# Water Heater



## rvnewb

I just started living in my 1981 Midas Travel Trailer Full Time and my water heater is gas. My electricity is included in my rent and it would be MUCH cheaper to convert my water heater to electric, which I was told was possible, but I have no clue what to get or where to look... Any advice?


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## antigua

Sorry rvneb I can't help you with you question but welcome to the forum. :welcome:


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## mark

rvnewb, I'm sorry I'm not familiar with the layout of your specific year and model of travel trailer, if you can find a layout plan of your camper online and provide me with a link to the site where you found it, I might be able to give you some helpful advice. 
I myself have a 94 dutchmen 5th wheel to which I added a 50 gallon electric hot water heater. although a 25 gal. would have probably been sufficient, the wife likes really long, really hot showers, lol. are you moving a lot, full-timing, seasonally parked at the same lot and not moving for awhile ? give me as many details as you can, I'll help you as much as I can with my "limited" knowledge. knowing what state you're in and the average coldest temp in winter would also help.


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## dogbone

check out the tankless hot water heaters. they might be what your looking for instead of trying to convert your gas one. can't help with a web site or a name. sorry. 
looked at them years ago while running around on the internet. some one here might be able to help.


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## heruide

RVnewb,

You did not say what type of water heater you have but I found this statement on the Suburban Water Heater web site.

*Question 6*
I noticed an add-on electric element for my water heater. What will happen if I use it? 

*Answer:*
Any alterations to a Suburban water heater will void its warranty. This includes add-on electric aftermarket heating elements. There are a number of heating elements being offered. These elements are supplied with different types of thermostats which are mounted in various locations of the water heater. These heating elements can lack critical safety controls. Use of these devices can lead to an out of control heating of the water tank and a catastrophic wet side explosion. The use of these aftermarket heating element devices may result in damage to components or the water heater. When aftermarket heating elements are inserted into the anode rod/drain connection, tank life is shortened by accelerating inner tank corrosion. This will be a non-warrantable situation.

If you have an Atwood water heater I would encourage you to call them before you make this modifcation.

Hope this helps.

Ruide


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## bobrussell

lots of questions:
you gonna use a residential W/H or camper type?
1.with a residential, your breaker box won't tote it, camper style and you've still got wires to run.
2.you gonna do it yourself or take it to a rv shop?
3.tankless uses a lot of gas/electicity, will that really help?
need more details about what you're thinking and how far you want to go to get there.


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## dogbone

i just found this site for hot water heaters.Tankless Gas Hot Water Heaters by Bosch AquaStar, Paloma, Takagi for Natural Gas and Propane Residential, Commercial and Industrial Applications
it has the prices for them all gas/elec. you said you wanter electric because you don't pay for the electric.
the rv 500 is a nice, but it is gas. it fits where your original hat water heater is and uses less propane. cost is kinda high.
hope i helped and good luck. if you don't see anything you like just google rv tankless hot water heaters.


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## buddha

I have seen a kit at CamperWorld to all an electric element to the drain of the water heater. Looked easy enough. Check it out.


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## mailfire99

dogbone said:


> check out the tankless hot water heaters. they might be what your looking for instead of trying to convert your gas one. can't help with a web site or a name. sorry.
> looked at them years ago while running around on the internet. some one here might be able to help.


There was another thread about this a while back to, check here
http://www.campercommunity.com/forum/rv-camper-discussions/322-tankless-water-heater.html


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## aja72

You have not suggested what type for your water heater. Give me type of your water heater then after i will suggest you properly about electric elements.
If you want more information about this you can get the information from ebay.


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## dogbone

i don't know what happened here. he seemed to have gotten some good info, but no response.
i did find out that i will have to pay more attention to my typing. messed up on a few words.:smack-head:


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## happiestcamper

He hasn't been back since the first response - missing out on some good answers.


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## heruide

One of the things I learn from participating in several fora is that you can only control one flow of the infromation (yours). The OP may post a question and you will never know whether it was helpful.

There are two instances that are really painful. First is the case where you sometime to research on google, load the PDf and cut and paste text into a response and you don't know if the OP even read it or if it was helpful. 

Second is the case where the answer has been discuss but the OP did not use the forum search function. 

I think I may soon change my style and start giving out instructions how to find the answer... but by that time I will be an "old fuddy duddy"

Ruide


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