Tankless water heater options on a 35' HR

[hertfordnc]

I am helping a friend navigate through this and keeping him out of Camping World.

His original water heater crapped out and he does not want to replace it. He'd prefer to recover some storage space.

First, am i correct in thinking there is not a good electric option and there is not a good way to get 240VAC to the heater, even with a 50AMP connection ?

Assuming a propane option, is there one that people recommend?

I'm thinking it needs to be vented even if the manufacturer says otherwise, as it's intended for a 2000 sq ft house and not a 300 sq ft bus.

He lives in the coach on a very tight budget.

Thanks

[Rick_Jay]

One more thing to understand is that if they DO get a 240VAC unit connected and working, that it WILL NOT work on 30Amp service. It will ONLY work on 50A service. Depending upon which generator is in their RV, it most likely won't work on generator power either. So that means they will ONLY get hot water while connected to 50A service. No hot water while on the road, dry camping or 30A campsites.

In my opinion, I wouldn't put one in my RV. I have one in the house and the wife hates it. The rest of us are OK with it, but it IS different than having a full tank of hot water. I really don't think they'll be ANY space savings involved with a tankless install, either.

And if money is tight, I would think the closest standard replacement would be the cheapest route. Pulling new wire, breakers and such, plus any additional propane plumbing (line might have to be upsized?) and it will be time consuming and if you have to pay someone to do that, the $$$ will QUICKLY surpass what a standard replacement would cost.

Personally, I like our Propane/electric 10 Gallon heater in the RV. We've never had a hot water problem, though we all pretty good at water conservation. Well...except the teen age daughter! She tries! LOL

Good Luck,

~Rick

[Bird_Freak]

I have never talked to anyone that had one that liked it. My brother put one in his lake house and we tossed it out after 2 months.

[Dale_Traveling]

There are small electric point of use tankless than might work. Either way the owner is looking at a few hundred just for material. Add in another couple of hundred more for the electrical and plumbing work if you or he can not do the mods for something new.

Might need to consider either a repair of what's there or replace with the same. The coach probably has a 10 gallon which he could probably replace with a six which will free up a small bit of room plus would cost less than a 10 gal. Might be something used on eBay or Craigslist otherwise a new complete model is somewhat north of $300 with DSI (no pilot light) and secondary electric heating. Swapping for the same is not technically difficult and may be a two hour job.

[Lwiddis]

“on a very tight budget” does not eliminate the safety issues during the work or after.

So do it right...once.

[way2roll]

Tankless water heaters require a certain GPM flow rate to work effectively. CG's and water pumps are pretty inconsistent and I would think would impact performance. I always scratch my head on how or if newer RV's have solved this problem. If my water heater crapped out I would apply the KISS method and simply replace it with the same kind. Why invite problems? We have one in the S&B and despite consistent flow rate, you invariably get the cold water sandwich. I actually had to install a 2.5 gal under the sink tank water heater to feed my dishwasher due to the latency when it cycled of getting nothing but cold water from the tankless. We had an electric tankless in our old S&B and it required 3 dedicated 50 amp circuits (one for each burner). Granted an RV unit (if an electric one exists for RV's) would be smaller, but it's a huge amp draw to heat water from 50 to 120 degrees in the span of a few inches. I think this would be an expensive undertaking to get worse performance than he had with standard tank just to try and get a few extra inches of storage space.

[dougrainer]

1. Going to a Tankless 240 water heater will not give him satisfaction.
2. He will NOT be getting much more storage space by going Tankless.
3. If storage space is a concern then he really needs to replace the original water heater and forget any possible storage space.
4. Yes, a qualified electrician can run a 240 circuit from the 50 amp breaker panel in the RV. Doug

[Lwiddis]

What you are proposing to do with your friend is IMO far more than the average RVer should attempt....propane, 240 volt electricity, ventilation, water.

[hertfordnc]

This is a 50 amp HR Imperial Class A. 35 or 40 feet.

I understand that the 50 amp power is really both sides of a 240V circuit but is there a safe and acceptable way to pull 240V in this application?

[valhalla360]

Propane needs venting. The question is can you safely modify the trailer to accommodate it. We had one on our boat and it didn't give even heat. Went from cold to scalding and back...wound up wasting a lot of water trying to get a steady temp.

On a 30amp rig, it's not really practical as total wattage available will limit how hot the water can get.

With a 50amp rig, it is possible to pull 240v power but you have to wire it up correctly and using cheater plugs to connect to 30amp pedestals can be problematic.