Atwood tankless water heater; will a Oxygenics shower head improve performance?

[RolandRevenger]

It has been a year, and I still struggle to get the shower to produce a constant flow of warm water. Ice to boiling and then warm and then icy, while making many adjustments. Oxygenics shower heads were highly praised on a forum I belonged to in the past when we were looking at LivinLites. I don't want to waste the money if there won't be a noticeable improvement, and I am concerned that it may restrict hot water flow too much and cause the Atwood Tankless to not heat the water. When having recall work done on our rv last month, I saw that the new Isata 3's come with Truma systems. I know Truma doesn't cost less, so the change was not to save money. Was this an upgrade to correct a problem? I am wondering if we can do anything to get our current heater working properly.

[Iggy]

Will a Oxygenics shower head improve performance?

What do you mean by will it improve performance?
Will it correct your hot water issue? NO
Will it make you feel better when showing at 50psi water? YES
Is it worth the expense? YES

If I haven't answered your question please define your definition of the word performance.

Iggy

[joet19711]

Originally Posted by RolandRevenger

It has been a year, and I still struggle to get the shower to produce a constant flow of warm water. Ice to boiling and then warm and then icy, while making many adjustments. Oxygenics shower heads were highly praised on a forum I belonged to in the past when we were looking at LivinLites. I don't want to waste the money if there won't be a noticeable improvement, and I am concerned that it may restrict hot water flow too much and cause the Atwood Tankless to not heat the water. When having recall work done on our rv last month, I saw that the new Isata 3's come with Truma systems. I know Truma doesn't cost less, so the change was not to save money. Was this an upgrade to correct a problem? I am wondering if we can do anything to get our current heater working properly.

On our last MH we had the Atwood... the only thing that will improve that is to replace it or get a new MH, however this shower head will improve the water flow.

Jetstorm Plus


check it out..

[RolandRevenger]

Thanks, Iggy. I was hoping to get a steady steam of warm water without spikes in temperature. It clearly sounds like that won't be the case. I hoped that once I found that sweet spot, I could push the button to reduce the flow to a trickle between soaping up and rinsing off. ( As I understand it, completely pausing water flow from the head will end up causing more temp spikes; the Atwood manual states this. The Oxygenics is designed to keep the same mix of cold and hot water trickling out between full throttle use. This would reduce hot water use and perhaps allow the heater to catch up and be able to supply a fairly constant amount of hot water to mix with the cold. I don't have access to my rv now but I wonder if turning down the water heater temperature might help, or will we then only get barely lukewarm water?

[RolandRevenger]

joet19711; thanks for the response. Not what I wanted to hear, but knowing that others have been unhappy with the Atwood does cause me to think of at least seeing if the two year warranty has any value. Scalding water is a safety risk; but then again, fighting a likely losing battle is exhausting. I will have to ponder my next move unless someone on the forum has the magic answer.

[Rrzasa]

I found an easy quick fix to the hot/cold/hot water temp changes while showering. Since my shower head does not have the flow to keep the heater running, all we do is open the faucet on the bathroom sink a little better than a trickle and the combination of the flow in the shower and the sink keeps the water temperature constant. We actually have to set the shower handle a little cooler since the water tends to stay pretty hot and is constant. No more hot/cold/hot issues anymore.

[RolandRevenger]

Rrzasa, I will certainly give that a try! Just watch me leave the sink drain closed.............
Seriously, I will do that next time we are out. Under the heading of 'it ain't broke don't fix it', you may not want to change your water flow to the heater. But I was also having trouble getting any hot water. My cheap flow restrictor was the problem; I got a better one that increased the flow just enough.
Thanks for the suggestion; fingers crossed that it will work.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by Rrzasa

I found an easy quick fix to the hot/cold/hot water temp changes while showering. Since my shower head does not have the flow to keep the heater running, all we do is open the faucet on the bathroom sink a little better than a trickle and the combination of the flow in the shower and the sink keeps the water temperature constant. We actually have to set the shower handle a little cooler since the water tends to stay pretty hot and is constant. No more hot/cold/hot issues anymore.

That does sound like a reasonable physics solution to solve the problem.
I'm sure it will help this guy a bunch.

[joet19711]

yes, and everything that everyone has described is a band aid and is

not a long term solution. I fought the hot water issue for a year, with

Atwood being no help what so ever. It was a bad engineering item and

they nor the MH manufacture would do anything to resolve the problem.

MY wife was so mad that we ended up getting rid of the MH and getting

another one, but this time getting one with an Aqua Hot system.

I know you don't want to hear that, but that is what I said in the very

beginning. Either replace with a different system or get rid of the MH

[FFred]

"Atwood being no help what so ever. It was a bad engineering item and
they nor the MH manufacture would do anything to resolve the problem."

