Hot water heater - Montana Owners Club

jrgwdenner · 07-11-2005, 07:37 AM

Do any of you turn the hot water heater off at night or when you're going to be gone for the day in order to save propane? Glen and I have been doing this on our trip but we don't know if it's cost effective or not. Any ideas?

prariepoodle · 07-11-2005, 08:33 AM

jrdwdenner,At first we did not turn off the hot water heater,now I only turn it on when I need it for dishes or shower. It does seem to save quite a bit of fuel. After all it only takes about 15 minutes to heat the water.

Montana_4118 · 07-11-2005, 09:41 AM

What about the electric side?? We leave the electrical switch on all the time that we are connected and only turn on the gas switch when we need a quick recycle. It is our understanding that the cycle times are much faster with gas and electric on at the same time.

315RLS · 07-11-2005, 10:43 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by jrgwdenner

Do any of you turn the hot water heater off at night or when you're going to be gone for the day in order to save propane? Glen and I have been doing this on our trip but we don't know if it's cost effective or not. Any ideas?

We're boondocking 95% of the time so always turn it off overnight and in the daytime when not needed.

Thunderman · 07-11-2005, 11:26 AM

We turn ours off after use most of the time. I don't think it is harmful to operate this way. Good luck!

padredw · 07-11-2005, 11:53 AM

Our practice is exactly the same as that of Pduff above. In fact we leave the electric switch in the ON position even as we travel. Then when we hook up it comes on; when we disconnect it is off. We rarely use the propane, but do so the few times we may need quicker/more hot water.

sreigle · 07-11-2005, 06:05 PM

Judy, we run ours only on propane now because our older electrical system tends to pop breakers so we just don't use the electrical side unless we need a faster recovery time. I recently had a propane tank go empty after just over six weeks of use. The propane water heater was on the entire time except for a few days on the road. On those days the fridge used propane. Vicki used the oven a number of times during that six weeks but not every day. My personal feeling is that if you leave it on all the time it will just come on when the water in the tank reaches the lower threshhold of temperature and will run just long enough to get the temperature back up. If you shut it off the water will cool down to somewhere around the ambient air temperature and when you turn it on again it will have to heat the water that much more. So I'm not convinced it's worthwhile to shut it off except when we hit the road or are going to be gone for more than a day or so. Just an opinion, no facts to give you.

Montana Sky · 07-11-2005, 06:16 PM

I leave my hot water heater on 24/7 when using the coach. I run it on propane only and put the coach at the lake back in April and just filled the tank before I left for a trip. In almost 4 months of using the coach every weekend and a 1.5 week vacation I used only 4.9 gallons on one tank. The propane use also includes using the furnace a few of those nights as well as some cooking on the stove.

Fordzilla · 07-11-2005, 09:11 PM

We leave our electric element on whenever we are hooked up to electricity, and only use the propane as a backup when we need to run everyone thru the shower quickly. You will get a faster recovery with propane heating the water. Or for even quicker recovery, turn both electricity and propane on.

But back on track I would agree with Steve that it would take more propane to heat it back up from ambient temp than to maintain a certain temperature. So, if I was using the propane I would leave it on all the time, unless I was going to be gone for a couple of days.

abrown134 · 07-12-2005, 02:56 AM

I did something to mine that others might want to consider...

I always use the electric element and leave it on whenever I am hooked up to power. The propane is only turned on when I need quick recovery.

The problem came when I was leaving camp a couple of years ago and had some nasty water in the system. Got unhooked, opened the tank drain on the water heater and fresh water tank and headed home. When I got home I plugged back in to run the AC while I was unpacking, not remembering that the electric element was on in the water heater. It burned up rather quickly and got me a little worried about starting a fire had remembered it after only about 15 min. So we did a little modifications to the electric system.

The power to the electric element now runs through a heavy duty relay which is activated by a momemtary switch. When the trailer is plugged in, the electric element is powered up through the relay and as long as the electric current is not interupted, the relay stays engaged. When you unplug, the relay opens and will not re-energize until you plug back in and manually turn it on. This eliminates the possibility of what I did before; leaving the element turned on and then plugging in on an empty water heater.

A relay like this can be purchased at most electrical supply stores, just make sure it can handle the amp draw needed to run the element. Don't remember what it cost as I bought the parts a couple of years ago.

Aaron

Glenn and Lorraine · 07-12-2005, 09:50 AM

The only time we use gas for the hot water heater is when we are paying for the electric. The campground we just left we paid $.15 per kilowatt hour so we used the gas. If the electric is included in the rate for the site, such as where we are right now, than the gas stays turned off. I find it to be a whole lot cheaper when the campground pays to heat the water. Same goes for the refrigator. We do very little cooking inside so we use very little gas over a year's time.

jrgwdenner · 07-12-2005, 05:05 PM

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your thoughts on this subject. I certainly can see where its cost effect to connect to electric so the campground pays for heating the water. I guess I was thinking more about when we have minimal connections, such as on our trip to Alaska. I think it may be something that really can't be determined as far as saving propane when using it continuously or turning it off when not in use.

ols1932 · 07-12-2005, 05:13 PM

We only use our hot water heater on propane when we dry camp and that is quite a lot. However, we only turn it on when we need hot water. It heats pretty fast on propane. The rest of the time it is turned off.

sreigle · 07-12-2005, 06:22 PM

This thread kinda turned into a do I use electric or gas discussion so I guess I should clarify my earlier comments. My preference and past practice was to do as several others noted they do and use electric when we are hooked up and use both electric and propane when we need fast recovery. However, with our breaker problems it just became too much a pita and we quit using the electric side altogether.

Parrothead · 07-13-2005, 07:10 AM

I think the earlier comment that it does not take much propane or electric to bring the water up to the desired temperature when it is already hot is well taken. Think of a pot of water on the stove. You brought it to boiling point and then turned it off. Minutes later you decide to bring it to boiling again. It would not take long to do this. But if you put a pot of cold water on the stove, it will take quite a long time to bring it to the boiling point. The only time we turn ours off is when Monty is home or we are traveling. When we are parked we do shut off the propane and water if we are going to be gone for several days. However, we run the water heater mostly on electric. I never thought about shutting it off. I like the water heater on propane better (faster) but since I was alone in the Monty a lot, Ed didn't want me to run out of propane because I cannot change the tanks.
Happy trails...................

Bob & Lee · 07-18-2005, 05:16 AM

We leave ours on all the time, we have been in the same place for about 20 months now. the thing I wanted to tell all is the Inod or what ever it is in the tank that they tell you to change at least every year WELL I DIDN'T and what a mess I changed it this last week end and learned the rod was all ate up and the tank was full of hard sandy deposits, well I cleaned and flushed the He** out of the tank and put in a new rod and Wallah! my water is hotter and I have moor of it..WE have on the calender now to inspect it every 6 months and replace every 12 regardless.. lesson learned to pay for a new tank and they are not cheep

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