Girard On-Demand Water Heater SUCKS

[Colossus]

I gave the Girard a fair shot before posting this. But it simply will not work for us. It waist entirely too much water which in turns fills the tanks really fast. I’m also not a fan of only one fuel source for the hot water tank but I was willing to overlook that factor. Sad to say, we’re in the market to change the hot water tank on a brand new unit.

[Voyager-Two]

This new water water heater was a real pain on our recent 4 week trip. It filled our grey tank super quick and gave us doses of cold water every time we tried to trickle the water while soaping up. I ended up buying and installing the ShowerMi$er. It’s not perfect but the problem is way better now. There are a couple negative things with ShowerMi$er. You have to add additional plumbing and cut a hole in your shower stall. I did all that and with a little extra whittling on the plumbing access opening behind the shower valve I made everything work. It performs as advertised. It diverts water into the freshwater tank while you suds up. For us this works fine.

[Rich Jenkins]

We'll see long term, but we are pretty happy with the Girard system so far on our 2022 23' GT. I like the instant hot water to get a shower after a long days drive without waiting for the tank to warm up. Plus we are not constantly keeping a tank hot, wasting energy. No more annual tank clean out, or anode rod replacement. Don't have to wait for the tank to warm back up between successive showers either. Appreciate it might not work for some other modes of camping but for us it's fine.

[ts8501]

The Girard sucks camp includes me, as it is not efficient when boondocking or dry camping. For all of the reasons already posted. Hooked up at a campground with unlimited water and sewer, the Girard works fine. I am going to replace the Girard with a Truma, and already found an authorized reseller who will install it. A gently used Girard will then go up for sale.

[Colossus]

Originally Posted by ts8501

The Girard sucks camp includes me, as it is not efficient when boondocking or dry camping. For all of the reasons already posted. Hooked up at a campground with unlimited water and sewer, the Girard works fine. I am going to replace the Girard with a Truma, and already found an authorized reseller who will install it. A gently used Girard will then go up for sale.

Second this ^^^

I have an appointment to have my Truma installed later this week. Anyone interested in purchasing a fairly new Girard PM me or keep your eye on the classified section. Lol

[ts8501]

Originally Posted by Colossus

Second this ^^^

I have an appointment to have my Truma installed later this week. Anyone interested in purchasing a fairly new Girard PM me or keep your eye on the classified section. Lol

Please do let us know how you like it once installed :-)

[GT27]

Please do let us know how the Truma fits and looks and works.
I'm saving my pennies in case I want to do the same.

[Colossus]

I had the Truma comfort installed at the Truma Service Center in Lakeland, FL. Bruce and Dave did an outstanding job on the installation. Fits directly into the existing space of my (30 FBB) factory opening for the Girard.

The white door that’s installed with the Truma will be painted to match the Airstream in the upcoming weeks. Unless I can have something fabricated to replace or modify the door. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to share.

The most amazing thing happened while using the Truma; I turned on hot water in the galley and momentarily turned it off, then turn it back on again … there was no interruption of hot water! Lol … I will follow up and post more after using the system for a bit.

[RickBullotta]

Originally Posted by Colossus

I had the Truma comfort installed at the Truma Service Center in Lakeland, FL. Bruce and Dave did an outstanding job on the installation. Fits directly into the existing space of my (30 FBB) factory opening for the Girard.

The white door that’s installed with the Truma will be painted to match the Airstream in the upcoming weeks. Unless I can have something fabricated to replace or modify the door. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to share.

The most amazing thing happened while using the Truma; I turned on hot water in the galley and momentarily turned it off, then turn it back on again … there was no interruption of hot water! Lol … I will follow up and post more after using the system for a bit.



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Nice! Can you share what the approximate cost for the Truma + install was?

[Colossus]

Originally Posted by RickBullotta

Nice! Can you share what the approximate cost for the Truma + install was?

Sure, I think the cost of the Truma was around $1800 installed. Definitely worth the cost IMO.

