Domestic electric water heaters

[theoldwizard1]

Your typical gas or gas/electrical RV water heater seems to be the source of a lot of "heartburn" for many people ! Seeing as most people do NOT boondock (or only occasionally) has anyone considered switching to a domestic hot water heater ?

Westinghouse makes a 10 gallon stainless steel 10 Gal. 1440 Watt water heater. It probably will not fit in the same space as your current water heater and it will take more than 1 hour to heat a full tank, but it should be hassle free. Most 2000W generators should be able to run it.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I watch my water heater rise every morning, as I finish coffee, my dishwasher arrives.

Thought a smile would be beneficial in these days of gloom and frowns.

[RLS7201]

dougrainer wrote:

RLS7201 wrote:

dougrainer wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
Suburban and Atwood have both proven to be very good and highly reliable water heaters.

Good to get positive feedback !

My daughter's Attwood never has run right since the first day the bought their Jayco. It would light once, but almost never re-light until you cycled the power switch. 3 trips back to the dealer and over $100 out of pocket for "igniter adjustment" and they gave up. If they want hot water, they have to keep cycling the power switch.

Very strange.

Your dealer is incompetent. Plain and Simple. IF a Service Center has a problem with an appliance, the FIRST thing they do, is CALL the Appliance Maker and explain the problem They will walk the Tech thru various tests. IF after the tests and any replacement parts do not fix the problem they may authorize a new replacement appliance. After 41 years as a RV tech, I have found that the younger RV tech crowd(and so called supervisors) seems to think CALLING for help is not the way to go. Well, I have better ways to make my money than wasting my time trying all sorts of tests. I refuse to just replace a part unless directed by the Appliance maker after all tests are done. By calling the appliance maker, you may find out that the appliance has a known fault with a part. Not published yet. As to your Daughters Atwood(Dometic now), you don't state what year model. BUT, there is a KNOWN problem with the Atwood Water Heater Ignition modules starting about 3 years ago and ending about 1 year ago. They had hundreds of thousands of defective Ignition modules and purged what they could. Doug

Or.......your problem could be an issue with your primary thermostat. If it fails and your heater shuts off on the Emergency Cut Off (ECO) thermostat, the circuit board will lock out and not let the heater refire until you shut off the heater and turn it back on. It's a known issue.

Richard

NOT a "known" issue. I have never experianced a 180 degree lockout and then tried to see if the WH would relight without cycling the wall switch. IF the ECO trips at 180 degrees you WILL get the POP OFF valve weeping, which is usually an indication of primary tstat failure. As long as the air cavity is still in the tank. Doug

Doug I learned about the primary thermostat failure lock out on this forum. So at least two of us know about the problem and any others that read the thread. And then it happen to me while renting a space at Walmart in Kingman, AZ. New primary thermostat cured the problem.

Richard

PS: I sure was hoping that you could hook up with FMCA. Darn!

[jodeb720]

30+ years ago, my good friend who had a 75 Nomad - parked in the desert (never to be moved again) had his water heater die.

We plumbed in a 10 gallon under the sink, 110volt water heater and it worked for years. Eventually we repaired the existing water heater control valve and when we plumbed it back in, we had the tap water going to the propane water heater, then into the electric unit.

That way, if we needed additional hot water, we had 20 gallons at our disposal.

Now the thing you have to remember is the Trailer was never going to move - and was connected to 120v all the time.

YMMV

Josh

[dougrainer]

RLS7201 wrote:

dougrainer wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
Suburban and Atwood have both proven to be very good and highly reliable water heaters.

Good to get positive feedback !

My daughter's Attwood never has run right since the first day the bought their Jayco. It would light once, but almost never re-light until you cycled the power switch. 3 trips back to the dealer and over $100 out of pocket for "igniter adjustment" and they gave up. If they want hot water, they have to keep cycling the power switch.

Very strange.

Your dealer is incompetent. Plain and Simple. IF a Service Center has a problem with an appliance, the FIRST thing they do, is CALL the Appliance Maker and explain the problem They will walk the Tech thru various tests. IF after the tests and any replacement parts do not fix the problem they may authorize a new replacement appliance. After 41 years as a RV tech, I have found that the younger RV tech crowd(and so called supervisors) seems to think CALLING for help is not the way to go. Well, I have better ways to make my money than wasting my time trying all sorts of tests. I refuse to just replace a part unless directed by the Appliance maker after all tests are done. By calling the appliance maker, you may find out that the appliance has a known fault with a part. Not published yet. As to your Daughters Atwood(Dometic now), you don't state what year model. BUT, there is a KNOWN problem with the Atwood Water Heater Ignition modules starting about 3 years ago and ending about 1 year ago. They had hundreds of thousands of defective Ignition modules and purged what they could. Doug

Or.......your problem could be an issue with your primary thermostat. If it fails and your heater shuts off on the Emergency Cut Off (ECO) thermostat, the circuit board will lock out and not let the heater refire until you shut off the heater and turn it back on. It's a known issue.

