Tankless water heater

64thunderbolt wrote:
For those who dry camp I have done field testing on a new tankless heater for Truma corp. Test unit was installed in the spring and I used it several times throughout the summer. They are on the market now. In Nov they installed the production unit. This is one of the best mods I have ever done to a toy hauler. It has saved me approx 50% in propane use. I have taken showers as I do @ home letting it run continuously for 10/15 min and there was never a change in temp. No more reheating the tankful of water over & over. No more waiting for enough hot water. It is propane only and is absolutely wonderful for dry camping.

I am very interested in this, I have been a home user of a Rinnai propane tankless water heater for eight years now. is it really available and reliable now?

Tell us more! I have a Rinnai at my S&B as well. Is there a delay before hot water is actually flowing out of the faucet.

Sounds awful lot like a commercial for the company in question..

Personally, I looked at the idea of a tankless water heater.. Until a did some homework.. They simply do not "save" energy, in fact to get enough heat into the water they use a considerably LARGER, HIGHER BTU BURNER.

Temp control is a major complaint, they only can heat the water so far above the incoming water temp and water flow will change the amount DRASTICALLY.

Requires a MINIMUM WATER FLOW which typically is .5-1.5 gallons per minute just to turn on the burner.. This means you will use a lot of water in the process.

Something else you forget to mention in your commercial is tankless water heaters PLUG UP from mineral build up.. That means if you are not on city water (which is highly filtered and softened) you WILL be spending a lot of time CLEANING the tankless heater pipes..

So far, I have no problems getting a 15 minute shower without the need to turn the water on/off with a 6 gallon conventional water heater. Could even take that to 20 minutes if I wanted to..

The "trick", set the water so the shower head gives off a nice "pattern".. When done right you are mixing a lot of cold water with a little hot water (RV water heaters tend to output very high water temps, on the order of 130-135 degree) which allows you to use 1 gallon of hot for 2 or 3 gallons of cold. The result is a 10-15 minute shower if you use no more than 1 gallon of water per minute.

Let me get this straight. This is for dry-camping; you're taking 10 to 15 minute showers!! Saves 50% propane ?? We do a lot of dry-camping, and nothing here rings a bell.

I'm with Gdetrailer above.

Doug

Is the tankless water heater the same thing as an endless hot water system?

Just wondering.

Ron

Gdetrailer wrote:
Sounds awful lot like a commercial for the company in question..

Something else you forget to mention in your commercial is tankless water heaters PLUG UP from mineral build up.. That means if you are not on city water (which is highly filtered and softened) you WILL be spending a lot of time CLEANING the tankless heater pipes..

Your city water may be highly filtered and softened but NOT here in AZ.

Water is very hard. So mineral build up IS a big issue.

As for the other aspects of your post.....I agree. Higher BTU, water volume needed for burner, temp control.

Other fact is temp of source water........70*F allows for better temp control than 50*F inlet temp.

Still have big question about RV use/benefit

lanerd wrote:
Is the tankless water heater the same thing as an endless hot water system?

Just wondering.

Ron

Exactly so, one of the reasons I love it. Only uses fuel when you need it.

oldakerw wrote:

lanerd wrote:
Is the tankless water heater the same thing as an endless hot water system?

Just wondering.

Ron

Exactly so, one of the reasons I love it. Only uses fuel when you need it.

Tankless or "endless" whatever you wish to call it USES A LARGE HIGH BTU BURNER.

Example, my 40 gallon home water heater has a 40K BTU burner, I can easily open multiple faucets or take a shower and have the washing machine running at the same time and still not run out of hot water.

A SINGLE POINT OF USE tankless will have a 125K BTU BURNER and provides only enough hot water for ONE device like one faucet, one shower, one washing machine at a time. The more faucets or devices you have drawing hot water the COLDER IT GETS.

A RV tankless water heater will be very simular to a home type so when that burner turns on it will be hogging a lot of propane all at once. In fact to retrofit a tankless you WILL need to increase the gas line size upgrade the regulator for the propane tank, upgrade the pigtails to higher capacity type.

In my home that would mean ripping out 20ft of 3/8" gas line and installing 20ft of 1/2" minimum gas line.. Your RV will have 1/2" steel gas line with 3/8" copper feeds to appliances so if the furnace fires up or the stove is turned on your not going to have enough gas line capacity..

Tankless units do not have any more efficiency than a tank type.

With tankless types you also get the cold-hot-cold syndrome which can be a real joy to have happen while taking a shower.. In a nutshell if the flow drops too low the burn shuts off, then you get ice cold water then when the flow increases you now get scalding hot water.. Sounds like a lot of fun to me.. not.

The lower the inlet temp is and the faster you draw hot water the LOWER the output temp of the water will be.

I looked up that company which the OP posted.. It is a European manufacturer trying to break into the US RV appliance market.. They have nothing listed on their website for products other than some sort of expensive gas level detector and some Jackets with their name on it for $169..

Vaporware..

Europeans use tankless water heaters due to the fact that they are compact and hung on the walls in small cramped apartments or homes, typically hanging right above the shower in the bath.. Just because they use em doesn't mean they are better or more efficient.. That is a marketing sales hype..

Some people like them.. many however after getting one tend to dislike them..

I'm still trying to find the link to it. Is it a secret ?

RJsfishin wrote:
I'm still trying to find the link to it. Is it a secret ?

I believe this is the unit the OP is referring to

Endless hot water!