Do Tankless RV Water Heaters work well? Let's find out!

[@joejackson3537]

I RV'd full time for 5 years with traditional gas with the electric converter, so I could use both to heat water simultaneously. Usually, it would take 10 - 15 minutes to reheat a 6-gallon tank for someone else to shower. Also, I got about 6 - 8 minutes of warm water for a shower, which meant my wife and daughter had to shut the water off while they did what women do when not standing under the water. I got a new RV 7 months ago and had them put in the Gerard tankless water heater, and it is phenomenal. At first, the hot water pressure was too low, so I turned it up to high with the knob on the back of the water heater. I also found that keeping the water pressure (when connected to city water) between 55 - 60 psi works the best. It kicks on within 1 second of opening a hot side and is up to full temp within 40 seconds. The only downside is while taking a shower if someone else turns on a faucet or flushes a toilet (1.5 baths), it makes it turn off, then turn on again, and you will get hit with cold water while it reheats again. The tankless water heater has a safety feature where it shuts off after 20 minutes of continuous running, which is good so I can yell at my daughter that she's been in there long enough lol. In the warmer months, when I don't need to be concerned about keeping the basement warm and don't run a furnace, 1 30-gallon propane tank lasts a month, and that with cooking all meals every day and pretty frequent oven use. I will never have another RV without a tankless water heater.

[@blairM363]

I wanted to know if the 6gallon was enough time to actually shower of if you had to turn it on/off/on etc to make it through. Thanks for that info in your comment.

[@joejackson3537]

@@blairM363 Just enough to shampoo, conditioner (receding hairline, don't hate), and scrub. I like it hotter than most showers, so if you run it warm enough, you could probably stretch it to 10 minutes. I wouldn't worry about propane use. I was initially worried about it, but a 30 lb tank lasts 3 - 4 weeks if you only use it for cooking and the water heater. If you are a couple or just one person, I can understand not needing more than 10 minutes of hot water, but let me tell you, after 5 years of 5-minute showers, it sure is nice to have the option to come out looking like a steamed lobster.

[@joejackson3537]

Oh, and I always put a massage head on the shower because I like more water pressure, so if you used a lower gpm shower head, you could get more time.

[@nia6849]

Have you tried to install additional electrical heater at the shower and dishes sinks as a buffer backup?

[@joejackson3537]

@@nia6849 Haven't need it with the tankless.

[@Rick-x8h]

After 3 months of investigating all the tankless rv water heaters I went with the truma aqua go comfort. No hot/ cold flashes when you cut the shower flow off on the shower head and turn it back on. Immediate hot water at your sinks, no waiting. Trumas tankless units are pricey but the quality and service overrides the rest of them. It’s just my opinion like all of you have yours but I spent a lot of time researching everyone else’s and talking to the different companies I narrowed it down to Truma, it has had two years of good use and so far has been bullet proof.

[@laneclaypool8005]

Is that the one that has a small tank that holds hot water to supplement the water being heated by the propane?

[@carmas54]

Tankless water heater are great if you are at a campsite connected to city water. Horrible if you are Boondocking you waste incredible amounts of water before you actually get hot water. Also if you’re showering and stop the shower to soap and conserve water, if have to start the whole process again to get hot water again and you’re wasting water all over again. Traditional hot water heaters don’t have that problem but you can’t take endless showers … Truma aqua hot are the best at bridging the two. I have the one you tested in my airstream and it’s wasteful and I have a traditional tank water heater in my northern lite truck camper and I prefect that one if I’m Boondocking but if I’m at a campsite the Gerard works great but the recovery sucks while you’re taking a shower, you have to leave the shower constantly running if you don’t want cool water hitting you, you don’t get that with a Truma, the other possibility is to install a shower miser on the Gerrard and that might work and not waste water

[@henlofren7321]

I have an electric tankless water heater and the water wasted before it gets truly hot is absolutely minimal in my setup. It'll get hotter faster than any other heater because it's small enough to install much closer to the faucets/shower while still being powerful enough to compete with the larger heaters by output. I think your pipes are just too long...

