Converting from a suburban water heater to on demand heater?

[Derick]

So I have a 6 gal suburban water heater in my camper. I had been having all sorts of stupid issues with it, but I believe it's proper and stable now.

That said, have you ever converted over to one of the 'bolt on' propane on-demand water heaters and placed it within the same suburban tank workspace? Wondering if that would allow proper ventilation and if it could be used for the kitchen and bathroom sink, as well as the shower. Not trying to do anything a the moment, just brainstorming.

[marininn]

Seems people who like the tankless are always at a water hookup.
Tankless is terrible for boondocking / saving water. I am shoppng also, and keep reading that trying to turn the water off often results in either scalding hot, or ice cold water. Tankless needs a constant flow of water to perform. Just running the water wastefully is not what I want to do when conserving water on a long outing.
Am I correct?
My thoughts, as a boondocker, is to run the hot water into a bulb before it gets to the shower. The bulb I mean a small tank, inline with the hot water pipe, maybe a gallon in size where the water can remix with hot and cold incoming tankless water before it is used. This acts as a temperature damper and might level out the temp fluctuation.
Anyone tried?
I hate heating 6 gallons only to take a 1 gallon shower. Is an issue for extended camping when trips to refill propane is not optional.

[shastagary]

discussion including 2 that are using the suburban tankless tankless water heater

[Bird_Freak]

I have not met anyone that has a on demand heater that is really happy with it.

[Derick]

mobeewan wrote:
These units are meant to be used outdoors or properly vented to reduce chances of fires or carbon monoxide poisoning indoors. They produce an extreme amount of heat comming out the top. They cannot be used in the same space as a traditional travel trailer water heater.

I have a smaller unit that has the slot across the top to vent and have it attached to a piece of plywood that I can either lean up against my outdoor kitchen table when tent camping or I strap it to a tree with a bungee. I use it independently with a 6 or 11 lb propane cylinder. It uses D cell batteries for the electronic igniter. I'm planning on building a camper trailer conversion using a utility trailer. I'll probably use the water heater with it mounted on the outside when I'm set up camping with quick connects for the on board water and Propane.

I added adapters on the ends of my low Point drains for outdoor hot and cold water on my travel trailer. If I were to leave on a trip and know that my onboard water heater was acting up I would carry the Portable On Demand along and could hook it into the low Point drains to provide onboard hot water in the trailer if needed. But I would only run It Outdoors.

For my utility trailer comversion the only way I would ever use it indoors is if it were extremely cold and I had to worry about it freezing while sitting Outdoors not being used. I would only run it while I had the exhaust ventilation running and I would mount it far enough from the ceiling that I wouldn't have to worry about setting the ceiling on fire.

That's what I wanted to know. I thought the water heater was DOA earlier this year when I first bought the trailer....turned out it was a few various issues and it's purring like a kitten now. Just brainstorming as to what options I might have in the future and was curious about those wall mounted heaters since they were so cheap.

[Dick_B]

Are you sure you want to switch to an on demand heater? It seems like a lot of trouble unless you want to full time. We are two seniors but do very well with a 6 gal. heater on propane.

[ScottG]

The new Suburban looks good on paper with its 20~60K btu variable output but I would want to hear from real people who have used them before taking the plunge.

[mobeewan]

I'm liking that Suburban. You can mount it as a new installation without having to have the access door on the outside. It looks like they have an access door for the outside but it's only to cover the existing opening if you're replacing an existing water heater. It looks like a good possibility for my utility trailer conversion.

[mobeewan]

These units are meant to be used outdoors or properly vented to reduce chances of fires or carbon monoxide poisoning indoors. They produce an extreme amount of heat comming out the top. They cannot be used in the same space as a traditional travel trailer water heater.

I have a smaller unit that has the slot across the top to vent and have it attached to a piece of plywood that I can either lean up against my outdoor kitchen table when tent camping or I strap it to a tree with a bungee. I use it independently with a 6 or 11 lb propane cylinder. It uses D cell batteries for the electronic igniter. I'm planning on building a camper trailer conversion using a utility trailer. I'll probably use the water heater with it mounted on the outside when I'm set up camping with quick connects for the on board water and Propane.

I added adapters on the ends of my low Point drains for outdoor hot and cold water on my travel trailer. If I were to leave on a trip and know that my onboard water heater was acting up I would carry the Portable On Demand along and could hook it into the low Point drains to provide onboard hot water in the trailer if needed. But I would only run It Outdoors.

For my utility trailer comversion the only way I would ever use it indoors is if it were extremely cold and I had to worry about it freezing while sitting Outdoors not being used. I would only run it while I had the exhaust ventilation running and I would mount it far enough from the ceiling that I wouldn't have to worry about setting the ceiling on fire.

[Derick]

Yeah the suburban one looks like the real deal...but was thinking more along the lines of one of the cheaper 200 dollar units;

https://www.campingworld.com/tankless-liquid-propane-gas-water-heater-5l

Like that guy there. Just in case something were to go wrong with my suburban. At this point, its got all new element, anode, and piping, so it should be good for awhile to come, but I was thinking, why not?

[Old-Biscuit]

Read all about installing/using one brand/type 'on-demand'

Suburban Nautilus On-Demand Installation/Service Manual

[ScottG]

The tankless units are designed to directly replace the more common units. They may require a kit or door to do so but after install they look factory.

The problem is finding a tankless that works for you.