H2O heater

[Barry_J]

I have an Atwood G6A-8E gas water heater, which is strictly gas.
Should I be running it all the time while spending time down at my camper?
Even if I am at the beach for the whole day?
Or should I just start it up 15 minutes before I want to take a shower, or when I am back in my camper for some time. Instead of running it while I am not there

[Almot]

donn0128 wrote:
What happens when you want to wash your hands, or do a few dishes?

Cold or room temperature water with soap works against germs on you hands same well as hot water with soap.

Random few dishes at random times of the day... Maybe a reality for some people, but for many it isn't because they don't eat sporadically, and often it's one dish per person. You wash dishes after meals. Easy enough to turn the heater on when you turn the stove off. If this is too much trouble, - keep it on. This will be a waste of propane but if you make this choice, then it's your choice.

Depending on the ambient and how poorly the heater is insulated (mine is terrible), it may cycle more than a few times a day/night and run more than a few minutes at a time, if you leave it on.

[GordonThree]

Goes to show like many other aspects of RVing, there's no one way to do anything. Saving propane or leave it on for the trip, either way seems most dictated by circumstance.

I've never had the fridge or hot water use up my supply of propane while rustic camping, so I don't practice conservation during the warm months.

The winter months, that's another thread.

[pianotuna]

I conserve propane. That means leaving the water heater off. I mainly use it on 120 volts and at locations where I'm not paying for shore power.

[4x4van]

RJsfishin wrote:
No brainer in my book.

If I leave it on all nite, it comes on twice during the nite. (total time 20 min)
If I shut it off at nite, it runs 30 minutes in the morning. Do the math !!

No brainer in my book, either. I have better things to do while camping than try to remember when to turn the WH on/off, multiple times. But then again, I also leave my water pump on (unless leaving the campsite for awhile), so...:W

[MEXICOWANDERER]

The propane tanks are empty.

We'll get up at six tomorrow, pack the tanks, and head out. It's only a four-hour round trip. 87 miles. Nine gallons of gasoline. A mere thirty six-dollars to spend a piddly twenty dollars on gas.

Different people exist in different realities and to assssssssume theirs and yours is the same, is.....well.....not too bright.

The same subject I harp about when dealing with failures and warranties. "Gee the engine blew. Let's order up a giant deep dish while the tow truck gets here" is not something that everyone would be pleased with.

Common sense should enter the picture sooner or later.

[pianotuna]

Give the man a gold star. I can go for about 2 weeks--then I run out of water.

profdant139 wrote:
We boondock a lot -- so we try to be frugal with all of our consumables. It is not a question of money. It is a matter of extending our ability to stay off the grid for long periods of time. So to conserve propane, we turn on the water heater in the late afternoon

[profdant139]

We boondock a lot -- so we try to be frugal with all of our consumables. It is not a question of money. It is a matter of extending our ability to stay off the grid for long periods of time. So to conserve propane, we turn on the water heater in the late afternoon, when we get home from our hike. Then it is time for adult beverages and snacks, while the water heats up, followed by a shower. Then we turn off the water heater. There is still enough hot water in the tank to do the dinner dishes.

And of course, we turn it off at night -- otherwise, it cycles on and off a few times during the night, and the noise wakes me up.

But if conservation of resources is not a significant concern, then you could certainly leave it on all day, just like we do at home.

[Bill_Satellite]

agesilaus wrote:
Think about it this way,

"I have a truck, should I leave it running 24 hours a day in the driveway or should I start it when I want to go somewhere?"

I am in this camp as well "IF" you don't add electric heating element as well. Well, at least I used to be when I had a propane WH. Now I am all electric (plus engine heat) so it's on all the time and the campground pays the bill.
I don't know why anyone would not add an electric heading element to any unit that's capable of that addition.

[GordonThree]

Never realized rving was such a frugal hobby.

[RJsfishin]

No brainer in my book.

If I leave it on all nite, it comes on twice during the nite. (total time 20 min)
If I shut it off at nite, it runs 30 minutes in the morning. Do the math !!

[Old-Biscuit]

Depends on WHEN you want hot water......

I want hot water WHEN I want it not 15-20 minutes later

Atwood uses a 10,000btu burner and will heat water to 140*F (T-stat OPEN) from 70*F at a rate of 10 gallons per hour
Once heated to 140*F the water temp has to drop below 110*F (T-stat CLOSE) for reheating cycle.
(Gallon of propane has 91,600 BTUs)

Atwood WH Tank has a 'insulation cover' which does a fair job of holding temp

I turn my ON when I set up and leave it ON until I 'break camp' be it 1 day or 2 weeks etc

Again...WHEN do YOU want Hot water?

[rk911]

4x4van wrote:

Jim@HiTek wrote:
A house water heater is in only equivalent to a RV water heater in that they both heat water. That's where the similarity ends.

Disagree completely. Other than size, they are almost identical. Both have insulation (albeit the RV WH has less), both have large gas burners...yes the RV system is smaller and therefore has to cycle more often, but other than that, no appreciable difference.

Been RVing for 30 years, 3 different rigs...Have always turned the WH on when we arrived/set up camp, and turned it off when we broke down camp to head home. The amount of LPG used is minimal. To each his own.

yup. and we’ve had dual-mode WH’s in our last two MHs we run on electric most of the time. it goes on when we set up and off before we pull out.

[pianotuna]

If you have direct spark ignition, then turn the water heater on first thing in the morning until it shuts down. Then turn it off. That will leave you with hot tending towards warm water for most of the day.

If you are planning on a shower, then turn it on before you shower.

My ten gallon unit cycles every 4 hours and runs for 15 minutes. Why exactly would I want extremely hot water at say 3 am?

And propane is NOT cheap.

If you are at a campground which includes electricity as part of the pad fee--by all means leave the water heater on.

[4x4van]

Jim@HiTek wrote:
A house water heater is in only equivalent to a RV water heater in that they both heat water. That's where the similarity ends.

Disagree completely. Other than size, they are almost identical. Both have insulation (albeit the RV WH has less), both have large gas burners...yes the RV system is smaller and therefore has to cycle more often, but other than that, no appreciable difference.

Been RVing for 30 years, 3 different rigs...Have always turned the WH on when we arrived/set up camp, and turned it off when we broke down camp to head home. The amount of LPG used is minimal. To each his own.