New Atwood Tankless

[Del Gurney]

I know this thread is over a year old but I would ask how everyone is doing with either the Attwood or Precision Temp. RV550 (belly pan air duct and roof vent) as I'm nearing
installing one.
Another thing: Is there any reason NOT to add a 6 gal. hot water reservoir?? Assuming
it's a complete shell off and I can plan it in?? Thanks

[truckasaurus]

I sold the trailer that I'd installed the Precision Temp model in so no long term feedback from me but I will again be going this route in my current project which is my endorsement. (I also remembered that it has a cold weather protection function so it shouldn't suffer any freezing weather problems either).

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by Del Gurney

I know this thread is over a year old but I would ask how everyone is doing with either the Attwood or Precision Temp. RV550 (belly pan air duct and roof vent) as I'm nearing
installing one.
Another thing: Is there any reason NOT to add a 6 gal. hot water reservoir?? Assuming
it's a complete shell off and I can plan it in?? Thanks

What purpose would the hot-water reservoir serve? It seems like that's an expensive way to get back to the same thing as a conventional 6-gal water heater, you'd lose the on-demand/tankless aspect of the thing.

I have a tankless water heater in my home, I think it's great. I wouldn't add a reservoir to it.

[rmkrum]

I'm still using my 550 tankless. Took it on a two month run last year, into freezing temperatures. It was wonderful. Wife got to take nice long hot showers. No issues with the heater at all. Absolutely convinced it's the way to go.

My fault we ran out of propane once. Now we carry spares...

I also noticed that my pump does cycle too much with the tankless. The conventional Atwood 6 gallon holds an air bubble that smooths out flow. I'm adding a small surge tank to restore the bubble to the system.

With that minor fix, we both will be happy.


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[Del Gurney]

I prefer to shut off the propane when not needed because (despite checking every gas fitting) I notice there is a still an appreciable loss of propane over time. Since doing so I figure I must refill tanks 1/2 as much as I used to.
rmkrum's comment on the surge tank is much appreciated but I think if designed properly I could have 6 gallons of hot (ok warm) water first thing in the AM AND retain the "bubble" to prevent frequent pump cycling.

[rmkrum]

One of the things I was looking for on the tankless was 42 pounds less weight forward of the axles on the street side. The tankless responds fast enough that I have hot water in a few seconds...warmish water is not what wife desires....hot water in a tank is a step backwards IMHO.


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[Skater]

Since we last discussed it, I saw something in one of the tankless models that turned me off - in freezing weather, it has to fire up every so often to prevent itself from freezing. It makes sense; it just wasn't something I thought of before, and many people don't camp in freezing weather, so they probably wouldn't notice.

Since we do regularly camp in freezing weather, and we don't want to listen to it cycling on and off two or three times an hour while we're trying to sleep, we've decided a regular tank model is the best solution for us when it comes time to replace ours. We can heat the tank of water before we go to bed, then shut it off, and it still won't freeze by morning. Also, it'll be quiet and use zero propane until we fire it up in the morning before our showers. The anti-freeze cycling might even offset any savings in propane we would expect; of course since we turn ours off when we're not using it, we probably wouldn't save much propane with a tankless anyway.

I'm really glad I saw one in operation in freezing weather before we took the plunge - I would've been extremely disappointed. I still think they're interesting technology, but they're just not the best solution for our usage patterns.

[Gene]

I thought the regular water heater won't freeze because it is inside the trailer and gets enough heat from the trailer to keep it above freezing. But I suppose if it goes below 0˚ for an extended time it might be an issue. Since most of us turn the water heater on a few times each day and the tank has lots of insulation, it should be ok. And I haven't heard anyone who winter camps reporting frozen water heaters.

Gene

[Monza]

What are people think of their hot water on demand heaters still?

I asked my RV parts guy and he said he sees more failures from them and generally it means replacing the unit. Traditional water heaters he said you can fix repair and replace parts.

How are they working out? Would you go tankless again??

[lewster]

Originally Posted by Monza

What are people think of their hot water on demand heaters still?

I asked my RV parts guy and he said he sees more failures from them and generally it means replacing the unit. Traditional water heaters he said you can fix repair and replace parts.

How are they working out? Would you go tankless again??

YES! Tankless his the ONLY way!!!

[rmkrum]

Absolutely tankless. Solid performance and happy wife is sufficient reason.

PrecisionTemp 500 series unit.