Every "instant" water heater has the same"problem", the heat shuts off below some minimum flow. House , boat, RV all the same, worldwide .

In our bus conversion we solved this problem with a telephone style shower head AND a return stand pipe plumbed to the FW tank.

When the water spray is not needed the phone spray is set so it feeds the return pipe , so the water flow remains the same , the temperature remains the same.

Yes a bit of propane is wasted heating water that is not used , but buses have few weight limits so have a large propane tank.

Yours was an operator problem , not an engineering problem .

[Kenny kustom]

The reasons you describe are why they switched to the truma.

[Harley2152]

We struggled with the Atwood tankless heater for over a year before giving up. Changing various heater parts, replacing the shower head along with numerous other "fixes" made no real difference in the ice cold/scalding hot issue. We finally replaced it with the Truma and could not be happier. It works every time as its supposed to. There is a reason Forest River along with other RV builders are going with the Truma.....it actually works! Spend the money and replace the Atwood, you won't regret it.

[stervin]

[ We do not have tankless but the shower head that came with our Sunseeker was poor.
Replaced with Oxy from Amazon and increase pressure and was well worth the money
Good luck

QUOTE=RolandRevenger;1524729]It has been a year, and I still struggle to get the shower to produce a constant flow of warm water. Ice to boiling and then warm and then icy, while making many adjustments. Oxygenics shower heads were highly praised on a forum I belonged to in the past when we were looking at LivinLites. I don't want to waste the money if there won't be a noticeable improvement, and I am concerned that it may restrict hot water flow too much and cause the Atwood Tankless to not heat the water. When having recall work done on our rv last month, I saw that the new Isata 3's come with Truma systems. I know Truma doesn't cost less, so the change was not to save money. Was this an upgrade to correct a problem? I am wondering if we can do anything to get our current heater working properly.[/QUOTE]

[rickpb]

Had Atwood and hot water came and went if we held our mouth right. Atwood said drain all lines before using and water will stay hot. Again that does work in a round about way but don't move change or anything or you start at square one. Saw an ad for Truma, reviews great, so purchased and installed Truma best move ever and hot water always with cold having to be added so it is not too hot. My wife and I are now happy. I would recommend Truma, great product. As a note the Truma fit perfectly in the space allocated for the Atwood.

[gordonsick]

I have a Girard Gen II hot water heater and there have been many complaints about it not maintaining a constant temperature. My conclusion was that I had a poor choice of shower temperature control valve.

The default shower valve on our unit just mixed hot and cold water. Other units mix water and are pressure balanced. Neither of these will solve the problem.

I switched my shower valve to a thermostatic shower valve that blends the water to maintain a constant temperature. This is essential because the hot water line temperature goes up and down when the water heater comes on and off.

I created a thread with my solution to the problem at
http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...ml#post1335571

It may solve your problem. It is certainly less expensive than buying a new water heater or, worse, a new MH.

–Gordon

[RolandRevenger]

This forum is great. Plenty of options to consider. I will price out various plans of action, consult with my wife, and then take steps to improve my shower. I will have to start saving for some of the suggested alterations, since improving handling is priority one right now. I will contact Atwood, (I had to visit Maxine, our name for our Isata 3, at the storage lot and get the model number of our unit) and share their response on the forum. Safe travels!

[bclemens]

Also...our Forest River Electronics group has a device that circulates water past a valve...once the valve head changes color, you know the water is warm. I think you might have to alter come plumbing, but it feeds the water back into the fresh tank until its warm, then you know you can turn the show on.

I'll see if I can get some more data.

[steve32409]

It is all caused from not enough flow through the hot water line / make sure you take all water saver devices from not only from shower but also there is one where shower hose attaches to top of shower water valve ( clear plastic with small hole )

[RolandRevenger]

On the plus side, Dometic/Atwood got back to me on the same day that I contacted them. And they confirm what many have said; water flow can't be restricted. In my email to them, I had sought solutions other than increasing flow; we tend to camp with electric hookups only. Here is their response: "Thank you for contacting Dometic. This water heater needs at least 1 GPM to light, and 1.5-2 GPM at its best to adjust temperature. This unit is not made for dry camping this is made for endless water supply. Unfortunately if your flow is below the best, then you may experience a temperature issue. Any time you add cold water to the faucet, you remove flow from the hot water supply. "
Clearly, there was a communication problem between FR and Dometic. Why install this type of water heater in a rv with a fresh water tank and generator, not to mention solar power? Perhaps Dometic has changed their description of the heater after all the complaints. End result, we did not get what we assumed we were buying. I will look at all the suggestions and go from there.

[bclemens]

We'll help figure it out.