Tankless propane hot water heaters |
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lostagain
Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2587 |
Topic: Tankless propane hot water heaters Posted: 08 Feb 2019 at 5:50am |
Seems to me with a limited water supply, a limited gray water tank, and venting requirements, they are not very practical for a small travel trailer unless you're only at full hookup sites. I suppose you could mount it outside the trailer, but you're inviting a whole host of other problems in doing so. I've been using one all week at my sister-in-law's and it works great. I was looking at it the other day and thinking it would sure fit nicely in the trailer since it's about 8" deep, 14" wide, and 18" high but it's really set up for a wall mount hand has to have free space above it to let the hot combustion gases out. In the limited space of a Pod that's complicated, you have to pass through a gallon or two before the water gets hot, and you have to have continuous flow to keep it hot. But for taking a nice hot shower it works well.
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Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost |
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woodanator
Newbie Joined: 07 Feb 2019 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1 |
Posted: 08 Feb 2019 at 4:14am |
I did a lot of research into tankless water heaters and came to the conclusion; not yet. I continue to research and think they are very expensive and not fool proof yet. Expense not only in initial purchase, but much 'fine tuning' and repair needed. Add to that the fact that an RV moves and bounces down the road, varying water pressure, etc. and I just think they need more engineering and reliability to make it worth the investment. __________________
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GlueGuy
Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2629 |
Posted: 26 Jan 2019 at 9:37am |
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bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost |
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Tars Tarkas
Senior Member Joined: 14 Jan 2013 Location: Near Nashville Online Status: Offline Posts: 1446 |
Posted: 26 Jan 2019 at 9:17am |
I'm pretty sure in roughly 6 years if camping with the Pod I've only had hookups that included sewer twice. (That's my style and I understand others' experience may be a lot different.) Anyway, the point is, why have unlimited hot water if you only have a 30 gallon gray tank to put it in? We leave the water heater on when we camp for a week. I hear it come on very occasionally -- unless we're taking showers (actually using the hot water) -- I don't think there can be much savings of propane with a tankless heater, especially as others have mentioned, since a lot of people only use it at all a few weeks out of the year. The WH in the Pod just doesn't use all that much propane in the first place.
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2010 176
FJ Cruiser |
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mcarter
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 07 Apr 2016 Location: Greenbrier, TN Online Status: Offline Posts: 3419 |
Posted: 26 Jan 2019 at 8:53am |
I looked at the for about 10 mins one day, then moved on. Lot of difference between tankless in house and tankless in a camper, especially when boondocking. The OP was about propane powered.
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Mike Carter
2015 178 " I had the right to remain silent, I just didn't have the ability." |
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Richand Cindy
Senior Member Joined: 16 Apr 2016 Location: New Jersey Online Status: Offline Posts: 328 |
Posted: 25 Jan 2019 at 10:12pm |
It has been two years since we researched tankless water heaters but at the time the Girard's had very poor reviews. Unless they improved them it is not worth looking into. Truma is the best but more than double the price. But as others have stated I think current water heaters are more than sufficient for an RPOD and tankless is not ready for prime time yet
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OLD 2017.5 RPOD 180 + 2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk
NEW: 2018 Passport Elite 23RB + 2017 Ram 1500 Diesel |
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offgrid
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 25 Jan 2019 at 10:11am |
Here's a tankless propane unit for $460. Not too bad. I like the combi comfort idea the best but not for that much $$$. If that one was $400 I'd consider it, it would get rid of the noise from the existing furnace too.
