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Old 10-15-2013, 10:10 AM   #1
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Derating hot water heater

We live in Fla and will be going out to Colo soon. I read our hot water heater is set to work best up to 4500' in elevation. We will be going well above that. Will I need to make adjustments, and if so, how do I do this? We want it to work correctly at the lower altitudes on the way out but also at the higher ones once there. It's a Suburban SW6 DE. Thanks!
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Old 10-15-2013, 11:00 AM   #2
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You can purchase a different "high altitude" burner assembly. When you get high, just pop in the other one. When you come down, put the original back in.
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Old 10-15-2013, 11:44 AM   #3
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We live in Fla and will be going out to Colo soon. I read our hot water heater is set to work best up to 4500' in elevation. We will be going well above that. Will I need to make adjustments, and if so, how do I do this? We want it to work correctly at the lower altitudes on the way out but also at the higher ones once there. It's a Suburban SW6 DE. Thanks!
I think you should not worry about this or change the burner. I spend a lot of time above 6500 feet and frequent above 9000-10,000 feet. Never touched all seven water heaters I have owned in the past and all worked fine at the higher elevations. (six motorhomes and one travel trailer.

Jack
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Old 10-15-2013, 11:57 AM   #4
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I think you should not worry about this or change the burner. I spend a lot of time above 6500 feet and frequent above 9000-10,000 feet. Never touched all seven water heaters I have owned in the past and all worked fine at the higher elevations. (six motorhomes and one travel trailer.

Jack
X2 - We traveled from Northern California thru Nevada,Utah and stayed 4 nights in Colorado Springs in our Silverback FW and never had any WH problems.

I don't recall ever reading anything in the Manual about this so I never gave it a second thought.

We stayed in Colorado Springs with friends who have a Monaco Diplomat MH and they didn't have any WH problems either.

You might check with the manufacturer for the final answer and your peace of mind.
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Old 10-15-2013, 12:25 PM   #5
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The only thing that you might have to worry about is the air mixture to the gas at the burner, If your flame stays blue with a short yellow tip you will be fine. You just do not want to starve the air mixture which a higher alt. could do but I doubt it. If you are in a park with electric just use that. If not then you would also have to worry about your Furnace and refer if you run them on gas only. Your regulator should be set on 11.5" in a water column. You would also have a problem with your stove. I really do not think you will have to do anything, so I wouldn't worry about a water heater.
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Old 10-15-2013, 12:48 PM   #6
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Thanks all! I just wanted to make sure I didn't need to make a change somewhere during the trip.
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Old 10-15-2013, 01:04 PM   #7
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Theoretically you would need to change the orifice in the burner, but I have never heard of anyone doing that... AND it would be furnace also as was said. I too spend time at up to 9200 ft (Breckenridge CO) and never had an issue.
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Old 10-15-2013, 01:37 PM   #8
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Thanks Guys - When I started reading this blog, I started getting nervous. We are heading to FL around Xmas from Colorado. We are always above 5500 feet and have not had any problems, but heading south to sea level, I started to be uneasy.
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Old 10-15-2013, 01:53 PM   #9
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My only issue with going to 10,000 feet was an exploded bag of potato chips!
Really!! Furnace and Water heater worked fine.
Have Fun!!
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