Water heater, Suburban sw6de

[john5646]

Question on general abilities of this unit. We are on Maiden journey, and shower time seams very short. Thinking I will upgrade shower head. But generally speaking would it be typical for this unit to only provide one 5 minute shower. Moving forward I'll use shut off valve on head until ready to rinse.
Also to use electric element do I simply turn toggle switch at water heater to on and turn toggle switch at wall control panel to off ( that one when on controls gas burn )
Just curious what others do with regard to hot supply useage.

[ChipBruce]

Just from experience: you will get faster recovery by using both electric and gas for the water heater. Military showers are a must in an RV. If my DW can learn to take these then anyone can learn to take one! If you want unlimited hot water then that means a trip to the shower house. That is a no go for DW, not a problem for me. So military it is in the RV!

We also allow adequate recovery time between showers. We just camped with three adults in our camper and allowed 15 - 30 minutes between them. Probably longer than necessary. But we weren't in a hurry because it was get away time, not hurry up time.

I'm getting ready to install an Oxygenics shower head in my unit. It gets good reviews on the forums. This seems like a good investment to me.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[lesptr]

Military showers are not a must in an Rv. When using both gas and electric, my wife and I can take back to back showers each lasting 10 minutes or more. I've never run out of hot water.

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by john5646

Question on general abilities of this unit. We are on Maiden journey, and shower time seams very short. Thinking I will upgrade shower head. But generally speaking would it be typical for this unit to only provide one 5 minute shower. Moving forward I'll use shut off valve on head until ready to rinse.
Also to use electric element do I simply turn toggle switch at water heater to on and turn toggle switch at wall control panel to off ( that one when on controls gas burn )
Just curious what others do with regard to hot supply useage. Attachment 105073Attachment 105074

Howdy John, basically it's yes, to everything you have stated. The length of hot water depends on several factors, including the water heater tank size, temp of incoming water, etc. You may need to turn off the shower at the wand a few times. The version of the navy shower is wet yourself down, turn water off at wand and soap up, turn water back on and rinse off.

You need to remember that all the water that comes out of the shower head is also going into the grey water tank and is filling it up too. This can be a concern when you are at campgrounds without sewer hookups. When it fills up, you have to either take your RV to the dump station or carry a water tote and use it to take to the dump station.

This FAQ may help explain it all to you.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...ore-36197.html

[john5646]

Again all very good info. Just wanted to make shure I didn't have a heater working below its means. I'll be more careful of water usage and that's not a problem.

[john5646]

BTW. I just ran straight hot water into sink. I got 4 1/2 gallon and it took 14 minutes to recover on gas with electric switched on also. Sounds reasonable ( to me) for. 6 gallon tank.... If anyone thinks otherwise please advise.

[lbrjet]

We usually wait 20 minutes between showers so I would say yours is working normally.


2010 F250 5.4L 3.73
2011 Flagstaff 831FKBSS
Equal-i-zer 4pt 12K

[RamblerGuy]

The two of us take back to back "RV" showers and don't run out of hot water without using both gas and electric heat. Unless, of course, the one with hair chooses to wash it. Then I wait a while.

[HerveVR]

We installed an Oxygenics shower head, best decision so far.

Planning to do same at home to save hot water.

[V-Lite Fun]

Originally Posted by ChipBruce

I'm getting ready to install an Oxygenics shower head in my unit. It gets good reviews on the forums. This seems like a good investment to me.

I just installed an Oxygenics shower head. It's worth every penny. You have more pressure and it stretches the water. The shutoff is handy also.

[satdog01]

X2 on the Oxgenics shower head, does streach the hot water supply. Also bumped up the high limit temp in the tank which was the better water stretcher.

[TXFolkie]

Originally Posted by satdog01

Also bumped up the high limit temp in the tank which was the better water stretcher.

How is that done?

[john5646]

X2 on limit, if you can explain I just went and looked at mine maybe newer one are different. ?

[donniedu]

From experience that little switch on the water heater itself will self destruct rather quickly. I found it better to leave the switch on and turn off 120VAC at the breaker.

[satdog01]

Re heater element upgrade. There was a post on it back a ways, went from 1440 to a 1500 or so. Easy change out that means using more cold water to hot water mix. Hot water last longer as flow rate is reduced while showering. Got higher wattage element fron Internet rv dealer after reading post last year.

[D. J. Schuler]

Be very careful - be very careful using the valve in the shower head for a GI shower, there are no check valves on either hot or cold water lines in the shower, hot water tends to back up in the cold water line. Some RV hot water tanks temperatures are over 150 degrees (scalding hot - been there done that).

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by V-Lite Fun

I just installed an Oxygenics shower head. It's worth every penny. You have more pressure and it stretches the water. The shutoff is handy also.

Originally Posted by satdog01

X2 on the Oxgenics shower head, does streach the hot water supply. Also bumped up the high limit temp in the tank which was the better water stretcher.

In Youroo's testing, the oxygenics shower head used MORE water the the factory supplied shower head.
Sorry [emoji16]