Upgrading to a Tankless Water Heater (?) - Fleetwood Bounder

[RV4thePets]

I have a 2012 Fleetwood Bound Classic (30T). I’m considering upgrading to a tankless water heater after a couple of hiccups with my original one. No one likes cold showers! I can’t seem to find the “right” replacement. A friend replacesthe tank water heater in his Jayco with an after market one and had no problems, but it is smaller (15” x 15”) than mine (15” x 18”).

Has anyone done a tankless water heater upgrade on a Bounder?

[puttin]

Do some searches about tankless heaters and you'll see there are lots of problems. In addition, not everyone understands them so not everyone can work on it. I don't know what problems you have with your present one but they are all fixable. Stick with something that's been around a long time. Parts are everywhere and people everywhere work on them- including owners.

[twinboat]

I have a 2017 RV with a tankless. Works great and never needed any fixing.

We set the temp we like for showers and only open the hot faucet.

[Old-Biscuit]

Brand/Model of your current tank water heater would be helpful......

Tankless in RVs have issues also.

[Country Road]

My daughter is buying a new Heartland 5th wheel and all the new units she’s looked at have tankless. Unlike older RV’s, the tankless seem to be catching on. Got to love those long showers.

[Mike in Austin]

I have a Suburban IW-60 tankless in my RV. It has been great. We never boondock - so skimping on water or propane usage is not an issue.
I still need to install fittings and pipe to perform an annual descaling process. The pic below is the piping diagram from Suburban with the color lines illustrating the new stuff I need to buy and install in my basement next to the water heater. There are descaling "kits" available from Amazon - but I will buy all the stuff+120 volt recirc pump at Home Depot.

There are several tankless water heaters on the market. Look for youtube videos to learn about each tank. Lots of info available.

Before you choose a tankless unit -
- If you boondock - you may not want a tankless water heater.
- Study the maintenance requirements/ descaling procedure for each unit. Some have built-in descaling mechanisms...some (like mine) require that I add fittings/valves/connections and a circulating pump to perform the descale process.
- Compare the BTU output for each unit. This will tell you how quickly flowing water will be heated.
- There is one brand that requires a certified technician to install it. I don't remember the name (sorry) - but you will not be able to do the install yourself for this one.
- The tank installation is pretty simple and straight forward for these...12 volt power/cold water/hot water/propane pipes hook up just like your old water heater. Generally the controllers require 2 wires - so if you do not currently have a controller you will have to run the wires and mount the controller somewhere.

[SteveJ.]

A lot of the aftermarket tankless WHs are not dry-camp friendly, particularly when utilizing Navy showers.

We only use the WH for showers. We have a wireless meat thermometer probe stuffed between the WH tank and it's foam wrapper. When it gets to a temperature we like we shut off the burner. We only heat it to a level that we like for showering without blending in cold water. Using a low flow through an Oxygenics shower head we have no problem taking complete showers on less than 3 gallons of water for both of us, total.

For other domestic hat water needs we just heat what we need on the cooktop, a lot less water waste this way.

[Randy125]

My Atwood was replaced with a Girard tankless, they sell doors to cover the exterior hole depending on the unit that is being replaced.

[lbfrombigd]

Tankless question is it propane or electric, if propane make sure you have a large enough propane tank. Electric even with 50 amp service I wonder could it run two AC and water heater. Just question never owned tankless so I don’t know answers.