Convert to tankless?

[nosebreaker]

We picked up our Class C last weekend, and as expected it doesn't have hot water long enough for my wife to shower and wash her hair. We were planning to add a tankless propane heater to it (currently has 6 gallon standard one now) but I have been reading about problems with them. Some people say they don't provide consistent hot water, and to me that defeats the purpose! Has anyone converted to one comment?

[LifeInsideJack]

Bumpyroad wrote:
do these "success stories" involve RVing with full hookups, etc.? if not do your black/grey tank/s require dumping more often, etc.?
bumpy

We are full time.

The black tank cycle hasn't changed. The grey tank would need to be emptied every other day due to our longer showers. Therefore we only park at full hookup sites. These are more expensive in the northern states but this isn't an issue. We don't have a house payment or any debt for that matter, so it's not that big of a deal to us.

This upgrade makes living in this trailer more convenient as we no longer wait between showers or washing dishes.

I also want to agree with the lower propane usage. We would refill our tanks every three weeks but now we can go nearly two months before we have to refill them. We keep ourselves in fairly moderate temperatures and since we are always plugged in we use an electric heater should we need it.

[magnusfide]

Lifeinsidejack full times. We carry one of those spare grey water tanks when in cgs without a sewer hookup at the site. We just roll the overflow to the dump station if we're there for longer than three days.

[Bumpyroad]

do these "success stories" involve RVing with full hookups, etc.? if not do your black/grey tank/s require dumping more often, etc.?
bumpy

[magnusfide]

LifeInsideJack wrote:
Update: Having the Suburban tankless now for just less than three months and we are still as happy as we were on Day 1. The unit has performed well.

Since installation, we have been in six different RV Parks (in as many states) and each park has its own water situation. In some, we share a hose bib with up to four campers, in other parks the hose bib services just our coach but the pressure was quite low. No matter. The On-Demand System performs well.

Secondary to the performance is the noise level. This unit is very very quiet. We hear our neighbors' water heater firing up but ours is much quieter than the six-gallon unit we had prior.

As another has said, I share our experience, which is very positive, to encourage others thinking along this line. For us, again full-timers, we rate this as an upgrade that was worth the investment. We have also upgraded our fridge, oven, flooring, and couch.

This may only be 19' but it is our home and want to be very comfortable in it.

I'm glad to hear this. I started badgering rv makers about tankless wh 15 years ago. As usual no one wanted to change. The first ones to come out no one was willing to chance it. We installed a Suburban and have been really happy with it. It's also reduced our propane usage because the wh heater doesn't come on to reheat water we aren't using at the moment especially in winter. We like to do a lot of cool weather camping and the Suburban tankless does just fine.

[LifeInsideJack]

Update: Having the Suburban tankless now for just less than three months and we are still as happy as we were on Day 1. The unit has performed well.

Since installation, we have been in six different RV Parks (in as many states) and each park has its own water situation. In some, we share a hose bib with up to four campers, in other parks the hose bib services just our coach but the pressure was quite low. No matter. The On-Demand System performs well.

Secondary to the performance is the noise level. This unit is very very quiet. We hear our neighbors' water heater firing up but ours is much quieter than the six-gallon unit we had prior.

As another has said, I share our experience, which is very positive, to encourage others thinking along this line. For us, again full-timers, we rate this as an upgrade that was worth the investment. We have also upgraded our fridge, oven, flooring, and couch.

This may only be 19' but it is our home and want to be very comfortable in it.

[j-d]

Good Stuff! I think this is the first thread on tankless where the evaluations in RV use were positive. As some mention, the units may have gotten better. Also, the more in use, the more tips will come out about how to use it best.

I suspect the RV manufacturers are going this way to

Save Space
Save Weight
Save Cost
Appeal to Tech-Driven Customers

None of those mean an owner will be happy with one. These reports do.

[nosebreaker]

We did our first test camp with the new tankless hot water heater, and it worked as expected. There was a lot of tweaking the temperature setting, too hot until we set it way down to 99F (a far cry lower than the 105-108F that I saw others claim they used).

The wife is happy with it. She was able to take an extended shower and wash her hair without issue.

[LifeInsideJack]

Quick update: we're in a park here in Iowa where 4 campers are sharing the same hose bib. In this setting others are affecting our pressure. Additionally the park has fair to low pressure on its own. We're not experiencing any issue with the On Demand system. Our flow is higher than the pump, but not high enough to wash down anything. Even at 3gpm the unit worked well, here with the low to lower pressure, when the neighbor runs water, we're still getting a constant flow of hot water. The only people who ever expressed concern or negativity about RV On Demand systems were people who did not have one.

Is there a drawback? Our grey tank is probably filling faster as our showers are longer but again we don't boondock nor are we without hook ups. We move every two weeks.

Still very happy.

[drsteve]

nosebreaker wrote:
I ended up replacing our 6gal hot water heater with a Suburban Nautilus IW60 tankless hot water heater. It went into the same spot without an issue, just finding all the parts was sort of difficult.

Please be sure to come back and let us know how it works out, what if anything you have to do to get it dialed in, and most importantly, if it meets your wife's expectations. 🙂

As they say, happy wife happy life..

[nosebreaker]

I ended up replacing our 6gal hot water heater with a Suburban Nautilus IW60 tankless hot water heater. It went into the same spot without an issue, just finding all the parts was sort of difficult.

[drsteve]

Make sure to remove ALL flow restrictors from shower heads and faucets. No experience with tankless RV water heaters, but we've had one in our sticks & bricks for over ten years, and love it.

[LifeInsideJack]

Bumpyroad wrote:

LifeInsideJack wrote:
We pulled the trigger and installed a Suburban tankless water heater. The old one slipped out and the tankless went right in to the vacant spot.

It works great.

it would be helpful if you would specify what type of RVing that you do. boondock a lot, always have hook ups, etc.
without that information the fact that you like it so far is meaningless.
bumpy

We never boondock. We're full-time, move every couple weeks and were tired of limited showers.

After installation we tested the water heater to see if it would respond to our pump (3 gpm) and it fired without hesitation.

I suspect that if we were camping people we would not have made the change. But, this isn't our hobby, it's our home. I say that due to its installed price at around $850. Totally worth it to us, but to someone who uses their coach less than we do maybe not.

There are many factors all the way down to your faucet fixtures that could play a part in limiting the performance of the on demand system. Take this post as encouragement. Your results may vary.

[Bumpyroad]

LifeInsideJack wrote:
We pulled the trigger and installed a Suburban tankless water heater. The old one slipped out and the tankless went right in to the vacant spot.

It works great.

it would be helpful if you would specify what type of RVing that you do. boondock a lot, always have hook ups, etc.
without that information the fact that you like it so far is meaningless.
bumpy

[LifeInsideJack]

We pulled the trigger and installed a Suburban tankless water heater. The old one slipped out and the tankless went right in to the vacant spot.

It works great.