Electric water heater, leave it running?

[Bigtoado]

We are full time. Once we check for air in the system, electric side stays on all the time until the night before we leave. I usually drain the heater before getting on the road.

We can take 2 showers as long as we want on a 10gal water heater and not worry about using propane backup. It’s still there if we need it.

Phil and Charon
Warm and dry in Texas

[Julia2005]

Trying to be as conservative as possible we only turn on the water heater when we need hot water. Only take about 15 minutes to heat up enough for a shower or washing dishes. No sense leaving it on 24/7 if not needed. They are not the most efficient heaters out there so why waste the electricity.

[Rickc1296]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

We leave the AC water heater on all the time we are connected to shore power. We turn of the propane side about 30 minutes before taking showers to have hot water for longer periods, the turn it off after we are finished.

We to the same. We turn on the propane first thing in the morning, before taking showers, then turn it of after. The electric element keeps the water nice and hot.

[JMB111333]

I usually turn of the hot water when we leave for extended periods of time. I figure it is safer turned off and maybe the folks around me will have better voltage with mine off when not in use.

[cruizerEd]

We typically don't use much hot water. We shower at the bath house etc.

I keep it off to save power and to extend the water heater life.

It takes about 30 minutes to make hot enough water for showering etc so if we forget to turn it on it isn't a big deal.

[Luminator]

Originally Posted by Mr.Woody

For those of you with electric or dual source water heaters, do you leave the electric running all the time like a regular residential unit, or do you turn it on/off daily?

Just bought our first RV and discovered last night that ours is dual source. Thinking I'll leave it on electric throughout the day, then turn the LP on for showers to help with recovery time

Many Congratualtions on the RV Purchase!!! Many happy trails!!!!

From our many years of RVing, I have observed and learned/conditioned to do the following:

1. Leaving for part of the day??? Turn off your water heater (no overheating) AND water input at the campsite hose outlet. WHY? I helped a fellow RVer mop out their flooded RV after a water fitting failed while they were out touring locally and it filled thier RV with 1-inch of water along with 2 picture worthy water falls out their doors. We removed the underbelly and his wife bought about 6, 12-inch fans and some cat litter (it 'sucks'...pun fully intended) to help with the drying out. Luckily, only the bathroom floor 'popcorned' up as that is where the water pipe failed. Plus the RV was leveled off with a negative slope towards the truck's driver side. I had several parts and helped get them back on their way. That flooring is 'easily' replaced and he had the skillset to execute it.

2. Turn off your water heater when you go to sleep. Not much hot water need when one's eye's are shut and with our 10 gallon very well insulated water heater, we have hot, hot water in the morning. IF we have the dog with us, I turn on the hot water heater when I come back with him at 4:45AM...we are trying to teach him to read a clock but not doing so well in that space...#sad

If you can get into the above rhythm of business, you are perfectly positioned to RV off the grid even for a day or two...there are some amazing places one can visit while being off the grid.


Have fun, get lost, meet new people (always better when lost), be happy and most importanly, do something nice for someone else.

Cheers, Michael and Lora ann (my much better half)

[DRAGN83]

When we had a 30 AMP travel trailer, we were always juggling electric appliances etc as it's easy to exceed the 30 amp limit. I found that if I tried to run more than two major electric things at the same time, then my Power Watchdog surge prot3ctornwould cut me off with an over current message. For example AC + Water Heater then fire up the microwave and....blip.

Now that we have a 50 amp trailer, we don't have that problem any more, but can still have problems if the campground power is flakey. On a 50 amp setup, you get two lines through your 50 amp cable and 50 amps each. At one park, the voltage would start to drop on line 2 as the load increased and the 50 amp watchdog would cut off all power when the voltage dropped too low. Through watching the current draw and voltage on the smart phone app, I figured out which things ran on line 1 and which ones are on line 2. Turns out, the front AC, microwave, water heater, and most 110 outlets are line 2. The rear AC and Misc other stuff were line 1. So I turned off the front AC and was back to managing what I had running at any given time...including turning off the water heater when not in use.

All this was a PITA but a usefull learning experience. A little knowledge of how things work can be really helpful.

[zzotte]

I turn the burner and electric during the day and before we go to bed the electric it’s off

Zzotte

[Mygirlscats]

We have a 30 amp rig. If we are running the A/C and need to use another power-sucking appliance at the same time, the electric hot water gets turned off so we don’t blow the power. If the water needs to be hot at the same time, the propane burner gets turned on.

One thing - if we go to bed with the electric hot water turned on, once everything gets quiet around us we can hear the high-pitched whine of the heater when it cycles on. Very quiet but not a pleasant sound - so more than once I’ve stumbled out of bed and groped my way to the front of the rig to switch it off in the middle of the night!

[Old-Biscuit]

Originally Posted by Mygirlscats

We have a 30 amp rig. If we are running the A/C and need to use another power-sucking appliance at the same time, the electric hot water gets turned off so we don’t blow the power. If the water needs to be hot at the same time, the propane burner gets turned on.

One thing - if we go to bed with the electric hot water turned on, once everything gets quiet around us we can hear the high-pitched whine of the heater when it cycles on. Very quiet but not a pleasant sound - so more than once I’ve stumbled out of bed and groped my way to the front of the rig to switch it off in the middle of the night!

Vinegar soak to reduce scaling...hence reduce the whine

[Mygirlscats]

Thanks for the advice! Been RVing in motorhomes for over 25 years and I’m still learning things.

[Mongobird]

I use the electric 100% of the time, when available. On the rare occasion of 120 volt hookups, I may turn it off when running heat pump. I have not had a problem running out of hot water for one person showering. And normally our showers for two of us are staggered.

I do run the propane to make sure that it fires up and doesn't have any cobwebs in the burner. Cobwebs are principal cause of LP failure to light for the hot water heater and for the refrigerator.

The bottom line is that I use very little propane, despite having 30 some gallons on board.

When not on the road, I will sometimes turn the electric hot water heater on when cleaning or doing other chores particularly when the weather is cooler.

[Dpreco]

We have a 10 gallon tank. As long as we are on shore power we leave both on all the time to ensure enough hot water for showers. The electric keeps tank hot enough so gas only kicks on when in use and the wife stays happy.

[J. W. Hyde]

Originally Posted by Mr.Woody

For those of you with electric or dual source water heaters, do you leave the electric running all the time like a regular residential unit, or do you turn it on/off daily?

Just bought our first RV and discovered last night that ours is dual source. Thinking I'll leave it on electric throughout the day, then turn the LP on for showers to help with recovery time

We leave our electric on when we have shore power...turn it off when we hit the road. Just had our fridge " converted to all electric, so we dont turn on the propane except in winter to run the furnaces.