Using water heater or not

[TS192]

My wife and I do little weekend camping trips during the warmer weather. My question. Do I need to use my water heater(or maybe from time to time) or is it OK to leave it bypassed for several months at a time.? We use bathhouses for showers and take dishes and such home to clean. I just don't any trouble down the road. Thanks for any good knowledge ..T

[mel s]

Originally Posted by TS192

My wife and I do little weekend camping trips during the warmer weather. My question. Do I need to use my water heater(or maybe from time to time) or is it OK to leave it bypassed for several months at a time.? We use bathhouses for showers and take dishes and such home to clean. I just don't any trouble down the road. Thanks for any good knowledge ..T

TS192
Mine sits unused for as long as 7 months at a time, but is alwatsused when camping.
Mel
'96 Safari

[wa8yxm]

If you wish you can leave your water heater bypassed and drained 100% of the time.

IF it is an Atwood..Remove the RED wire from the ECO teminal and secure it (Tape or otherwise insulate) to insure the heater is not turned on.

Removing this wire will cause the unit to go into Overheat Shutdown Fault mode if you turn it on..

Should you fill the thing and turn it on with out reconncting...Fear not The fault light will light.. TUrn off,, Re-connect, turn back on and it should work.

[GaryWT]

Interesting but why not. No need to turn it on. You will not need to wash your hands or anything? For us, the main reason to have a trailer and not an popup is so we do not need to use the campground bathrooms and showers, we love having our own.

[TDI-Minnie]

The only issue I see is mold and nastyness growing in there. Even drained isn't 100% drained usually. So if you put the plug back in, I see a bio-hazard project starting over the summer. If you leave the plug out/open, you may end up with a wasp nest inside or something.

As was said above, why not use it or at least run water through it with it off?
That's the best option I can think of.

On a side note, having large volume turnover in the black and grey tanks keeps smell down and helps to better flush everything.

[ahicks]

I say suit yourself. We rarely need/use ours as well. It's never suffered from or shown a tendency to develop a case of the "nasties".

[Tha_Rooster]

You can leave it in bypass from now on if you prefer but as others said make sure it doesn't get turned on.

[Triker56]

We use bathhouses for showers and take dishes and such home to clean.

Why not also use paper plates & throw away plastic silverware. And not have anything to haul into the house and then back out to the RV to clean when getting home.

[Czar Of Poop]

I would use it from time to time to blow out the cob-webs. Remember everything needs to be exercised to keep it running smoothly.

[TS192]

Thanks to all for your helpful input.

[89sandman]

We hardly ever turn ours on, we are also weekend warriors so we use paper plates and plastic silverware. We don't drain ours and at the end of the weekend when we are dumping the tanks I always run the hot water side of the faucet to flush the gray tank, that way the water heater is being flushed everytime we us the RV.

[mel s]

Originally Posted by Tha_Rooster

You can leave it in bypass from now on if you prefer but as others said make sure it doesn't get turned on.

I have a LP only WH.
Before I drain the WH I pull the WH fuse to prevent that.
If I had a gas/electric WH I would pull the 12V fuse AND turn the 120V WH breaker OFF.
Mel
'96 Safari

[Brockx]

Just don't push the button to light it, if you don't need it. If you need a little hot water push the button, done, push the button to turn it off. Now you have nothing to worry about, and everything is functioning normal.