[@cletus1n3]

As someone who is interested in RV's but hasn't actually used one in a very long time, this kind of practical demostration is fascinating and will definitely have an impact on my decision making should I decide to get an RV in the future. This and your practical information about towing has been extremely interesting and I haven't seen this kind of thing other places. Thanks for what you do!

[@zechariah1398]

Our RV 6 gallon went bad 4 years ago. I did my research and installed a Girard, their second version. One of the main reasons is that at the time Girard was the only one offering an adjustable temp control. We quickly found out the best way to use it is to adjust the temp for what we want and only turn on the hot water. We still love it and have had no issues.

[@MrMatthewgross]

I thoroughly enjoy your informative videos. I'm now full time in a 2024 Vibe 34xl here in Boone NC. It came with a 60000 btu RVMP Flex Temp on demand water heater. I couldn't be more pleased with it. It takes about as long to get hot water as it did in my house running the cold water out of the lines. I really like being able to set my heater to an exact temperature right in the bathroom. I keep mine at 102 and just turn on hot only and it's a perfect shower every time. I understand the conservation drawbacks if boondocking but I'm always connected to well water so it's a perfect fit for me. Anyway thanks so much for your content, I'm new to Rving and your videos have helped me immensely!

[@Mark_Lawler]

I loved the Girard tankless water heater on my Tiffin Wayfarer. I think where many go wrong is trying to mix in cold water. Don't! The Girard, unlike many others, has a digital display. We simply set the display to the exact desired temp and cranked on the hot water all the way by itself. No cold mixed in at all. Easy peasy! One temp for my showers, another for my wife, and yet another for washing dishes -- just remember your favorite temp settings! I wouldn't use brands with only a knob and no digital display. I have also had a tankless at home for over 15 years and will never go back to having the old-school water heaters.

[@robertbailey7125]

Your point should be in the instructions. Took us forever to figure out to do that.

[@kenhoward4151]

We have a furion on demand. We set the temp to 100 degrees. That way you don’t even turn on the cold water. Makes it way easier to shower. Also let the water dribble between uses. The heater seems to keep up much better.

[@dewaynehastings3191]

We’ve been in our RV for two years now we’ve not had an issue with ours. The controller was bad when we opened it and ferrion sent a new one. We’ve been well satisfied with ours

[@cullinan18]

I have a 6 gallon gas/electric water heater in my camper and love it. We've had 4 back to back showers and never had a problem with running out of hot water. At home, we have a tankless water heater and love it.

[@jimdinwiddie4837]

Thanks for a video on this subject. For me, there are more cons to the on demand than there are pros. The main con for me is gas only. My current 5TH wheel has a 12 gal tank heater. In the 2 1/2 years we've owned it, we haven't used the propane that was in it when we purchased it, with the on demand that could have never happened. Give buyers a choice.

[@stevenfoster5737]

Judging by the long list of complaints on my Jayco forums, I have to say I would always choose tanked water heaters over tankless. In some cases I can't afford wasting water before it gets hot and they just seem unreliable. Sometimes old technology is better than new. Our current unit has a 5 gallon tank and we never run out of hot water. I would not switch. Although I may have no choice in the next RV we buy, I probably would replace it with the tanked water heater. Another great review and thanks again. JD.

[@robertbailey7125]

Great video. We have Furrion tankless now and the 6 gallon gas/electric up to last year in a similar camper. We have always done the navy style shower to preserve gray tank space. You can't do navy style with the tankless. It goes back to cold and takes too long to get hot to the shower head again such that staying on would not be using more water. We do the lower temp hot only shower and keep on the whole shower as this works best. I'd almost pay someone to install the 6 gallon tank system in.

[@janapecherek4158]

We have an on demand . I love it heats up water quickly

[@TheFiremanJoe]

I believe that it was a Gerard in Changing Lane’s video.

[@jlokanis]

Next time you test this, see how long the water stays hot when lowering the flow to a trickle. The Girard requires a minimum flow to activate and I suspect it would shut off if you were not opening the tap to near full flow rate. That is the downside to an on-demand system and why it won't work well for taking a 'Navy' shower. If they would put in a recirculation system to capture the lost cold water, it would potentially solve that issue. Our last RV had the 6 gal gas/elec system and we learned to make it work. Our new RV only comes with the on-demand Girard. I suspect I will have to swap it out for a tank system or a Truma after a few years of frustration but hopefully we will learn to live with it.

