Tankless water heater
Has anyone changed out a LP/electric water heater for a tankless water heater? I really want to but I want a second opinion.
Forum Discussion
We had a propane model on our boat. It was always a pain. You had to fiddle with the hot/cold for a good 30 seconds to get a temp you liked...all while wasting water.
If you made any adjustment to the flow rate, you would get ice cold or scalding hot and you had to readjust again. So no shutting it off while lathering.
Most RV tankless are electric. Now you run into the problem of providing enough wattage to heat water.
- If you camp where the 24hr average temp is 80F and you are happy with 100F water, it's marginal but might work.
- If you camp spring/fall where the onboard tank might have water at 50F and you want 110F water at the shower head, not nearly enough wattage.
A 30amp@120v trailer has a max continuous supply of 2.8kw (it's not recommended to operate higher than 80% of the ratings for long term loads). A 50amp@240v, is good for about 9.4kw.
This is different from a house where you can run a dedicated 240v circuit.
Example (not recommendation) from a household tankless heater website:
Performance Tankless Electric 18kW; RTEX-18
Push-button ON/OFF control with LED temperature display
18kW Model Flow Rate up to 2.86GPM
If you made any adjustment to the flow rate, you would get ice cold or scalding hot and you had to readjust again. So no shutting it off while lathering.
Most RV tankless are electric. Now you run into the problem of providing enough wattage to heat water.
- If you camp where the 24hr average temp is 80F and you are happy with 100F water, it's marginal but might work.
- If you camp spring/fall where the onboard tank might have water at 50F and you want 110F water at the shower head, not nearly enough wattage.
A 30amp@120v trailer has a max continuous supply of 2.8kw (it's not recommended to operate higher than 80% of the ratings for long term loads). A 50amp@240v, is good for about 9.4kw.
This is different from a house where you can run a dedicated 240v circuit.
Example (not recommendation) from a household tankless heater website:
Performance Tankless Electric 18kW; RTEX-18
Push-button ON/OFF control with LED temperature display
18kW Model Flow Rate up to 2.86GPM
