Forum Discussion

eubank's avatar
eubank
Explorer
Jan 06, 2017

Fexperience w/ Excel tankless & ventless water heaters?

Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with the Excel tankless and ventless water heater? The price is certainly right.
http://excelonlinestore.com/tankless-gas-water-heater-1-6-gpm-lpg-propane-low-pressure-startup
Lynn
  • Are you willing to post your results from talking to the tech department ?

    2 things
    GPM needed
    Temperature differential

    please EUbank, post what they
  • Hi Lynn,

    I'd look at a ten gallon that is electrical, propane, and (if you are in a self propelled RV) engine heat exchanger.

    Tankless heaters are not yet ready for prime time in RV's.
  • Thank you for the commmentary on this! As is often the case, a low price would come with very low expectations. Think we'll consider one of the more standard (and expensive) tankless models.

    :)
    Lynn
  • Nearly 50 years ago, working in Libya in oil bus, tankless propane water heaters were all they had in our houses. Several expats died closing bathroom door to take warm bath; supposedly they burned all the oxygen in the air and they just went to sleep not to wake up. Sure things have changed since, but beware.
  • Those are available under a lot of different names. They are not intended to be used inside a living space. I have seen a couple of pop up owners that mounted them on the outside.

    Look at the fittings, they are garden hose connections.
  • It will introduce a good bit of moisture into the air in the RV, like a ventless heater. I guess if you're taking a shower that's perhaps not a show-stopper, since showering also introduces a lot of moisture that needs to be vented out anyhow. If you are someplace with cold city water, it would also be rather anemic; you'd have to either have a cool shower or a pretty dribbly one.

    I can't tell whether the unit is thermostatically controlled in any way (for varying flow rates). I'd rather hope it would be. It's also not clear how easy or hard it would be to drain for winterizing; pumping antifreeze through should be workable in any case. They didn't seem to have any sort of actual installation or user manual available online; probably you could get one by email for the asking. I wonder what the clearance requirements would be.