water heater. The likelyhood of a problem is small but the results would be unimaginably bad so the simple act of turning it off is worth the piece of mind. I turn it on when I use the bathroom in the morning and it's ready for cooking or morning showers. The hot water heater is going to cycle no matter what so that wear and tear would be a wash, the switch is probably good for a couple thousand activations minimum and is easy and cheap to replace if it fails.

WH is on as soon as I know it’s full. It’s turned off when we leave for any length of time as is the water at the hose bibb.
As far as noise, on the outside, the reefer is very quiet, the WH is a little less so, but not annoyingly so. The furnace can be heard, but nothing like the AC.
I don’t think I’ve ever been in a completely quiet campground at any hour.

mobeewan wrote:

2oldman wrote:
If you have close neighbors, please turn off your gas WH at night. They're very loud. Take your shower at night before bed. That way you don't go to bed with the day's dirt on you, you'll sleep better, and your sheets will stay clean longer.

So, should I turn my a/c or furnace off at night? I'm sure those parked beside it or sleeping in a tent can hear it.

X2
It is so quiet that I need to be right next to to hear it. We full time and heat with electricity, but cook and heat water with gas. We use about 3 to 4 gallons of gas a month, DW loves to cook and bake!

I don't hear other folks water heaters at night. Don't know if they are running them though. Probably are.

Sometimes, I can hear a furnace when it kicks on in the RV next to mine. We are packed in 20 foot wide sites where we park for football weekends.

YA! I really worry about tenters who stay up til 4 AM. I never shut mine off. Anodes corrode due to dissimilar metal corrosion. Heat or cold doesn't make any difference. It only has to do with the metal in the water which will otherwise cause your heater to corrode and explode!

We are in a small travel trailer so it is gas only. It is a little noisy as you can hear the flame burning from a distance but not as bad as an AC unit or generator.

I was mainly thinking for safety (as in leaving the unit on for the day while were gone) or propane preservation. Wasn't aware there were safety switches on the units and that they needed very little propane.

All great info.

Thanks!

2oldman wrote:
If you have close neighbors, please turn off your gas WH at night. They're very loud.

mobeewan wrote:
So, should I turn my a/c or furnace off at night? I'm sure those parked beside it or sleeping in a tent can hear it.

Entirely different issue ... hot water in a water heater tank remains hot for many hours even with the WH turned off so even if you want heated water in the middle of the night for washing hands there's no need whatsoever to have that water heater running. OTOH if it's exceedingly hot outside then of course you're going to want to run your A/C throughout the night, if it's cold outside you're likewise going to want to run your furnace. If I leave my WH on overnight it's simply because I forgot to turn it off.

I leave mine on the whole time. If I am not using the hot water it hardly ever fires up. And, it is not very loud. I have heard ones on other peoples campers at the campground that are loud and I winder why but, mine is quiet.