Richard

NOT a "known" issue. I have never experianced a 180 degree lockout and then tried to see if the WH would relight without cycling the wall switch. IF the ECO trips at 180 degrees you WILL get the POP OFF valve weeping, which is usually an indication of primary tstat failure. As long as the air cavity is still in the tank. Doug

[RLS7201]

dougrainer wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
Suburban and Atwood have both proven to be very good and highly reliable water heaters.

Good to get positive feedback !

My daughter's Attwood never has run right since the first day the bought their Jayco. It would light once, but almost never re-light until you cycled the power switch. 3 trips back to the dealer and over $100 out of pocket for "igniter adjustment" and they gave up. If they want hot water, they have to keep cycling the power switch.

Very strange.

Your dealer is incompetent. Plain and Simple. IF a Service Center has a problem with an appliance, the FIRST thing they do, is CALL the Appliance Maker and explain the problem They will walk the Tech thru various tests. IF after the tests and any replacement parts do not fix the problem they may authorize a new replacement appliance. After 41 years as a RV tech, I have found that the younger RV tech crowd(and so called supervisors) seems to think CALLING for help is not the way to go. Well, I have better ways to make my money than wasting my time trying all sorts of tests. I refuse to just replace a part unless directed by the Appliance maker after all tests are done. By calling the appliance maker, you may find out that the appliance has a known fault with a part. Not published yet. As to your Daughters Atwood(Dometic now), you don't state what year model. BUT, there is a KNOWN problem with the Atwood Water Heater Ignition modules starting about 3 years ago and ending about 1 year ago. They had hundreds of thousands of defective Ignition modules and purged what they could. Doug

Or.......your problem could be an issue with your primary thermostat. If it fails and your heater shuts off on the Emergency Cut Off (ECO) thermostat, the circuit board will lock out and not let the heater refire until you shut off the heater and turn it back on. It's a known issue.

Richard

[dougrainer]

theoldwizard1 wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
Suburban and Atwood have both proven to be very good and highly reliable water heaters.

Good to get positive feedback !

My daughter's Attwood never has run right since the first day the bought their Jayco. It would light once, but almost never re-light until you cycled the power switch. 3 trips back to the dealer and over $100 out of pocket for "igniter adjustment" and they gave up. If they want hot water, they have to keep cycling the power switch.

Very strange.

Your dealer is incompetent. Plain and Simple. IF a Service Center has a problem with an appliance, the FIRST thing they do, is CALL the Appliance Maker and explain the problem They will walk the Tech thru various tests. IF after the tests and any replacement parts do not fix the problem they may authorize a new replacement appliance. After 41 years as a RV tech, I have found that the younger RV tech crowd(and so called supervisors) seems to think CALLING for help is not the way to go. Well, I have better ways to make my money than wasting my time trying all sorts of tests. I refuse to just replace a part unless directed by the Appliance maker after all tests are done. By calling the appliance maker, you may find out that the appliance has a known fault with a part. Not published yet. As to your Daughters Atwood(Dometic now), you don't state what year model. BUT, there is a KNOWN problem with the Atwood Water Heater Ignition modules starting about 3 years ago and ending about 1 year ago. They had hundreds of thousands of defective Ignition modules and purged what they could. Doug

[Dutch_12078]

Our 19 year old Atwood water heater works fine, although it did need a new ignitor board a couple of years ago. We also "have hot water whenever and wherever" we want, even when shorepower is not available and we don't want to run our generator... ;

[TiWi]

I like my Rheem 240V RTEX-18 water heater. We used to have the traditional water heater and when it died we decided to take an electric water heater. So glad I did, and I couldn't make a better choice. I have hot water whenever and wherever I want.

[Flan]

Ok we have one at our shop for the slop sink it does good in that application but we’re just washing our hands.

[DrewE]

Flan wrote:
How about a small electric tankless like the eemax

Physics dictates that a relatively low-powered electric on demand heater will only be able to heat a quite small volume of hot water or a larger volume of tempid water.

To get 110 degree water for a shower (at 1.5 gpm) with an incoming water temperature of around 60 degrees requires around 11 kW, or basically a dedicated 50A 240V RV power connection.

[MrWizard]

Water heater, 2 furnaces, fridge, 1997 Bounder
All OEM
Do need a new control board for the rear furnace
Everything else still working, no problems

[theoldwizard1]

Flan wrote:
How about a small electric tankless like the eemax

I have never heard a review that rates the adequate enough for a shower. At least not a 120V version.

[Flan]

How about a small electric tankless like the eemax

[rhagfo]

I would never give up the fast recovery of a gas hot water heater.