6 Gallon Water Heater in 36' Winnie

[smacdiesel]

My Winnebago Vista 36b comes with a 6 gallon WH. This is a bunk model, little disappointed in the size, what gives? Wondering if I'm going to struggle a bit with two daughters and dw? Am I in trouble? Anybody know if I could upgrade to a 10 gallon?

[naturist]

6 gallons of hot water is plenty. Nobody will be able to take one of those 45 minute, lap-of-luxury, steam up the entire place type showers, but everybody will be able to Do the Needful Thing easily. It i possible for anybody to shower in 2 gallons of water total if they are doing it right. Given that you will have about 12 gallons of shower-temperature water, if you throw in the time the heater will be on DURING the showers, you should have no trouble getting 10 or 12 people clean, all told.

[smacdiesel]

Thanks for all the replies everybody!! I don't take delivery until August and I'm learning a lot here, you are all very nice people!

[dkreuzen]

Atwood makes a "XT" line of water heaters. They claim the 6 gal preforms like a 9 gal and fits in the same space as their standard 6 gal unit.
http://www.atwoodmobile.com/images/waterheaterxt.pdf

[Bumpyroad]

Rwake901 wrote:
We have a six gallon in our motorhome. It's just my wife and I but we have never run out of hot water when showering.

shower together and conserve water.
bumpy

[olfarmer]

Rwake901 wrote:
We have a six gallon in our motorhome. It's just my wife and I but we have never run out of hot water when showering.

I agree, we have had 2 class A MH with 6 gal. water heaters
and never ran out of hot water and we both take normal length showers.
:B

[Rwake901]

We have a six gallon in our motorhome. It's just my wife and I but we have never run out of hot water when showering.

[Dick_B]

Just be sure you take your shower first!
In our rig I normally use the campground shower IF it is bigger than the one on our rig; some are not.

[spadoctor]

use it on electric and gas together for faster recovery....also no matter the size tank they all have the same output burners so the larger the tank the slower the revovery.

[Duane]

We have a 37' Winnie and our travel party usually consists of me, my wife, our daughter and one of her friends who she brings along. We have camped in this rig for almost 5 years and have never had an issue. The 6 gallon w/h recovers really fast. You should be fine.

[Bumpyroad]

send the women in to the campground shower.
bumpy

[reubenray]

The DW and I have never run out of hot water even while taking full showers. If the water is cold we turn on both the electric and propane switches. Just be aware it will get very hot. I had the same concerns when I first start rv-ing. We do wait ten or 15 minutes between the showers.

[helperzack]

Five of us camp and have never had a problem running out of hot water. Now, we don't all line up jumping into the shower one right after the other, but our water heater recovers super fast. Everyone will learn how the on/off on the shower handle works.

If still worried just always be the first in... 🙂


Happy Camping!

[poncho62]

Its called ......"Roughing it"

[Golden_HVAC]

The 10 gallon is larger, with a need for more space - probably not included in the original design. Wider and taller.

The 6 gallon tank is very hot - normally around 140F. That is enough to mix 1:1 with 60F incoming water to give a 12 gallon shower around 100F. Because it is "Camping" some sacrifice is to take a shorter shower, afterall the fresh water tank is only 60 gallons - give or take. The grey tank probably smaller than that. Most shower heads only allow about 1.5 gallons per minute flow, and most water pumps are likewise limited to about 1.8 or 2.5 gallons per minute.

If they can take a "Navy shower" - that is soap up, then shut off the water while washing, then rinse fairly quickly, they can use the shower and use less than 5 gallons of water total. In a campground, they can use more water, with full hookups, but still they should conserve. It is camping!

When I was living in my RV, and it was 40F out, my incoming water was also 40F, so my 6 gallon water tank was only lasting me about 5 minutes! A very short shower indeed, and I had put in a hard day's work too. So what I did was fill the fresh water tank with warm water, and that 80F water mixed with 140F 6 gallons of water let me take 10 - 15 minute showers without conserving at all!

If your outside shower hose will reach the fresh water inlet, you could fill it with some of the 140F water, and thus fill that tank with warm water. 10 gallons of 140F water will change a 50 gallon water tank from 60F to about 15F warmer.

Good luck!

Fred.