Inline water heater?

[Sondra]

Has anyone replaced their tank style with an inline or am I outta my mind for even thinking it would be a good idea? I'm new to the world of rv's so I really don't know. I just thought it would be a good upgrade. I'd love some input!

[Mikendebbie]

Do you mean “on demand” water heater?
I am not familiar with “in line” water heater.

[Sondra]

For some reason it won't let me just link this...

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rheem-Performance-36-kw-Self-Modulating-6-GPM-Electric-Tankless-Water-Heater-RETEX-36/300800822

[Jamesb]

Any kind of inline water heater that would be useful, is of course 240 volts. Or the derated ones are 208v. Regardless, you do not have this type of power output in your FW. And if you did, you would be way over 50 amps. Raheem does offer a 120v model, but what you have now offers more hot water output than it does. A propane in-line water heater is what you would need. And in the RV World, that would be called the On Demand system version. Maybe in short terms, that helps answer your question.

[DQDick]

We had three rigs on our block, last winter, who all had them from the factory. We had some cold nights and the best they could do was warm water. On the other hand all the heaters were supplied by the low bidder.

[Sondra]

Thank you! That's exactly what I needed to know!

[Last2Die]

Our in demand system works great when taking a bath, when taking a shower it’s great until i turn off the flow and turn it back on again. It’s getting better instead of the cold sandwich I’m getting a warmish sandwich lol

[QKnot]

Had a Girard Gen 3 on demand tankless water heater in my travel trailer. It was nice in that you could set the temperature with a digital controller and forget it. And you really didn't run out of hot water even in cold weather with that particular unit. Winterizing was a breeze because there was no tank to drain. The biggest drawbacks were that it only operated on propane, it was loud, and the only reason I had the Gen 3 was because the Gen 1 that the trailer came with failed on me. Otherwise, I liked it a lot.

That said, with the 12 gallon one in my Montana, my wife and I really haven't found ourselves missing the tankless water heater. Plus it's nice not having to use propane if we're plugged in.

[mazboy]

if we want some quick hot water we just turn on gas and electric at the same time...

[drjjj]

Originally Posted by mazboy

if we want some quick hot water we just turn on gas and electric at the same time...

Excuse my ignorance but you can run the water heater on propane and electric at the same time? I thought that if you turned on the propane for the water heater that the electric function turned off?

[Ram Montana High Country]

it's good to go to run both - keeps us going - I think it's in the specs that it has a high GPM, more than the shower head uses

[vincedeon]

I've done this and verified both propane and electric stay alive.

[BB_TX]

Originally Posted by drjjj

Excuse my ignorance but you can run the water heater on propane and electric at the same time? I thought that if you turned on the propane for the water heater that the electric function turned off?

No problem running on both at the same time. If the weather is warm to hot we typically use the WH on electric only as the incoming water is already fairly warm. But if the weather is oool to cold and the incoming water is cold we run on both electric and propane to get a better hot water recover rate. And have never had a problem running out of hot water.

[Bnrc73]

We run both while showering. Propane has a quicker recovery time. We can do back to back showers and not run out of hot water.

[56cruser]

Check this out!
https://precisiontemp.com/