[2012FB]

One of the first things I did. I went with the small black door. Put the Truma control where the Gerard was. Great upgrade! I thought the Truma control would glow when turned on. Mine doesn’t. Wondering if others do or I just misunderstood.

[Colossus]

Originally Posted by 2012FB

One of the first things I did. I went with the small black door. Put the Truma control where the Gerard was. Great upgrade! I thought the Truma control would glow when turned on. Mine doesn’t. Wondering if others do or I just misunderstood.

My Truma control glows when I turn it on.

[slurpee]

Originally Posted by Colossus

I had the Truma comfort installed at the Truma Service Center in Lakeland, FL. Bruce and Dave did an outstanding job on the installation. Fits directly into the existing space of my (30 FBB) factory opening for the Girard.

The white door that’s installed with the Truma will be painted to match the Airstream in the upcoming weeks. Unless I can have something fabricated to replace or modify the door. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to share.

The most amazing thing happened while using the Truma; I turned on hot water in the galley and momentarily turned it off, then turn it back on again … there was no interruption of hot water! Lol … I will follow up and post more after using the system for a bit.



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Assuming there are inches to feet between Truma output and your shower head, even with Truma the initial water output at shower head will be cold until the hot water from Truma reaches the head, correct? What is approx distance from your Truma to shower head, and how many seconds of cold before hit?

[waninae39]

the Thruma unit has three option , simple, one way or full recirculation.
as should have installed a unit with full recirculation, that would have solved the water issue.
but recirculation uses a bit more water, thus maybe that is what AS did not install a recirculation system and only uses a just in demand

[Vitaver]

I have the water diverter to the fresh tank until hot, installed at the dealership, hated the ‘instant hot’ electrical that came with my GT27 2022. The problem is mixing hot and cold: somehow the diverter sends all hot or all cold, does not mix them, so had to lower the temp on the thermostat to 120 and just use hot water.

[kscherzi]

Out of curiosity can anybody explain the advantage of the tankless on-demand water heater over the traditional tank model? Why did Airstream make this change?

[pcskier]

Originally Posted by kscherzi

Out of curiosity can anybody explain the advantage of the tankless on-demand water heater over the traditional tank model? Why did Airstream make this change?

Endless hot shower. If you have a water connection that is. For boondocking, it’s a disadvantage. Trying to take navy showers with an on demand heater never lets the water get hot with the short bursts you use. Go through a lot of water keeping a hot flow.

Airstream tends to cater to the RV full hookup crowd in my opinion.

[Roadtech]

I know AS wants to keep their number of options to a bare minimum for production efficiency reasons, but an ideal solution would be to to offer the Truma AquaGo as an additional charge option like solar. I bet most folks would order it.

[ts8501]

I made the switch to Truma! Trying to decide if I am ok with the door color as is.
Opinions?

[Merlintiaga]

I am also a member of the "Hate-My-Girard" club. It is a horribly designed system. Even a small decrease in hot water flow from the shower mixing valve or (heaven forbid) briefly shutting off the water, causes the burner to shut off entirely sending cold water through the system. I called Girard about this when I first got my trailer. They confirmed that my water heater is working as designed. Really?

My half-fix (e.g., cheap) was to install a shower-miser. You can see it just below the mixing valve in the picture attached. The miser does dramatically improve water usage for showering. I didn't install the blue magic-mushroom, it's not needed.

The other half of the optimal fix IMO (which I do not have) is to install a Truma Aqua-Go. It has a very small storage tank. The combination of the storage tank and the on-demand feature of the water heater, is the near perfect solution. You can even wash your hands with warm water! (can't do that with less than a GALLON of water with the Girard)

The real fix to all of this is the Truma Aqua-Go Plus recirculating water system, but this needs to be installed when the trailer is being built. I am very surprised that Airstream hasn't gone with a recirculating water heater system. The cost of running a bit of PEX pipe is minimal and would make for a much more luxurious trailer with WAY better boon-docking capabilities. I don't want the AS Corporate haters to run with this. My comment is more of a suggestion to AS than anything else.

Happy camping!