[@SMA19864]

I just put in a FOGATTI Tankless Water Heater, InstaShower 8 Plus. In my keystone passport 219bhwe. I love absolutely love it hot water for days long has you have the water and gas for it. I did a test one day on just 20 gallons of water in the tank and ran by the rv pump. it ran for 13 minutes at a comfortable shower temp and did not waver kept strong temps. I even did a shower where i had to pause the water a few times and no issues on it get back to warm. I turn the hot to full hot and dial the temp back with the cold in the shower works great Installing was a little tricky to do the screws of the case stick out a little and my frame being aluminum and could not sand it back a little, But im sure that is a travel trailer problem not the hot water heater. But we did a 5 night stay in Utah and it performed great would recommend.

[@curtiskrumm8867]

Have the Truma in our Tiffin and initial start up for motorhome it does take about a minute to get hot, but after that it’s pretty quick, say 5-10 seconds every time we ask for hot water. Yes we have a 24 gallon propane tank but it seems to sip gas as we don’t use the gas for anything else and i still have close to 60% gas from 2 years of use. Well I did use the furnace a couple times last month since I didn’t want to winterize yet, but still, it doesn’t use much….. Hope you’re doing well….

[@tazzerta]

Chad was also at higher altitude and in colder temps.

[@BTBRVReviews]

True. Water was likely much cold as well.

[@SlimSpida]

He mentioned they weren’t living in the trailer and his water was in the 30’s.

[@jimfrazee]

After leaks in two different Dometic tanked units, which ruined my sandwich floor in my ultralite TT that I'm still rebuilding after a couple of years, I switched to a Furrion tankless WH. Despite a rather steep learning curve for me, I'm now quite happy with it, given my style of camping which is not filling the gray tanks (two, totaling 57 G) because I find I use a lot more water with my Furrion, which needs a certain pressure to keep working. When I figured this out, the first thing I did was to replace my Oxygenics shower head (didn't draw enough water), then I raised my pressure regulator from 40 to 50psi. Eventually, the WH would overheat the water and no amount of mixing would keep it consistent. I finally fixed that issue by pumping vinegar through it and cleaning the filter, which I believe is the main thing that caused the problem. Now, once I get the mixture right, I never adjust it, and I never turn the water off during showering (the primary reason why it uses so much water) and the temperature is always perfect. Using my single-handled replacement valve, it's just a matter of pushing the handle up, showering, then pushing it back down. I find the Furrion uses very little propane and the amount that it does use is worth the convenience of unlimited hot water. I am a solo traveler, though, who rarely boondocks, and I can see where a family who does a lot of boondocking would need to conserve water, so tankless isn't advisable.

[@kevinhill9532]

I’ve had both…. I’ll keep my tank. :)

[@ctechbob]

We mostly park camp and I will die on the hill of keeping my old school 'dual fuel' tank. 85% of the time I am using the park's power to heat my water instead of my propane. We never have a problem with hot showers with the Oxygenics head and Gas/Electric both on.

[@jeff245245]

Having a circulator pump would be best in an RV so you don't fill your tank with clean water or use too much of your supply tank.

[@jafoftn]

I have a fogotti system and it performed as well as your demonstration.

[@Ober447]

Our first truck camper had a tankless and our second has a tanked water heater. We really miss the tankless water heater, especially when showering. It typically would take 8-10 seconds in something small like a truck camper to get hot (pure from the hot side, unmixed with cold). When we want to fill the kitchen sink for doing dishes we turn the temperature up so by by the time the unheated water fills the sink and the very hot water mixes with it, the water is a perfect temperature (again not mixing with the cold side). In this way you don't waste precious water while you are boondocking or using water from a limited supply like the onboard tank. When your done the water goes back to about 110 degrees and Bob's your Uncle.

