Girard has given me my last cold shower!

[jknutter]

I have a 2015 Berkshire XL 40QL and I’m done dealing with the junk they call a water heater! It has a Girard model GSWH-1M tankless heater that has not worked right since I purchased this rig last spring. I know this has been discussed a gazillion times on here. My question is if you have upgraded to a new Girard model 2GWHAM do you like it and if you had to do it all over would you? I want to stay clear from Truma because I hear getting parts is next to impossible and their customer service sucks.

[Eric B FR Diesel]

so Truma is very restrictive when it comes to parts, but I would tell you their product works best when it comes to a tankless water heater. the big thing with Truma water heaters is to drain them when you are not using them and leave the filter out of the water heater... most issue we see with truma water heaters are from freezing.

when it comes to the Girard water heaters, you might get better feedback finding a forum for a product that uses them. At Berkshire we have not used the Girard for probably 5 years now because of the complaints we would get on them.

[treadwelll]

I have a 2012 Berkshire 390 BH that had the original Girard water heater. I also had a terrible experience with it from a freezing shower to scalding heat, back to freezing shower. I upgraded to the girard 2 about two years ago and wished I had done it much sooner. I have not had any problems with it and it does a good job of maintaining a constant temperature.

[dblr]

In our River Stone ours was replaced with the Truma, costly but a major improvement.

[gordonsick]

My coach came with a Girard Gen II and it works fine. There are two things that help me get a good shower from it:

First, I am careful to avoid an excessive water flow at times when the cold water is truly cold. The heater can't keep up and it gives a cold shower. Also, note that there is a control knob in the medicine cabinet to allow you to increase the basic heat of the Girard Gen II.

Second, I installed a temperature-controlled shower faucet, which is different from (and superior to) a pressure-balanced faucet. I discussed this in one of my first posts on the Forum: https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...er-119716.html

I've heard of enough problems people have with the Atwood and the Truma that I wouldn't dream of swapping out my reliable Girard Gen II.

–Gordon

[jknutter]

Well I have upgraded to the Girard model 2GWHAM. The swap itself was pretty easy. I had to reconfigure the plumbing because the Gen I had the connections on the opposite side of the Gen II. Also the wiring would not work for the remote panel. The Gen I uses a single feed wire and the chassis ground while the Gen II uses a pair of wires (not grounded). So I mounted the remote panel in the closet directly above the water heater and blanked off the control in the medicine cabinet. Also the door is different so I will have to get the new one painted to match.

We got a chance to use the new water heater this weekend and I am completely thrilled with the Gen II. I set the temp to 110 degrees and enjoyed a hot shower everyday. It was worth every penny and I would do it again.