Water heater: propane vs electric?

[Swampy]

Originally Posted by Thurman

I turn on the electric when setting up the TT. Just before myself, sweet thing, and three g'son's start getting showers I turn on the gas. At bedtime I turn off the gas.

Unless you empty the WH of hot water, will make more HW either way. Granted, it does take longer to heat a tank on electricity alone. I generally use both LPG and electricity at shower time, just to speed up the recovery.

Swampy

[TNSolera]

Electric when have power and never had issue as yet with A/C on but nothing else draining on power.. if do would turn A/C off short bit OR switch to propane if needed. We 2 people and thrifty to not burn the propane when have the electric. VERY nice, never had the choice in RV before this one

[mmcbride56]

One thing I noticed in this thread is that no has mentioned the concern with Hard Water and electric heating elements.

I personally have used propane alone, or propane + electric when needing extra hot water, but rarely, if ever, use electric alone as primary heating source.

First off, propane is more efficient than electric for heating water and also has a much faster recovery time.

Secondarily, most camp grounds have hard water (high calcium and magnesium content of at least 16 ppm) and, in some places, VERY hard water, more than 60 ppm.

The electrode used to heat the hot water causes the minerals to precipitate out and can coat the electrode, eventually causing a short and the need to replace it, not to mention the insulating factor that reduces the electrodes ability to actually heat the water. Some of the minerals will deposit on the bottom of the tank, which is a good reason to perform a water heater tank flush annually, especially if you are using the electric element frequently.

Propane does not create as much of this de-mineralization/precipitation effect, but I still will do a tank flush every year and check the anode rod to see if it needs replaced.

[kayo]

Why pay for propane when you have already paid for the electric? Even if yuou are paying for electricy by the KW, it will be far cheaper, on a btu basis then ropane

[CurtPutnam]

When at a campground with hookups, I run electric. The campground has my electrical usage baked into the price. No hookups means that I run everything I can off propane.

[timfromma]

I even have an electric griddle.

[4B11T]

We always use electric when we have hookups. Im paying for the electric anyways so why not use it. Only use the propane if I need a quick recovery for multiple baths/showers in a row. Also use the propane when I don't have electric. I ran a separate 15amp feed for my water heater so I dont trip the 30amp main when the ac is on.

[spock123]

Electric when have full hookups and propane when not. We have a 50amp trailer and when hooked up to a to 30amp we use propane then.

[Mr. Dan]

Originally Posted by mmcbride56

One thing I noticed in this thread is that no has mentioned the concern with Hard Water and electric heating elements.

I personally have used propane alone, or propane + electric when needing extra hot water, but rarely, if ever, use electric alone as primary heating source.

First off, propane is more efficient than electric for heating water and also has a much faster recovery time.

Secondarily, most camp grounds have hard water (high calcium and magnesium content of at least 16 ppm) and, in some places, VERY hard water, more than 60 ppm.

The electrode used to heat the hot water causes the minerals to precipitate out and can coat the electrode, eventually causing a short and the need to replace it, not to mention the insulating factor that reduces the electrodes ability to actually heat the water. Some of the minerals will deposit on the bottom of the tank, which is a good reason to perform a water heater tank flush annually, especially if you are using the electric element frequently.

Propane does not create as much of this de-mineralization/precipitation effect, but I still will do a tank flush every year and check the anode rod to see if it needs replaced.

I certainly can't dispute your science but I will say that I have used electric power almost exclusively to heat water in 10+ years of camping and have never replaced a heating element/electrode. Also, can you give us a link to your source for your statement "Secondarily, most camp grounds have hard water. . ."? We might consider making that information a "sticky".

[itat]

I never use the electric side. Actually I'm a bit paranoid that I'll forget to turn it off and burn out the element. I haven't used it on this trailer (purchased used) so I don't even know if it works. I really don't think it uses much propane. Two 30# tanks lasts me the entire season for the furnace, stove cooking and water heater. I have a separate 20# tank for the Weber BBQ.

[SilverArrowPro]

Electric, I'll pop on propane too, if I need quicker recycle time.

[babock]

For people worried about deposits, watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL7A...ature=youtu.be

[joeuncool]

Always propane. It just doesn't use that much. I guess it comes from my dry camping habits. Last time we went camping we had light use of the furnace over night, the fridge on propane, the water heater on propane (the entire time), used the stove top a bit and baked in the oven a couple of hours. This was over a 4 night camping trip. We only used a half or less of a 20lb bottle. Things use surprisingly less propane than people realize so I just don't worry about it especially when I can fill a bottle for $15.

Last time we went out, we had electrical hookups. I still ran the water heater and fridge on propane.

Here is a tip. DO NOT use the bottle exchange places. Too expensive. Sometimes you can find a place that has flat rates for a bottle fill which is cheaper, but the best places are the ones who only charge you for how much they actually put in the bottle. These places are always the cheapest.

[fella10]

to all the 30amper's like us, its easy to become a 50 amper and then you don't have to worry about the wh's 12 amps causing a tripped breaker, ... remove the panel and you'll see the wh is simply a plug in unit(or at least ours is), so its very easy to power that with an extension cord, ... since we don't even carry propane and only heat with electricity, I've gone a few step beyond and added extension cords inside for those as well, .... so now, we power the wh in the summer and the heaters in the winter with the added 110(20amp) power supply, thus in a way, becoming a 50amp capacity system, ... easy, simple and you don't have to be an electrical engineer to plug in an extension cord, ... the goal being to remove as many amps as possible from the 30amp system to avoid a tripped breaker, which almost always happens at the most inconvenient time, ... now we can run ac, microwave, rice cooker, K-cup coffee maker, and whatever else DW uses without any concern for a tripped breaker, ... happy trailering ....

[SailorSam20500]

Originally Posted by BandJCarm

Electric 99.5% of the time. Two long showers doesn't deplete it. Propane almost never needed.

x2. Plug in at the campground when possible and turn on the electric side. Water is hot when we need it. Why pay for gas when electric does the job? Might turn on both if we really needed a lot of HW.