[@Montycopa]

Don’t forget about the Truma Aquago! Thats what I’m looking to upgrade to.

[@jamesmccormick7162]

Someone needs to do a head-to-head comparison of the Girard and the Truma, which is the standard for 'tankless' water heaters in RV's. The Truma is not a true tankless, but rather a 'hybrid' with a 1- liter mixing tank. IMHO, it's in another league from the Girard.

[@davidgroves8049]

I have the Girard tankless water heater and it works great! we have it set to 108F during really cold weather 30F it has issues getting to 108F it will hit 106F it really depends on the water temp going into the system. I can solve the issue by restricting the water flow into the water heater just a little bit. The shorter the water lines the better they work in the speedy water delivery. I purchased and installed it myself ! My wife has very long hair! and she likes the water hot. I never got hot water when it was my turn to shower even when i waited! Now I get a nice hot shower at my temp with no more NAVY showers for us. Yes is uses more water and propane! I dont care! I rather get a nice shower then freeze.

[@TDub_ADV]

We have a suburban on demand in our DRV and we are not very happy with it. When we first turn it on it takes over a minute before we get hot water. On ours if we turn the water off for even a second its a 30-40 second delay before it recovers and the water is hot. That is if it did not error out during the refire. We sometimes get a E1 error when the flow changes and if its not wide open it will not fire. The other thing we notice, it works terribly if there is low pressure. The park we are currently in has ~30psi at the bib and the heater errors out all the time running off the city connection. We have found that filling the fresh tank and running off the pump we get better performance from the heater. Bottom line is the heater we have is terrible for boondocking. We waste so much water waiting for it to get hot and have to leave it open for it to stay hot also wasting water. Two quick showers and dish washing we will go thru 50 gallons in a day with a lot of that just being wasted waiting for hot water. This simply will not work without full hookups, especially for full timers like us who want to boondock for a week or more. . We are not sure what we are going to do yet but im looking into a Truma with a recirc setup or we are "upgrading" to a tank.

[@thnksno]

I'm on year 7 of a tankless water heater in my house. It's definitely not the same as all my years with a tank water heater. I can not really tell the difference between how quickly the hot water starts flowing from a cold start. However, the endless hot water from the tankless system is far superior to the tank system. But, there is one thing I do differently between the two systems. I'm less likely to run hot water from the tankless system for quick water needs. Such as a quick hand rinse while cooking. I know the system has to start every time I use hot water, and it also runs for a short period after turning off the faucet. So, I've become reluctant to run the hot water intermittently because it seems unnecessary to start that burner for a simple 10-second rinse without the water even getting hot. In my mind, reducing cycling times will extend the life of the water heater.

[@OOMAN]

I have a Girard tankless in my toy hauler and wouldn't trade it for nothin'! Endless hot water without a single problem. That initial 30-seconds is not a big deal for me. Getting hot after turning it off and on is not a problem or annoying in mine. I'll live with that over a limited capacity tank any day. I just make sure I dial it up to max temp (124*) when I'm setting up, like you did initially.

[@Bx2cruiser]

So, I think the way these tankless water heaters work, is they scald you so bad that as soon as the cold water hits you it’s kinda refreshing.

[@TheFiremanJoe]

I’ll keep my tanked water heater. Especially considering that my water heater is very close to both the kitchen and the bathroom.

[@ptcclatlptcclatl1683]

The best way to do this is to shower with a friend.

[@robkeller2704]

awesome

[@orangepowerguy]

We have to use on board water and pump when we camp sometimes. I hate having to waste a lot of water with the on demand system waiting for it to warm up.

[@The_Opinion_of_Matt]

This tankless system is faster than the hot water in my house. In my house it 60 seconds before the water starts getting warm at the kitchen sink, about 2 minutes before it is hot, hot. It takes even longer for the downstairs bathroom, probably 2 minutes before it starts getting warm in the bathroom but I haven't timed it.

[@ronniesolomon5235]

Great video. I’ve been curious about the difference and if a tankless is that much worth it. Thank you

[@InfamousElGuapo]

The main deterrent for me is no electric heating. Family of 4, we have had good luck with our dual mode water heater.

