Water heater questions

[mbike254life]

The Site team has moved the following posts to their own thread.

Originally Posted by jdgibson325

Hello all

The precision panel does not have a.option for gas or electric

I'm wandering when the water heater uses which? Feel like my propane has went a little quick compared to camper days. My water heater does have a on off switch on the heater itself but the coach is advertised as gas electric water heater in reading the manual its confusing like it's just gas with a electric option. It sounded as if the heater was running when I had it turned off on the panel Inside the coach. Has anyone with a similar setup figured theirs out?

I have the same question. There is the switch at the panel, the breaker inside the camper and then the panel. I’d prefer not to use propane, so my question is how do I turn it off and only use electric? Not to mention the the gets extremely, I am assuming it’s because I’m using both electric and propane.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by mbike254life

I have the same question. There is the switch at the panel, the breaker inside the camper and then the panel. I’d prefer not to use propane, so my question is how do I turn it off and only use electric? Not to mention the the gets extremely, I am assuming it’s because I’m using both electric and propane.

Turn it on and off by the circuit breaker.
or
Add and mount a switch from the circuit breaker with a light like I didn on my 2012 GT like this one.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Eaton-Singl...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

[mbike254life]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Turn it on and off by the circuit breaker.
or
Add and mount a switch from the circuit breaker with a light like I didn on my 2012 GT like this one.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Eaton-Singl...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

So your saying the circuit breaker controls the propane? I have a switch on my control panel as well, so that’s the electric?

[kenandterry]

Originally Posted by mbike254life

So your saying the circuit breaker controls the propane? I have a switch on my control panel as well, so that’s the electric?

Circuit breaker is for the electrical circuit of the electric heating element.
Does your control panel have two switches?
What is the actual label for the button(s)?

[Iggy]

Thanks Ken but I will explain further being its a 2021 and totally different control panel.

The Plex touch screen control the water heater when you want to only use propane and will not control the electric element in the water heater tank.

If you want to use just electric then you must have the circuti breaker on for the heate rin the bedroom and must have the switch onthe tank ON as I posted the picture of.

You then do not have any control of the electric water heater part unless you turn off the cricuit breake rint he bedroom or the cheap breakable switch on the outside of the water heater.

If you need lots of hot water put both electric (Circuit Breaker) and propane (Plex) on at the same time.
You will have lots of hot water until you decide to leave the campground.
Make sure you turn both off for travel or at home or in storage.



Does this help a little?

[mbike254life]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Thanks Ken but I will explain further being its a 2021 and totally different control panel.

The Plex touch screen control the water heater when you want to only use propane and will not control the electric element in the water heater tank.

If you want to use just electric then you must have the circuti breaker on for the heate rin the bedroom and must have the switch onthe tank ON as I posted the picture of.

You then do not have any control of the electric water heater part unless you turn off the cricuit breake rint he bedroom or the cheap breakable switch on the outside of the water heater.

If you need lots of hot water put both electric (Circuit Breaker) and propane (Plex) on at the same time.
You will have lots of hot water until you decide to leave the campground.
Make sure you turn both off for travel or at home or in storage.



Does this help a little?

Thanks for the response, it does help. To clarify a couple things, I have a 2021 FR Cherokee 26dbh. It does not have a touch panel, only one switch on the panel and it is simply labeled water heater. I ran a little test today, just turned off the switch on the panel. Left the switch on at the heater and left the breaker on as well (side note I have a dedicated breaker labeled water heater and it’s underneath the fridge, not in bedroom). So with that configuration, I had hot water through out the day until my wife went to take a shower and noticed the hot water only lasted about 7 mins. So I think, to your point, running both propane and electric allows me to have hot water for longer. Which makes sense. I just didn’t want to be wasting propane, because it felt like I was just making the water hotter but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

[njfishing]

Originally Posted by mbike254life

Thanks for the response, it does help. To clarify a couple things, I have a 2021 FR Cherokee 26dbh. It does not have a touch panel, only one switch on the panel and it is simply labeled water heater. I ran a little test today, just turned off the switch on the panel. Left the switch on at the heater and left the breaker on as well (side note I have a dedicated breaker labeled water heater and it’s underneath the fridge, not in bedroom). So with that configuration, I had hot water through out the day until my wife went to take a shower and noticed the hot water only lasted about 7 mins. So I think, to your point, running both propane and electric allows me to have hot water for longer. Which makes sense. I just didn’t want to be wasting propane, because it felt like I was just making the water hotter but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

About 7 mins of continuous use is all you’re going to get with a 6 gallon hot water heater. If however you run the electric and propane, once you run out of hot water the recovery will be faster.

