Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lot

Converting Cargo Trailers into TTTs

Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lot

Postby ris » Wed Mar 07, 2018 9:01 am

We plan to spend 3 to 4 months a year in our cargo conversion. Need info on water heaters from those that use them a lot. Do we get a tankless eco temp or a surburban tankless (over $500), a 6 gallon tank water heater. We will be using only propane. Need some help with info. Seems like all of them have a lot of negative reviews. The water heater will be in our utility room at the back of the trailer. We can open the doors to the utility room to vent. Our build is under 2017 18 X 8.5 by ris. We are used to boat showers. Get wet, turn off water, soap up, turn on water to rinse. About 3 gallons per person. Thanks for the help.

Richard
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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby flboy » Wed Mar 07, 2018 9:38 am

I have a 6 gal propane/electric which is the traditional RV type. It works great for me and I can take long showers when I have hookups without running out given the hot water is mixed with ambient water for the right shower temp. Others have the on demand type and like those also with alot of good reason.

It really depends on what you want and how to accomodate the venting and etc. that is required and the space you have.

I can see the on demand type saving propane... forget about endless hot water when boondocking.. no endless water supply.

If you are camping with power available, the electric capability is very nice. No propane needed. Also if you run out of propane boondocking, can heat water via generator or solar/electric.

I prefer options for alternative power sources over propane efficiency when boondocking in my case.

Good luck.. however, based on what you said with your rear utility area setup with open doors, and wanting to use propane only.. on demand is the way to go for your case IMHO.

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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby hankaye » Wed Mar 07, 2018 11:56 pm

ris, Howdy;

Been living in an RV for almost 9 years now, 2 RVs and they both had the 6 gal. Suburbans.
No problems.

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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby Iconfabul8 » Thu Mar 08, 2018 1:53 am

My main concern when shopping for a water heater was having enough water to get the job done. I liked the idea of a tankless and being able to take a long shower if hooked to shore water. I also wanted to make the water I have on board last as long as possible when boondocking. The tankless water heater I went with flows at 2 gal/min. Any less and the flame goes out and you get a rude awakening. So If I take a quick but thorough shower It takes me about 4 min or 8 gal. This has been working great. I have a 33 gal fresh water tank so I get 3 or 4 showers before I have to add water, which I carry a few 5 gal jugs in the truck. As for taking navy showers, my WH in its standard configuration doesn't do so good. It takes a second to reheat the water so you get a shot of liquid surprise. I don't plan on taking any navy showers, I am happy taking full quick showers. However, I had a plan in the beginning, before I knew how awesome my WH was, to divert the hot water to a small cooler that I was going to mount on the roof. Devise a way to tell when I had 3 or 4 gal then shut off the WH and re-divert back to the shower, where I could do the navy thing. I still think it would be a great way to stretch and conserve water with a tankless. Below are a few links to my Water Heater experiences.

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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby McDave » Thu Mar 08, 2018 7:18 am

Hey Ris,
I use the tankless style. I'm limited in water capacity to 25g fresh, and only use black tank 29g. I did install a diverter valve to drain shower to ground when acceptable. I haven't had a single issue but realistically only a total of 40 -50 showers in 2 yrs. The price, size and weight, and ease of installation and use are hard to beat.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Marey-Tankless ... 25ad3ed85f

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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby daveesl77 » Thu Mar 08, 2018 7:27 am

Over the past several years we have used the Triton 5L tankless and absolutely love it! Inexpensive, and most important, you have an almost endless supply of water at whatever temp you want. Well, endless as long as you have propane and water. We also did a test on using it as a cabin heater and that too was a wild sucess. Although we only built the prototype heater, this year we plan to do the full build and install it.

For about $110 you cannot beat it.

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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby ris » Thu Mar 08, 2018 9:34 pm

Thanks for all of your input. We were leaning toward a tankless but now are thinking about a propane/electric like Don uses. Thanks again to all those who responded.

