Question about propane water heater?

Atlee wrote:
Should one shut off their gas furnace at home during the night when they are sleeping?

Can a water heater fail, and then burn? Sure. But what are the chances? If there was anything approaching a problem with water heaters catching on fire, we'd be hearing about it no end on this board, and other RV boards. But all I hear are crickets.

We used to hear volumes about trailer tires, especially the so called "china bombs" exploding all the time. But even then the % of users experiencing that was very, very low.

What % of water heaters do you believe actually burn?

I was responding to CavemanCharlie who didn't see a safety issue beyond carbon monoxide or the water heater blowing up. The fridge, furnace, water heater, stove, and oven are all designed to generate heat. There's always a risk of having a uncontrolled fire when using these items. One of the reasons why these things come equipped with a, albeit useless sometimes, fire extinguisher.

I thought it was a pretty simple point. The point of my post was not to debate if one should or should not turn your water heater off at night. I don't really care if you turn your water heater off or not, what tires you're running, or what you do at home with your furnace.

Should one shut off their gas furnace at home during the night when they are sleeping?

Can a water heater fail, and then burn? Sure. But what are the chances? If there was anything approaching a problem with water heaters catching on fire, we'd be hearing about it no end on this board, and other RV boards. But all I hear are crickets.

We used to hear volumes about trailer tires, especially the so called "china bombs" exploding all the time. But even then the % of users experiencing that was very, very low.

What % of water heaters do you believe actually burn?

proxim2020 wrote:

CavemanCharlie wrote:

I don't understand what would go wrong that would be a safety issue ?

They are vented to outside as far as carbon monoxide is concerned. And they have a relief valve if the pressure gets to high. (I suppose you could test the relief valve once a year if you want) But, when was the last time you ever heard of one blowing up ? I think myth busters did a episode on one of them blowing up and they had a hard time getting it to blow up when they wanted it to.

While they have a pretty good track record, the chance of a fire is always present with any appliance that's designed to generate heat. Water heater fires do happen from time to time with both gas and electric water heaters. Waters heater fires can be started by electrical shorts, flames leaping out of the burner tube, gas leaks, blocked flues, failed control boards, etc.

CavemanCharlie wrote:

I don't understand what would go wrong that would be a safety issue ?

They are vented to outside as far as carbon monoxide is concerned. And they have a relief valve if the pressure gets to high. (I suppose you could test the relief valve once a year if you want) But, when was the last time you ever heard of one blowing up ? I think myth busters did a episode on one of them blowing up and they had a hard time getting it to blow up when they wanted it to.

While they have a pretty good track record, the chance of a fire is always present with any appliance that's designed to generate heat. Water heater fires do happen from time to time with both gas and electric water heaters. Waters heater fires can be started by electrical shorts, flames leaping out of the burner tube, gas leaks, blocked flues, failed control boards, etc.

I'd say there is a much higher chance of a really bad accident happening on the road to where you're camping than there is for the water heater to blow up, or catch on fire.

But you are not going to stop driving to where ever it is you're camping.

afidel wrote:

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.

I turn my water heater gas burner off overnite just because if it comes on once or twice, it’s very loud... both to me and any nearby camper neighbors

afidel wrote:

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.

I don't understand what would go wrong that would be a safety issue ?

They are vented to outside as far as carbon monoxide is concerned. And they have a relief valve if the pressure gets to high. (I suppose you could test the relief valve once a year if you want) But, when was the last time you ever heard of one blowing up ? I think myth busters did a episode on one of them blowing up and they had a hard time getting it to blow up when they wanted it to.

I turn my WH once a day....right after supper. I wash the day's dishes and take a shower.

The WH is directly under my bed.......noise and safety reasons point me directly to the OFF switch.

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.

Particularly if you have an Atwood HWT, those things sound like a 787 taking off, I unfortuneately have one so I do turn it off at nite.

So, I guess we can conclude that:

1. If your WH is loud enough that it disturbs people (whether inside your RV or out), you might want to turn it off at night;

2. If your WH is directly under a bed, you might want to turn it off at night.

3. Otherwise, there is no requirement for turning off the WH while you're camping.

afidel wrote:

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.

This is a really good point. Our hwh is under the rear bunks as well. I think I'll stick with the off at night, on in the morning routine. just for piece of mind.