Tankless Water heater. - RV-Dreams Community Forum

WendysPhotos · RV-Dreams Family Member

Tankless Water heater.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

The people I know with Precision Temp tankless hot water heaters are very happy with them. Other brands, which are cheaper, not so happy. The Precision Temp's advantage seems to be keeping the water temperature consistent, which is the downfall for cheaper models. You will want a sewer connection if you want to take long showers, otherwise you will fill your grey tank quickly.

For us with a motorhome and a fixed propane tank, these are not a good option since it takes planning and a hassle to get propane. We will live with the limits of our 10 gallon electric/propane hot water heater.

Steve and Kate · RV-Dreams Family Member

I too love my long hot morning shower! We boondock 6 months of the year on our property in Utah. We are at 10,000' altitude and high temps in the summer are 55 with lows dropping into the teens. We have a 6 gallon water heater and a 60 gallon water tank. Even with the temps dropping so low I never ran out of hot water. To conserve energy, (no electricity on our mountain, we ran off batteries) we did shut off the water heater at night. No problem to just make turning on the water heater first thing in the morning and by the time I got the bed made and dog walked I had hot water. We have to haul in our own water and knew we would need to conserve whenever possible. Hubby knew upfront that my morning shower and shampoo wasn't going to get cut, non of those quick off/on military showers for me. (If I had to choose between the lifestyle and the shower, I'd choose the lifestyle, just glad I didn't have to) I don't know why we were so lucky but we had more than enough hot water. AND I am lucky to have a husband who understands! (2013 Keystone Cougar MKS333). Kate

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Like Bill, we've heard mixed reviews on these tankless water heaters from other RV'ers we've talked to. And I do love my long, hot showers so we've compromised a bit. I've learned to take quick showers when necessary, but if we're somewhere with clean shower facilities or FHUs, I take long, hot showers. It gives me something to look forward to!!

Recently we've stayed at 2 different Maricopa County parks (Phoenix area) and they have some of the cleanest shower facilities I've seen in either state or county parks. As I read reviews on RVParkreviews.com I look at the comments on the shower facilities, it helps my decision making on where to stay. We tend to stay at state park / county parks more often than RV Parks with FHUs as we enjoy more space, quiet and privacy so I've gotten a bit more picky about where we stay.

I honestly don't mind not having a long hot showever every single day, but I do look forward to it and probably appreciate it more now that I can't take it for granted all the time. And tonight? After a more difficult work day than usual and being at an RV park with a hot tub??? Oh yeah, enjoyed it even if it's not a peaceful setting that I would prefer smile

Learn to enjoy the trade offs of different RV camp locations / experiences, they all have something different to offer.

RVRon · RV-Dreams Family Member

WendysPhotos wrote:
Okay, I love my long hot showers. I think that will be the thing that I will hate to give up the most when we buy our 5'er.

Wendy, you might want to wait until you actually have your 5'er to see if you really even need a different water heater. We have an 8 gallon propane-only unit and never seem to run out of hot water, even with extended showers. The water temperature is so hot in those units that you're actually using a small portion of hot water mixed with cold water to be able to keep from scalding yourself. That way the 8 gallons goes a really long way. Leaving the unit on while you're showering also means that more water is being heated while you're showering. As Bill Joyce said above though, you will definitely need a sewer hookup if you take extended showers... you'll fill up your gray tank in just a day or 2 otherwise.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

On the other side of the comments, I think we have a 10 gallon hot water heater in our Mobile Suites. That is plenty for either of us, but if I decide to take my shower after Jo takes hers, I usually need to be able to let the hot water heater "catch up." If we are both showering just before work, we barely have enough hot water for the two showers. However, I have learned something....I think. We usually let the electric heater side do the work as our propane costs here are fairly high ($3.05 per gallon the last fill-up), but if I want to extend the hot water, I can also turn on the gas side and let both gas and electric heat the water.

I've not fully studied the tankless hot water heaters, but one thing concerns me. That is that it seems that the system would have to have a lot more burners so it could heat the water as it flows through the heater. I would think that used more gas, and with more burners, it might have better opportunities for fires. Can anyone address that "concern" to indicate that the tankless systems are safe?

Terry

Lonney Wade · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have looked at the tankless hot water heaters for my house and my 40 gallon hot water heater uses about 30,000 BTUs and a tankless hot water heater can use over 130,000 BTUs but it does not have to store hot water because it is tankless, also I have been told that when you turn the hot water on you have to move about 1 gallon of water before it will start to heat the water, so you can get spurts of hot and cold water and if you just need a little bit of water you will have to move about 1 gallon of water all over again because there is no tank of hot water sooo, I just gave up looking, LOL!!!!

