Forum Discussion

diazr2's avatar
diazr2
Explorer
Jul 02, 2014

Second Water Heater?

I have a cougar 24ft it's just me and the wife so the trailer is mostly empty. I have lots of weight to play with. My water heater is located in the back of the rig the shower is located at the front of the rig.
When I want hot water at the shower I have to leave it run and it waist a lot of water and fills the gray water tank. I was wondering has anyone tried putting a Water heater very close to the shower so there is no waiting for hot water to appear if so I would love to know if it worked and how you did it.

With Thanks
Ray
  • 2oldman's avatar
    2oldman
    Explorer II
    Jul 11, 2014
    AYRTIME wrote:
    Collect the water in a pail until warm. Use this water to flush the toilet.
    or pour it back in the fw tank.
  • myredracer's avatar
    myredracer
    Explorer II
    Jul 09, 2014
    Jeffzee160 wrote:
    I too added a hot water cirulation line. Click and scroll about 2/3 down the page...

    http://www.jeff-z.com/rv/amods/amods.html


    Nice job!

    There is a way to use a recirc. pump run only when the temp. gets below a preset level. In a building with a recirc. line, the pump may be on a timer to shut down during the night to save energy. In an RV, the pump could be on a simple on/off switch or a 0-60 min. timer. If there was an easy way to re & re our underbelly, I'd consider doing the recirc. line on a pump. And if you could get underneath the TT, it would probably help to insulate the hot water piping.

  • myredracer's avatar
    myredracer
    Explorer II
    Jul 09, 2014
    dewey02 wrote:


    Your post makes perfect sense to those who look at the whole picture of water management, and not just one aspect. The OP did infer that filling the grey water tank was a problem. So anything that reduces water going into GW tank will help with NOT filling the GW tank (at any time-either before or after hot water is available at the shower head), and the oxygenitics will certainly help once the hot water actually arrives.


    Thx for that! It seems pretty clear to me.
  • Thunder_Mountai's avatar
    Thunder_Mountai
    Explorer II
    Jul 09, 2014
    0rion wrote:
    Jeffzee160 wrote:
    I too added a hot water cirulation line. Click and scroll about 2/3 down the page...

    http://www.jeff-z.com/rv/amods/amods.html


    that was a nice read....you've done well at making your camper work exactly for your needs instead of just living with things. I really only have 2 things left I want to do to ours.....a shelf above our headboard to put phones on at night instead of using the pocket built into the headboard and I'd like to add a 120v outlight to the bed slide so we can charge our phones there instead of having to plug them in on the opposite wall.


    That recirculation mod is really interesting. I'm going to look at doing that before next season.
  • 0rion's avatar
    0rion
    Explorer
    Jul 09, 2014
    Jeffzee160 wrote:
    I too added a hot water cirulation line. Click and scroll about 2/3 down the page...

    http://www.jeff-z.com/rv/amods/amods.html


    that was a nice read....you've done well at making your camper work exactly for your needs instead of just living with things. I really only have 2 things left I want to do to ours.....a shelf above our headboard to put phones on at night instead of using the pocket built into the headboard and I'd like to add a 120v outlet to the bed slide so we can charge our phones there instead of having to plug them in on the opposite wall.
  • dewey02's avatar
    dewey02
    Explorer II
    Jul 08, 2014
    Your post makes perfect sense to those who look at the whole picture of water management, and not just one aspect. The OP did infer that filling the grey water tank was a problem. So anything that reduces water going into GW tank will help with NOT filling the GW tank (at any time-either before or after hot water is available at the shower head), and the oxygenitics will certainly help once the hot water actually arrives.
  • Thunder_Mountai's avatar
    Thunder_Mountai
    Explorer II
    Jul 08, 2014
    dahkota wrote:
    AYRTIME wrote:
    Collect the water in a pail until warm. Use this water to flush the toilet.


    x2


    x3 Our issue is with the kitchen faucet. When boon docking we catch that water for coffee, dogs, ice trays, etc. Waste hardly a drop.
  • kellertx5er's avatar
    kellertx5er
    Explorer
    Jul 08, 2014
    myredracer wrote:


    It won't help on getting hot water to the shower faster, but it will significantly reduce the total amount of grey water going into the holding tank so that wasting some of the water during a shower would be less of a problem.



    Sorry, not buying that either. What you are doing is flushing the cold water from the line between the WH and the shower. Let's say it is two quarts of water. No matter how fast or slow it flows, you still are dumping that two quarts of cold water into the gray tank. A low flow head will not make the two quarts of cold water magically heat up on the way to the shower.
  • myredracer's avatar
    myredracer
    Explorer II
    Jul 08, 2014
    kellertx5er wrote:
    myredracer wrote:
    If you haven't got one, get an Oxygenics shower head. They use a lot less water.


    I don't see how this will solve the OP's problem. This will only increase the time it takes for hot water to get to the shower. I think you misunderstood his problem.


    I understand the OP's issue, but there's two parts to it.

    It won't help on getting hot water to the shower faster, but it will significantly reduce the total amount of grey water going into the holding tank so that wasting some of the water during a shower would be less of a problem.

    Getting hot water to the shower faster is exactly why I suggested a hot water recirculation line, which would be the cheapest and easiest alternative to a 2nd HWT.

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