[NavyLCDR]

Running both propane and electric at the same time will not increase the amount or time of hot water that you get. It will reduce the amount of time that you get hot water again after you run out.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by mbike254life

Thanks for the response, it does help. To clarify a couple things, I have a 2021 FR Cherokee 26dbh. It does not have a touch panel, only one switch on the panel and it is simply labeled water heater. I ran a little test today, just turned off the switch on the panel. Left the switch on at the heater and left the breaker on as well (side note I have a dedicated breaker labeled water heater and it’s underneath the fridge, not in bedroom). So with that configuration, I had hot water through out the day until my wife went to take a shower and noticed the hot water only lasted about 7 mins. So I think, to your point, running both propane and electric allows me to have hot water for longer. Which makes sense. I just didn’t want to be wasting propane, because it felt like I was just making the water hotter but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

OMG you are in the Georgetown Motorhome forum not the Cherokee forum.
Amazing

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by Iggy

OMG you are in the Georgetown Motorhome forum not the Cherokee forum.
Amazing

It does happen as people do not always look or see the subtopics title list. The site team moves threads as we see or members hopefully report them to us, so as to help the community and posters get the correct information/solutions. It's always best to alert the site team when things like this are seen or happen using the "report post" feature. We were all new once and it's no big deal to post in a different section as the site team can fix it. We are all here to help one another no matter the subtopic, forum title, or RV make/model.


I moved the posts to the appropriate subtopic. Carry on. It's all good.

[TTnewbie]

Originally Posted by njfishing

About 7 mins of continuous use is all you’re going to get with a 6 gallon hot water heater. If however you run the electric and propane, once you run out of hot water the recovery will be faster.

Wait, so the water heater doesn't continue to draw water from the fresh water tank and heat it as the hot water is being used? I have yet to use the hot water in my camper after surviving what was a potentially catastrophic water heater situation because the valves were set to winterize mode and no water went into the heater.

If you only get 7 minutes of water then how does a family of 5 shower? Do you do it over the course of an hour or so, with 20 minutes in between for the water to heat up?

[NavyLCDR]

Originally Posted by TTnewbie

Wait, so the water heater doesn't continue to draw water from the fresh water tank and heat it as the hot water is being used? I have yet to use the hot water in my camper after surviving what was a potentially catastrophic water heater situation because the valves were set to winterize mode and no water went into the heater.

If you only get 7 minutes of water then how does a family of 5 shower? Do you do it over the course of an hour or so, with 20 minutes in between for the water to heat up?

The water heater is not designed to heat water flowing through the water heater. The water heater is designed to heat water stored in the tank. When you use hot water, cold water is pumped into the bottom of the water heater tank. Hot water is expelled through the top of the tank. Once all of the stored hot water (6 gallons) is expelled through the top of the tank, you will start getting cold water simply passing straight through the tank. There is not enough heat produced by the electric heating element and gas burner to heat the water in that short of time as it is passing through.

Once you use all the hot water stored in the tank, you will not get any more hot water until you turn off the hot water faucets, trapping the water in the water heater tank. Then the electric heating element and gas burner will be able to heat the stored water.

Now, there are water heaters that are designed to heat the water passing through them, called tankless or on demand water heaters. But they are more expensive and are options on RVs rather then standard equipment.

[TTnewbie]

So staggered showers it will be. lol

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by TTnewbie

So staggered showers it will be. lol

You're learning another lesson about RV life. Unless yours has an instant water heater, RV water systems are not capable of continuous hot water. Most only have 6 gallons and a few have 10 gallons. Just like not having water hookups, you have to learn to conservation. That's why the showerhead has a shutoff feature. Wet, shutoff, soap, wet again.

[whjco]

Our Cherokee 274 vfk has the Water Heater switch on the panel in the kitchen that turns the LP burner on and off. We open the outside cover on the water heater to access the 120 vac switch for the electric element. We travel with both switches turned off. If we're camping with electric hookups, we open the outside cover and only turn on the electric switch on the water heater. If we're boondocking without an AC power source, we leave the outside switch off and then turn on the inside switch to enable the LP burner. If the outside switch is on and the inside switch is off, the LP burner never comes on.

[tcaleb46]

I may not have the same as you, but here is how mine works. The on/off switch on the hot water tank controls the electric portion of it, the switch inside on the panel controls the propane portion. So if you have the switch on the heater off, and turn the switch inside on, it will use propane. If you leave the inside switch off, and turn the switch on the heater on, it will use electric. If you have both on, it will use both.
What I do, is turn both on when I first setup, and then when the water is warm, I turn the propane switch off inside and let electric heat it up unless I need more hot water quickly.

Originally Posted by mbike254life

Thanks for the response, it does help. To clarify a couple things, I have a 2021 FR Cherokee 26dbh. It does not have a touch panel, only one switch on the panel and it is simply labeled water heater. I ran a little test today, just turned off the switch on the panel. Left the switch on at the heater and left the breaker on as well (side note I have a dedicated breaker labeled water heater and it’s underneath the fridge, not in bedroom). So with that configuration, I had hot water through out the day until my wife went to take a shower and noticed the hot water only lasted about 7 mins. So I think, to your point, running both propane and electric allows me to have hot water for longer. Which makes sense. I just didn’t want to be wasting propane, because it felt like I was just making the water hotter but that doesn’t seem to be the case.