Richard
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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby OnTheRoadAgain123 » Fri Aug 03, 2018 2:14 pm

ris wrote:We plan to spend 3 to 4 months a year in our cargo conversion. Need info on water heaters from those that use them a lot. Do we get a tankless eco temp or a surburban tankless (over $500), a 6 gallon tank water heater. We will be using only propane. Need some help with info. Seems like all of them have a lot of negative reviews. The water heater will be in our utility room at the back of the trailer. We can open the doors to the utility room to vent. Our build is under 2017 18 X 8.5 by ris. We are used to boat showers. Get wet, turn off water, soap up, turn on water to rinse. About 3 gallons per person. Thanks for the help.

Richard


Hello Richard,
Funny you should mention boat showers. About 10 yrs back I bought a Camper and it had everything but a shower that I needed. I like being off grid camping and so I looked around and found on Craigslist a heat exchange 6 gal water heater from a boat for about for $75.00. It has a heat exchanger you connect to your engine cooling system. I can run my truck for 15 minutes and have 6 gals of 180deg hot water (The same temp as my vehicle thermostat). I wrapped the tank in fiberglass insulation and it holds the heat for about 24 hours and is still warm enough, in mild temperatures, to take about one comfortable shower, using the Boat shower method you mention above.
As it had a port to install an electric heating element I decided it would be nice to have and electric option. So I found at camper supply stores you can purchase an electric element kit from Dometic I believe, that runs on 110-220 volts. But they were to expensive for me and I am cheap! So I started to look else where. Unfortunately the commercially available heating elements would draw more current that my electrical system was designed for and most provided way more heat than I needed. They started about 1400 watts and go up. The 6 Gal tank does not need that much energy. But the good news they were very cheap! Yahoo... Not wanting to overload my electrical I still needed a different option. I was struck by a stroke of genius!! The elements come in 110 Volt or 220 Volt. Why not use a 220 volt element on 110 volts and by selecting a 1400 watt element I should draw 750 watts. This was within the capability of my system and still allowed me to run the rest of my electrical in the camper.
So I picked one up at Lowes and installed it with a popoff valve for safety, added a high/low thermostat that straps on the tank and added a clock/timer so that the heater only turns on a couple times a day and runs just long enough to heat the water.
To my surprise I stuck a clamp on amp meter to the element and almost had to pick myself off the floor - no I wasn't electrically shocked - The element draws 3 amps or 360 watts and is more than enough energy to heat the water in a reasonable amount of time. I can even run it on my 750 watt inverter off of my house battery. I have tried it and it works although it does take a toll on the 12v battery.
Since then I have used it for a month at a time over several years and it is still doing an awesome job.
It occurred to me that the elements rarely open up they increase in resistance and put out less energy so people replace them you might be able to find one in an old electric water heater that stopped working that would work for the small 6 gal tank for free? Who knows? Good luck with your project.
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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby pmowers » Fri Aug 03, 2018 5:41 pm

I have used an eco temp water heater with my CT for several years now. The efficiency is amazing, after running for 10 minutes, I am still able to touch the chimney cap with my bare hand, and it is barely warm. We have it set up to a sink and within 1-2 seconds, the hot water is coming out of the faucet steaming. The water pressure needed is as little as putting the water container on top of the trailer with the heater at about chest level.
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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby Margali » Tue Aug 07, 2018 2:37 pm

Regarding the tankless water heater, have people experienced getting a surge of hot water when using it to do navy showers? I saw some comments like that on Amazon but I couldn't tell if it was user error.
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Re: Need info on water heaters from folks that use them a lo

Postby McDave » Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:19 am

Yeah, you can get "hot shots" and "cold slugs" when you are in the learning mode. When you get the flow rate and the flame size dialled in they are less severe but still there. When the water stops moving, the water will absorb all the heat in the exchanger and become overheated giving you a hot shot for a couple seconds. Then the exchanger has no heat to give the next load of water till the flame comes on and heats the exchanger. That entire cycle takes 3-4 seconds from hot to cold to normal, so you don't want the shower wand pointed at any of your "vital regions" until the temp has stabilized. I really don't notice it much anymore, but there was a few exciting moments at first.

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