[@kevincassidy2182]

My wife and I were discussing the other day which would better. 😂😂

[@ahmadkareem3774]

I dont know why the companies dont add temperature sensor with two-way valve (can be activated by 12v switch when desired), circulation to the fresh water tank, when the flow matches the desired temperature, it switches to the faucet. the lower setpoint, the faster water flows. in case water city source, the fresh water tank will get full, the water goes with overflow outlet.

[@jetdriver]

So both you and changing lanes were testing the same brand of tankless the Girard. A couple of key differences though. One he was at 1000’ of elevation which will reduce performance. Two his inlet water temp seems to have been lower. Especially when he came back later and found that the unit could not get the inlet water to the programmed temperature. Right now there are so many variations on the tankless water heater that it’s hard to generalize because what was true for one may not be true for another brand. What we can say for sure at this point is that a tankless unit can provide an endless source of hot water but that the performance of these units is not assured to remotely the same degree as a tanked unit. We also know that for off grid applications it’s going to require some changes like faucets that can recirculate water to better enable on and off use. I think it’s also fair to say that the tankless unit isn’t always an upgrade over a tanked unit.

[@rayarnold1406]

All tankless heaters have certain specs labeled. Ie recovery rates per gallon per certain time. That could be the difference in your test compared to Chads. Interesting any how your results. We have electric/gas tank type and to boost recovery rate turn on both gas/electric.

[@rob9675]

But part of what chat also said was if you are dry camping the amount of water you waste is a big factor

[@mountainsintomemories]

We have a suburban tankless and so far I hate it. I don’t know what the solution is, but we waste an incredible amount of water having to leave it running through the whole shower.

[@francisagosh2175]

Is there a way of converting your old system? I have a 2021 Palmer water heater toone and that is on demand now.?

[@francisagosh2175]

To a on demand water heater

[@neilmac4730]

Chad's trailer is a behemoth, longer runs from the heat source.

[@charleslathan]

What happens when you mix cold water in to the system? How does that affect how rapidly the water or does the water stay at the same temperature?

[@joejackson3537]

When I first got my tankless water heater, I kept it at 124 degrees and ran cold water like a regular water heater to adjust the temperature. That was because the factory setting on the tankless water heater was with the knob only half open, and it didn't have enough water pressure. It works just fine like that, but it is different from how it is designed to work. Once I figured out I could turn up the pressure, I figured out what temperature I like, and now I only run hot at my temperature. So basically, turning on the cold side works like a traditional water heater but isn't advised.

[@charleslathan]

That makes sense. thanks for the information. @@joejackson3537

[@davidmilledge221]

I like tank heaters saves on water usage and can be used on mains power 24/7 its a no brainer , use gas when off grid only takes 30 minutes to heat tank then turn off have a shower , if you want the luxuries off home stay home 😅

[@tedshantz6193]

thats alot of extra water goin into tank when ur boondocking

[@joeerau]

You do not have a circulating hot water system. If you did, when the piping turns from blue to white you would not need to wait for hot water. It would be instantaneous.

[@BTBRVReviews]

Yep. You're referring to a Showermeiser

[@davidgroves8049]

from my research only the truma has a small hot water tank with their tankless systems. and that unit does not circulate the water thru your pipes to keep them warm. some home system do that. If people would jus t do a little testing with what water temp they like , they only should use hot water and do not mix! 108F for me 110F for my wife.! @@BTBRVReviews

[@andrey20102]

Wow, what a waste of water! I use that much to take a shower! On/off when I shower as needed. Maybe a 5 -10 second max of cold water waisted when I start the shower.🤦🏻‍♂️. For me at least, camping is when I don’t see another trailer/tent in sight. To each their own I guess.

[@jakjakjakjakjak]

Terrible when your boon docking or at a campground without water..

[@CT9905.]

They use propane Only…. Not good!

[@MarcAndreSurette]

That was a terrible test. You just put your hand! You can neither compare or validate that it's better then another system. His system was also a Girard system.

[@BTBRVReviews]

I admitted it wasn't as thorough as his. I have another test with a digital temp meter