6 gal electric hot water heater upgrade

[Mattsosby]

Have a 18 ft Jayco and hot water heater went out. Wanting to see if anyone has ever replaced the original with a smaller electric one. Don’t really like the use of propane for anything inside.

[theoldwizard1]

Lynnmor wrote:
You could always swap out the element for a lower wattage one.

Long time between showers ! Of course if the shower is big enough, you could always "shower with a friend" !

Lynnmor wrote:
If you do downgrade to a residential water heater, remember to have double the height available so you can pull the anode rod out the top. Yes, it has one.

You must be a plumber ! Never heard of ANYONE changing an anode, not that it is bad idea.

[schlep1967]

The members of this forum crack me up. He has an 18 foot trailer and says he wants to go to a smaller water heater. I'm pretty sure he isn't worried about having enough hot water for multiple showers.
I will agree with one of the posts above. Put in the same size dual use water heater and use electric only.
As for electric not heating up fast enough, we have a 10 gallon duel use. We never run it on propane. Three of us can take showers in a one hour period and not run out of hot water.

[Lynnmor]

If you do downgrade to a residential water heater, remember to have double the height available so you can pull the anode rod out the top. Yes, it has one.

[Lynnmor]

theoldwizard1 wrote:

GrandpaKip wrote:
I put a Rheem 10 gal. water heater in a cargo trailer conversion. Pretty sure it was on a 20A breaker and it never flipped.

The Rheem 20 gallon fit in a 24x24x36 space. It is rated for 2000W so you need to make sure if you plan on using a generator it will do 2000W continuously. I could not find an advertised recovery time for either the 10 or 20 gallon unit.

You could always swap out the element for a lower wattage one.

[theoldwizard1]

GrandpaKip wrote:
I put a Rheem 10 gal. water heater in a cargo trailer conversion. Pretty sure it was on a 20A breaker and it never flipped.

The Rheem 20 gallon fit in a 24x24x36 space. It is rated for 2000W so you need to make sure if you plan on using a generator it will do 2000W continuously. I could not find an advertised recovery time for either the 10 or 20 gallon unit.

[GrandpaKip]

I put a Rheem 10 gal. water heater in a cargo trailer conversion. Pretty sure it was on a 20A breaker and it never flipped. Plenty of hot water for the 2 of us. But we came from a 30’ sailboat, so we were used to taking a “small” shower.
I turned it on right after setting up so no real worry with waiting.
However, a 120V water heater is not cheap.
I would look into the electric/propane unit first if I was to do it again.

[Cobra21]

GDS-3950BH wrote:

Mattsosby wrote:
Have a 18 ft Jayco and hot water heater went out. Wanting to see if anyone has ever replaced the original with a smaller electric one. Don’t really like the use of propane for anything inside.

If you know you're always going to have electricity why not. I assume you mean a conventional 6 gallon electric heater. It is certainly cheaper than an RV water heater.

A lot of misinformation in this thread. An RV water heater on electric does not take hours to recover, it takes 1 hour (1400 watt element). A conventional residential heater takes less than an hour (1650 watts).

An add in element for an RV heater is an option but will take more than 2 hours or so to recover (675 watts), and if its a Suburban removing the anode rod to install one is not a good idea.

What GDS said is SPOT on. I was going to replace mine with the 6 gallon electric. You have to make sure you have the space needed to do this. With the water lines coming out of the top I didn't have enough space to make it happen. Make sure you do the measuring.
Brian

[edbehnke]

just don't turn the propane on...keep it simple.

no reason to be afraid of propane but don't use it.

[rhagfo]

If you choose to go only electric, don't come back to this forum complaining about lack of Hot Water.

[JIMNLIN]

Our first 5th wheel trailer was a new 1984 Aljo with a 6 gal water heater on LP only. I installed a Hott Rod element in the heater and wired a switch. It took around 35-40 min for hot water.
We had the trailer for 8 years and no issues.

[GDS-3950BH]

Mattsosby wrote:
Have a 18 ft Jayco and hot water heater went out. Wanting to see if anyone has ever replaced the original with a smaller electric one. Don’t really like the use of propane for anything inside.

If you know you're always going to have electricity why not. I assume you mean a conventional 6 gallon electric heater. It is certainly cheaper than an RV water heater.

A lot of misinformation in this thread. An RV water heater on electric does not take hours to recover, it takes 1 hour (1400 watt element). A conventional residential heater takes less than an hour (1650 watts).

An add in element for an RV heater is an option but will take more than 2 hours or so to recover (675 watts), and if its a Suburban removing the anode rod to install one is not a good idea.

[ScottG]

You can probably add an electric heater to your existing WH via the drain plug.
If the propane part is the only problem, it could be a cheap fix for you.

[rbpru]

We have a dual propane/electric water heater. You can use either, or both for faster recovery.

Personally I always use the electric options, because I am paying for the electricity in my camp fees. No reason to burn my propane.

In have never popped the 30 amp breaker and our 6gal. water heater is sufficient for our needs.

When we do camp without electricity we run the propane. As mentioned the air intake and exhaust are both vented external to the living space.

[pianotuna]

If you do decide to go electric only, get a ten gallon unit.

[Lwiddis]

Cooking, heating water and warming the trailer all by electricity all the time? That’s very different.