Water Temperature on Suburban Gas/Electric Water Heater

I believe they are a fixed temp that is engineered for the other components of the unit.

I am not aware of any aftermarket tstat/ECO that is available for the Suburban water heater. What gallon do you have 6 or 10? Why do you want to increase the water temp? To get more hot water by mixing the cold with a higher temp? You can run BOTH 120 and LP at the same time for faster recovery. Doug

I have a ten and yes, that's the reason. I do that also but I know at least with other water heaters, you can turn up the temperature, not sure why this one would be special. There has got to be some way around it. Maybe one of those little button thermostats you can buy on Amazon for a couple bucks, would just need to find a way to attach it. I did that with the thermostat for my fan in the back of my refrigerator.

I also noticed that it's hotter on gas. If I have the electric on all day and then cut the gas on, it runs for a good ten minutes.

Also, why does it look like there are four thermostats? I mean, why does each one have have two of the circles connected to each other.

I'm not looking to go crazy but 140 or 150 would last way longer without being dangerous as it's me and my wife and we'd both be aware and if it was adjustable I could turn it back down when not needed. I know plenty of people who crank them up at home.

RV water heaters typically are set to 140 from the factory. If Doug says otherwise for this model, believe what he says and disregard what I've written. (That's good advice on most of these sorts of issues, truth be told.)

One of the two thermostats in each pair is a high temperature safety cutoff, in case the normal thermostat should fail. The other is the "real" thermostat.

My gas is a 130, I just tested it. I would guess the electric is at 120 or less based on how long the gas burns for. I'm thinking of trying something like this.

I'm thinking of going to 140, particularly on the electric side, would be a big bonus. Am I going to burn myself up, lol?

It's either that or the wife might want an endless electric water heater. I know the kind they usually install in RV's are very expensive. However we've spent a lot of time in South East Asia and the use these cheap on demand water heater for the shower that always worked well enough for us. They look like this guy.

Also, why does it look like there are four thermostats? one side is 12v and the others 120 volts

I get that but two thermostats for each one is unnecessary, what the other guy explained makes more sense. If you look at what I posted above that I'm thinking of replacing it with you'd see what I mean, that's a single thermostat.

You have 4 tstats.
1. 120 side is the regular tstat at either 130 or 140. The wire connecting that tstat to the other tstat is the ECO(electronic cut out), that is usually preset at 180. This tstat is a SAFETY stat to prevent overheating if the main tstat fails.
2. LP side is the exact same as above.
YOU CANNOT SAFELY BYPASS THE ECO AND INSTALL JUST A 140 TSTAT.
As I stated, I have never seen any aftermarket tstat kit for a Suburban, What you have probably seen is the ATWOOD w/h aftermarket kit with either a higher degree tstat or the adjustable one. Doug

Suburban Water Heaters

Two sets of t-stats
One set (Left side/black wires) is the 120V AC for electric heat control
One set (Right side/red wires) is the 12V DC for propane heat control

Top t-stat is the High Temp T-stat....trips at 170*F/MANUAL Reset
Bottom t-stat is the Normal Temp T-stat....Opens at 130*F/closes at 100*F)

Both electric and propane same temp settings +/-5*F





Suburban OEM is 130*F BUT there is an OPTIONAL 140*F set (High temp is still 170*) for electric and propane

120V AC 140*F Set----#232317
12V DC 140*F Set ----#232319


About $18 each...........HERE

That sounds like exactly what I was hoping for, thank you.

And yes I get that replacing it without the emergency shutoff would be dangerous but I could put one in on my own too along with the adjustable thermostat. Not going to bother with it now though as the plug and play aspect of what avaliable above trumps being able to adjust the temperature.