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
Thermoguy wrote:
jpmyers wrote:
My question at this point would be; what is the largest Propane/Electric water heater can I replace this new tankless water heater with? The original was a6 gallon unit and I do not believe there is any space available, after modifications to squeeze in a larger water heater.
It seems like your real questions is if a 6 gal water heater is enough hot water for your needs. With a family of 3 that often takes showers back to back, we have not found any issues with enough hot water. When camping without hookups we always take navy showers so we don't use much hot water.
My thought is a 6 gallon water heater may not be enough. My prior rig had a 6 gallon water heater and occasionally it would not keep up if 2 adults and 2 kids took back to back showers.
My current rig has a 10 gallon lp/electric heater and we never run out of hot water and we do not take navy showers.
For me a 10 gallon RV water heater is the ultimate. I see no need for tankless heater in an RV.
What is the point of having unlimited hot water if you don't have unlimited grey water capacity and unlimited fresh water capacity.valhalla360 wrote:
Most RV tankless are electric.
Who makes an electric tankless RV water heater. I can't find one.
The Girard tankless is propane.
Furrion tankless is propane
Rec Pro / Fogatti is propane
Camplux is propane
Lippert is propane
I've yet to find an RV tankless water that runs on anything other than propane.- 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 - Great if you’re always on fhu and using it like a house.
Huge waste of water if you’re actually camping with out fhu or at least a water hookup and the ability to drain gray tank as needed (IE on the ground). jpmyers wrote:
That's another issue I have with this tankless water heater! It takes quite a while to get your water temperature dialed in at the shower head due to how long it takes to get hot water. So when you do the whole Navy shower routine, you have that same wait for hot water all over again when you are needing to rinse off. The tendency then is to leave it running at your temp. But that wastes a lot of water and gas.
Thats why IMO a https://www.showermiser.com/
should be in all RV's. No wasted water.- That's another issue I have with this tankless water heater! It takes quite a while to get your water temperature dialed in at the shower head due to how long it takes to get hot water. So when you do the whole Navy shower routine, you have that same wait for hot water all over again when you are needing to rinse off. The tendency then is to leave it running at your temp. But that wastes a lot of water and gas.
- I have a 10 gal WH in my TT and have never ran out of how water. Just the 2 of us and the DW usually goes 1st. She spends more time after the shower in the bathroom than I do so that gives the WH a little more time to recover.
I also think some brands are better than others. jpmyers wrote:
My question at this point would be; what is the largest Propane/Electric water heater can I replace this new tankless water heater with? The original was a6 gallon unit and I do not believe there is any space available, after modifications to squeeze in a larger water heater.
It seems like your real questions is if a 6 gal water heater is enough hot water for your needs. With a family of 3 that often takes showers back to back, we have not found any issues with enough hot water. When camping without hookups we always take navy showers so we don't use much hot water.- Another vote for glad I took out the tank less water heater that cam in my trailer and swaped to a tank.