Lonney

Dave Buck · RV-Dreams Family Member

Terry, Surprised that you can not both take a normal shower without running out of water. My wife and I both take normal showers (sometimes longer than normal) and still have have hot water left. We run on electric all the time and have never run out of hot water. I would assume that we both have the same water heater.

Have a Merry Christmas
Dave

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

One would have to define "Normal"........if you could do that it would open the secrets of the universe!!!

ones simple shower could be a spa treatment to another....

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Lonney Wade wrote:
I have looked at the tankless hot water heaters for my house and my 40 gallon hot water heater uses about 30,000 BTUs and a tankless hot water heater can use over 130,000 BTUs but it does not have to store hot water because it is tankless, also I have been told that when you turn the hot water on you have to move about 1 gallon of water before it will start to heat the water, so you can get spurts of hot and cold water and if you just need a little bit of water you will have to move about 1 gallon of water all over again because there is no tank of hot water sooo, I just gave up looking, LOL!!!!
Lonney

Eliminating spurts of hot and cold water is why the Precision Temp is more expensive than a normal tankless hot water heater, it has more electronics and manages the water temperature better. I don't think anyone bothers to make such a fancy unit for houses, but it would cost more. Even with a normal hot water heater you have to wait a bit for the hot water to get to the tap, so the extra gallon on startup in a home unit is probably not noticeable. Friends with tankless systems say they do save energy.

WendysPhotos · RV-Dreams Family Member

On the tankless house Water heaters: It depends where yours is. Ours is placed between the kitchen and the main bathroom. It takes less than a min to get hot water. Even with a tank water heater you have to move all the water in the lines before you get hot water. It also depends where in the country you live. Here Natural Gas is cheap. We save about 20 -30 a month on the gas bill with tankless, because it does not have to keep a tank heated all the time. BTW tankless is VERY common in Europe. Just now getting to the US.

On the RV. I guess I should say about my long hot showers. I loves 15 to 20-25-30 min showers in 'scalding' water. My hubby has no idea how I can stand it that hot. It scalds him. I know this is not an option in the RV. So we will probably start out with the regular tank heater and if it is not good enough we may retro fit. I will look forward to campgrounds where I can take a long hot shower though, although in my experience even when in a condo vacationing the water is not hot enough. I will adapt though, because you adapt to your new lifestyle and this is not a big enough issure to stop our plans.

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

WendysPhotos wrote:

On the RV. I guess I should say about my long hot showers. I loves 15 to 20-25-30 min showers in 'scalding' water. My hubby has no idea how I can stand it that hot. It scalds him. I know this is not an option in the RV. So we will probably start out with the regular tank heater and if it is not good enough we may retro fit. I will look forward to campgrounds where I can take a long hot shower though, although in my experience even when in a condo vacationing the water is not hot enough. I will adapt though, because you adapt to your new lifestyle and this is not a big enough issure to stop our plans.

Wendy:

They do make 16 gallon RV hot water heaters. If I were you I would consider them based on your criteria. They will “scald you” if you like. We did a reasonable amount of research about tank-less when spec-ing out our new rig. They would install “whatever you want,” whatever brand we wanted - just tell them and they would do it. Short story, from our research we opted to go with a 12 gallon “standard” RV unit and think that was the best decision for us considering how much we travel among other criteria.

Bill

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Lonney Wade wrote:
I have looked at the tankless hot water heaters for my house and my 40 gallon hot water heater uses about 30,000 BTUs and a tankless hot water heater can use over 130,000 BTUs but it does not have to store hot water because it is tankless, also I have been told that when you turn the hot water on you have to move about 1 gallon of water before it will start to heat the water, so you can get spurts of hot and cold water and if you just need a little bit of water you will have to move about 1 gallon of water all over again because there is no tank of hot water sooo, I just gave up looking, LOL!!!!
Lonney

I had never learned what the btu differences were, but that is a significant difference, especially in an RV where your gas supply is limited. However, I am aware that Lonney's experience is based on his "home" hot water heater, not on for an RV. Based on Wendy's desire of showers lasting from 15 to 30 minutes, I wonder how much propane would be used in that length of time? Depending on the time of year, that could be cutting into one's gas supply for heating the coach.

As for more efficient use of energy, a tankless has to gain that by not heating during the day. So, all one would have to do is turn off the hot water heater when one doesn't expect to need hot water. Troublesome, yes, but in our case where we are gone 8 hours or more a day, it wouldn't really be a problem to get home, turn it on and allow time for it to heat water before using hot water.

Terry