Water heater recovery time?
Did anybody actually timed water heater recovery time? We do have not-metered electricity at the park, so anticipating it, I added electric element to my gas WH. When I start the electric first tim...
Forum Discussion
Old-Biscuit wrote:
Want hot water......
Turn on that aftermarket heat rod \ turn on your propane and LEAVE them BOTH ON.
Then you will have hot water when you open a faucet AND the fastest recovery available for your WH
That aftermarket rod/t-stat can maintain hot water during low usage periods and the propane will help to recover lost heat during high usage periods.
Propane is NOT that expensive and last a long time.
6 gal Atwood uses an 8800 btu burner.......1 gal propane is 91,000 btu
Just for comparison, 450 W is 1535 btu. The burner is over five times as powerful as the element. Offsetting that somewhat is the greater thermal efficiency of an electric immersion element--more of the heat goes to heating the water vs. escaping into the environment. In practice, the burner is likely still at least four times as fast at heating water.
