Water Heater Upgrade
our 15 yr old tt has a propane only WH and we would like to have electric heating too is it worthwhile to add the stuff needed to a 15 yr old tank or should I just get a new tank? the tank is in...
Forum Discussion
westend wrote:
Fixing the cranky pilot light probably involves some cleaning and maybe a pilot flame adjustment. In some cases shielding the flame area while traveling is also necessary but do you really need hot water at every rest stop?
I've looked at the Hottrod and Lightning Rod aftermarket elements and it is a cheap way to get 120v to heat the water. They are rather low in wattage so heating a whole tank from ambient to 120f is going to take awhile. Yes, some of these have an anode on the rod to replace your original anode rod.
The advice to replace the whole heater has some merit. If shopping carefully for a heater, the dual source heater could run into $400 or so. Compared to the $100 for the aftermarket kit, you're getting a lot more for the additional money and will have DSI ignition as standard.
some additional info, we light the hw tank in the evening strictly for showers, so its on for maybe an hour a day. we do a lot of camping along the east coast of Canada where its quite windy, blowing the burner out a lot(not just the pilot). we don't run the pilot at all, relying on manual ignition each evening. propane usage is negligible even after 7 weeks on the road and actually we'ed use the electric heating function far more than the propane