Or get this electric one for $200. Only weighs 5 lbs and is 12x10x4 inches, so just add it to your system. Then you can shower all day on the campground's dime . i have a larger Ecosmart at home, works great. https://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-appliances/rv-water-heaters/rv-water-heaters/rv-tankless-water-heater-girard-gswh2_42.3250?gclid=Cj0KCQiAhKviBRCNARIsAAGZ7CfE7FsRwydU7RBhv9mCPpJ33IUJHsou1FYevucYQGmdMXhkd9Q7UUwaAraKEALw_wcB https://www.amazon.com/EcoSmart-Electric-Tankless-Modulating-Technology/dp/B00529DDUI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1548432011&sr=8-3&keywords=tankless+water+heater+electric+8kw |
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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Motor7
Senior Member Joined: 09 Jan 2019 Location: E. TN Online Status: Offline Posts: 196 |
Posted: 25 Jan 2019 at 9:26am |
My main point in these is size and weight. Long hot showers for the lightweight camper crowd is few and I agree that a $1K price tag for a combi unit is too much(now). As price comes down I predict that tanked water heaters in rv's and trailers will go extinct. It's kind of exciting with tankless and battery/solar technology advancing along with cost effective prices....the future looks promising.
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2016 R-Pod 176T
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offgrid
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 25 Jan 2019 at 5:53am |
I took a look at the Truma product line. The Truma Aquaglo is a 60k btu/hr unit so it would provide hot water indefinitely until you run out of propane. It is not strictly tankless but close (it has a tiny 0.35 gal buffer tank). Weight is 34 lbs plus water at 3 lbs = 37 lbs.
The Truma Combi Eco plus is only 7500 btu/hr on propane and has a 2.6 gal tank. Weight is 37 lbs plus water at 21 lbs = 58 lbs. The Suburban water heater in the rPods is 12000 btu/hr and has a 6 gal tank. Weight is 33 lbs plus water at 50 lbs = 85 lbs. So, I would definitely not recommend changing from the Suburban to the Truma Combi Eco plus if your objective was longer showers. You wouldn't be happy. For a boondocker the Combi Eco Plus is interesting, a couple gallons of hot water would be fine for me. But it's big claim to fame is that it also heats the RV, for which it uses the same propane heat source of 7500 BTU/hr. Compare that to the Rpod heater at 20kbtu/hr. I don't think that would be anywhere near adequate for 3 seasons camping use in an rPod. There is one more Truma unit, the Combi Comfort plus, which uses the same 2.6 gal tank but has a 20.4kbtu/hr heat rating. That one looks like it might be a good choice for a boondocker. Weight is the same as the Eco plus. You'd save the weight of both the existing water heater and furnace. Total weight saving would be about 50 lbs. That's significant. But is it worth the $1000+ price tag? Not to me... It would still not be a good choice for someone looking for a "tankless" unit for long showers. You're going to need more than 20kbtu/hr for that. A low flow 1 gpm shower starting with 50 degree water would need about 30kbth/hr. I do think one of the little electric tankless units could work great for the long shower enthusiast who has access to full hookups with a 50A service. In thinking about it more, you wouldn't need to remove your existing water heater. The electric tankless units are tiny and light so the added weight isn't worth worrying about. Just plumb the electric tankless in series after the suburban one and use the existing wall switch to turn on the suburban when you wanted it. If you have 50A hooked up and the suburban off the tankless electric would do the work, and you would be using the campground electricity, not your propane.
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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offgrid
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 24 Jan 2019 at 6:02pm |
The only benefit in an RV from going tankless is to not run out of hot water. Unless you are a full timer, you're never going to recoup your investment by saving propane, if you save any at all.
Mixing 130 degree water from your water heater with say 60 degree water from your fresh water tank you'll be at about a 60/40 mixture to obtain normal shower temperatures. So, to run out of hot water you would be using about 10 gallons of fresh water taking a shower. That's 1/3 of your fresh and gray water tank capacity before you'd need to think about having a tankless system. No one is going to do that boondocking or even in cases when you have partial hookups. For myself, if I use more than gallon of water taking a shower while camping I'd be surprised. If you have full hookups you could do it, but I would think you could also just as easily go use a campground shower in that case. If you only camp with full hookups and you really wanted an infinite supply of hot water you could consider removing your gas water heater and installing an electric tankless one. They're really small, only weigh a few pounds, give you very precise temp control, are faster to turn on than the gas ones, and have minimal clearance requirements and no flue and ventilation requirements. You would need a 50A service to run one. I use an electric tankless at home and I can control the water temp to 1 degree of accuracy, which is why I love it so much. |
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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