Water Heater on or off when Full Timing

[CabinetmakerII]

My wife and I have been RVing for 30 + years and Full-Timing for 3 years. We have had more than one conversation about leaving the water heater on to ensure we have hot water when we need it, or to turn it off when not in use and risk not having hot water when it comes time to do the dishes or take a shower. Wondering what others do... also, do you run propane or electric?

[DianneOK]

We left ours on for our entire 9 years on the
road. Never had an issue with ours or other's cycling. I want hot water when I want it.

[Pop-Pop_C]

I turn ours on twice a day, morning and evening.
If I don't use it it doesn't wear out so fast. IMHO.!

[ventrman]

We leave ours on. They are designed to be left on, just like your S&B House.

[Chiku]

🙂

[Chiku]

I can only say that I have had very,very good experience with Gas Tankless Water Heater in bitter winters. They do make a tankless water heater. Based on my experience I would be inclined towards them if I was looking for a water heater.

[pnichols]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
.... Electric when AC Power is available otherwise Propane as it is NOT all that expensive (if it was about 'costs' I would not have an RV).

There's only one thing I hate more on RV trips than having to gas up often, so I really appreciate the range we get off the RV's fuel tank.

The one thing I hate more is pulling up stakes - especially boondocking stakes - to drive all over the place to find someplace and someone who can and will refill our built-in propane tank. Our propane supply is precious to us, as it's the most difficult expendable in our RV to replenish.

So .... we have no propane flame burning when not absolutely necessary. i.e. We light and extinguish the oven's pilot light with every use and only have the propane-only water heater turned on around the times we need hot water. For some reason, Winnebago packed in a whole bunch of insulation around our WH, so once heated, the water remains pretty hot for a long time. Of course we leave the refrig on Auto, so it never uses propane unless it has no choice ... I even wish that it was a 3-way refrigerator to better conserve propane.

I guess that's an advantage of a small TT or a TC ... they often use the common little 5 gal propane tanks, so it's easy to have them refilled or exchange them everywhere.

[BarbaraOK]

Happy Prospector wrote:

2oldman wrote:
I wish more people would realize how loud one of those gas wh's are at 3am.

I never noticed waterheater noise at 3am, we're fast asleep.

For those of us who are light sleepers, it is quite easy to have a water heater come on and wake you up - - or delay your going to sleep

[Happy_Prospecto]

2oldman wrote:
I wish more people would realize how loud one of those gas wh's are at 3am.

I never noticed waterheater noise at 3am, we're fast asleep.

[FunnyCamper]

electric on as you can
leave it on propane all the time if required

I am never without hot water on demand 🙂

[Clay_L]

I turned mine off when we went to bed and on first thing when I got up. Had water in 40 minutes so when I took my shower.

Many RV parks when we stayed a while charged for electricity. It was usually cheaper to use propane - depends on the price of each.

If you go HERE you can download a program for RVers that will make the simple calculation for you. It allows you to input the heater efficiently. If you see a box wanting you to sign in just close it and do the download.
According to an email to me from engineering at Suburban Manufacturing, the efficiency of RV furnaces ranges from 70 to 80 percent. Water heaters are 70 percent efficient on gas.

Note: Because Microsoft in their infinite wisdom didn't include the software to support the older help file formats, for Windows Vista and higher you will need to download and install a Microsoft program that allows you to use help files with the "hlp" extension for whatever operating system you are using - if you want to use the help file (not really necessary to use the program)..
You can download it here Microsoft Knowledge Base. Scroll down to select your operating system.That doesn't work for Win10 however. Microsoft has not produced a patch for Win10.
The program is so simple that a help file isn't really needed. It just shows the info used to write the program .

[BarbaraOK]

stickdog,, we've been out for 11 years and are on 30 amps about 1/2 the time. With the exception of Labor Day weekend in the Sonoma Valley when temperatures reached 115 and we only had 30 amps and a/c running 24/7, we always have the water heater on electric and never, ever have a problem. The only thing I do is make sure that the a/c isn't running when the microwave is, otherwise we don't have a problem. Obviously only 1 a/c at a time, unlike when on 50 amp, but that is the only restriction we work around on 30 amps.

[stickdog]

We spend so much time on 30amp that when our thirteen year old gas/electric water heater started leaking I opted for a dsi gas only. It only comes on when needed and I rather keep the energy hog fridge on the 120. Even then with other appliances energy management comes into play.

[doxiemom11]

We are full-time and use our rv just like we did our house. The water heater is always on. I don't want luke warm water at night to do my dishes. I want HOT water. There is a thermostat on it so it doesn't run continuously. Now if we were on 30 amp of for some reason needing to save on our power usage, then we might shut it off. Hasn't happened in 7 yrs though.

[CabinetmakerII]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

avan wrote:
...and when parked in a campsite, throw some jacks down and let the air out of the tires...

Guess 'avan' REALLY doesn't like water heaters being ON :H




:B

Old Biscuit, you are truly one of a kind... :):)