question about water heater arrangement

[Uglydog56]

Hello!  I finally brought home my 67 Crown last weekend.  Drove it from Yellowstone to Seattle with no issues.  Now that I've got it home, I'm ready to start working on it a little.  The current project is plumbing.  I've figured out how and where to put the bigger tanks I desire.  The other thing I want to upgrade is hot water capacity.  The bus came with your ubiquitous 6 gal LP/elec standard rv water heater.  I'm considering adding an 11 gallon seaward w/ heat exchanger in series so I have hot water on the road, and more inventory for the wife's shower.  My question is in what order would you install these to be most effective?  I was thinking of putting the seaward downstream and putting the electric in it on the inverter.  Then it would be a sort of holding tank when using the propane while boondocking?  Am I thinking right here?  Anybody have better ideas?  Looking to use what I have (as it works fine) but upgrade capacity (as the wife isn't fond of navy showers).  I am setting this thing up to boondock as much as possible when I retire in 2 years.

[bevans6]

I haven't thought it through, but I have a gut feeling that putting it in parallel would create more capacity for a shower.  I'm not sure what the second hot water heater would do in a "use a lot of hot water" situation, since it would be trying to heat the water that is coming from the first water heater that is already hot.  In a static situation they would be about the same.  I have a 10 gallon RV type heater, automatic LP start, and honestly the two of us haven't run out of hot water yet.  All we do is take quick showers, not "navy" showers.  Side benefit of a smaller heater is it heats up fast.  It stays hot for a long time on the road, and I haven't put the hot water issue on any list of things to upgrade yet, so I must be happy with it...

Brian

[robertglines1]

Electrical power boondocking is a precious commodity.  why not use another source for hot water? I'm not off the grid type and when we are I have a 6 gal elect water eater with a 2400 watt element that will keep the water hot as long as the three of us take showers. just run gen set for 20 minutes before. That's from cold state. once it's warm it hold for a day and only takes minutes to return to hot! I think most run their gen sets a little for one reason or another daily; prob wrong there so let the true boondockers give life experience  Bob

[TomC]

When boon docking, we run the generator in the morning to heat the water, make coffee, wife toasts her bread, runs the bathroom heater (when cool), and her hair dryer.  My two water heaters take about 45 minutes from cold to heat.  After they are warm, I'll turn off the second one to just use it as an extra tank of hot water.  Then the first water heater will be doing the work.  Once the generator has been turned off, both water heaters will be turned off for the rest of the day (so the second one doesn't pull a load off the inverter) and we'll still have hot water when needed.
The only propane we have is for the stove and furnace.  No Diesel operated water heater or furnace-too expensive and too much maintenance (have read too many posts about trouble shooting). Good Luck, TomC

[kingfa39]

i used a simple 15 gal 110 volt electric water heater from lowes, takes 20 mins to get wtaer hot and we are good to go, never have ran out
Frank Allen

[gus]

My 4104 has a standard 6 gal RV type LP/AC heater. This heater is quick and completely adequate for any use we ever had. Since your water supply is not infinite I can't imagine using so much hot water it couldn't keep up. I never used the AC coil.

My 4107 has a 10 gal tank w/heat exchanger and AC coil. We hardly ever use the AC coil because the exchanger is so hot, too hot actually. It really heats up the water compartment during the summer, I have to open up the bay doors to cool it off when we stop. Sometimes the cold water is almost as hot as the hot!! Nice in cold weather, but most of our travel is during warm weather.

The heat exchanger requires too much leak and failure prone hose, the system looks like a giant spider web and is a pain when any work is required in the water compartment. I already had one hose soften and leak valuable engine coolant. The RV heater is simple in comparison.

My choice is the simple LP RV type since you already have it and the hole in the side that goes with it.

[luvrbus]

I used the Attwood EX gas / electric hot water heater in my daughters 5th wheel it makes a lot of hot water turns 10 gals into a 18 gals of hot water recovery time is second to none

good luck