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Old 03-27-2009, 12:06 PM   #1
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hot water to bathroom

I'm needing hot water to bathroom sooner. My water heater is in the rear of the 5th wheel and the bath room is in the front of the trailer. Is it possible to add a small electric electric heater in the bath area so we can have hot water sooner without wasting so much water, and filling the grey tanks.
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Old 03-27-2009, 01:55 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by lemitch View Post
I'm needing hot water to bathroom sooner. My water heater is in the rear of the 5th wheel and the bath room is in the front of the trailer. Is it possible to add a small electric electric heater in the bath area so we can have hot water sooner without wasting so much water, and filling the grey tanks.
Possible, Yes, practical, I don't think so. One issue I can see is that you couldn't run the hot water from the water heater through the electric (on demand) heater as everyone of them I have seen require that the incoming water be cold (not heated). This would mean that you would have to come up with some kind of a manifold switch under the counter to switch between the hot water feeds depending on if you are dry camping or have hookups. Obviously the electric won't work without hookups.

One guy I have read about on the net with a large 5er installed a transfer pump to remove gray water and pump it to the black water tank as it is very common to fill the gray well before the black tank. He had a switch inside that he could manually turn on the pump with. Knowing the GPM of the pump he could calculate how much he was transferring with time.

Good luck.
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Old 03-27-2009, 02:23 PM   #3
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We haven't been able to camp much in our new Surveyor yet, but we plan on having a couple of milk jugs handy to catch the cold water, and then use that to flush the toilet when needed.
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Old 03-27-2009, 03:07 PM   #4
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We haven't been able to camp much in our new Surveyor yet, but we plan on having a couple of milk jugs handy to catch the cold water, and then use that to flush the toilet when needed.
Now there's a thought.

Also you may want to wrap all the hot water lines you can reach with an insulating wrap, just like you would in your house.
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Old 03-30-2009, 01:30 AM   #5
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Easy and cheap.

Put at tee under the sink on the cold line to the sink faucet. That new line feeds IN the on-demand heater. The OUT of the heater tees INTO the hot water line. You choose where to tee in. I would tee in before the line tees to the shower and sink. EASY. Hard part is I only recommend the electric on demand heater that runs on 120 Volts. You will need to hard wire it to a 12 guage or larger extension cord routed outside so you can plug it in at the power pole. Too much demand for an RV power system. Wait, thats easy too! Costs $200. Here's one:



$90 on ebay now.

Both these lines in my trailer are under the bathroom sink. Its perfect. I wouldnt even need to cut a line because I could just buy two tees and fittings, and stick them between the existing tees in there. That is also the location where my 30 Amp line comes in. If you have an electrician friend, he (or she) could easily put in a 20 or 30 amp dedicated service with a GFCI breaker - bypassing the RV service. I'd just run a cord through the floor and plug it in outside. These are VENTLESS. Your done. Set the temperature to your comfort with a dial on the tankless heater.

As far as the grey tanks filling up... Grey water can be drained by a bucket and dumped in rose bush beds. Your neighbors will complain but its GREY WATER. GOOD for the environment. BETTER than the stuff I will spend hundreds of dollars on next weekend to dump on my lawn so it gets greener than my neighbors lawn. It's Water, Soap, TRACES of Organic bits, Ammonia, phosphates, nitrogen, and oils. Sounds like plant food to me. I have a bayonet cap on my dump line that has a 3/4" hose fitting:

With this, I can drain my grey tank with a garden hose just like watering the roses! Gross? That's one opinion and only matters if its the camp host's. Probably better than what that neighbors' dog is watering my roses with - and certainly nicer than what it dumps on my grass!

Water's precious. And wastewater processing adds cost to camp fees. I fully encourage you to git er' done. I can even draw you a sketch of the whole setup if you need help to visualize this.
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Old 03-30-2009, 07:39 AM   #6
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turbopuppy is right on with the small tankless

I've seen it done in other RVs and from what the owners state it works well

You could even install a recirculation pump. These pumps will circulate the cold water coming from the hot water piping back into the cold water lines until the water reaches temperature. I've seen these systems in houses as well as RVs.
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Old 03-30-2009, 10:08 AM   #7
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Thankyou all for the ideas. I wish that they had done this as an improvment to all RV's. Again thanks for the info.
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