Adding Electric to gas water heater

[OhhWell]

Has anyone with an older, gas only, water heater added an electric element to it? I did a search and the "Hot Rod" seems to fit the bill. Does anyone have a better recomendation?

Ohh, and an off question since I am completely new to camping with a full TT... About how long do you imagine it would take for my '94 "Quick recovery" atwood 6gal to fully recover from one of the kids using all the hot water????

Just curious...

[Steve Collins]

Originally Posted by OhhWell

Ohh, and an off question since I am completely new to camping with a full TT... About how long do you imagine it would take for my '94 "Quick recovery" atwood 6gal to fully recover from one of the kids using all the hot water????

Ours snaps back pretty quick when run on propane. Maybe 5-10 minutes for enough hot water to wash dishes and 15 minutes or so for enough for another shower.

Best to convince the kids that he/she who uses up all the hot water today is last to shower tomorrow..

It's not had to learn how to take a navy shower. We dry camp for two weeks at a time so a shower (or any water use) in the trailer has to be very conservative for three reasons. First, the fresh tank has to be refilled more often. Second, the grey tank has to be drained into the 35 gallon tote which is then hauled to the dumping station. And third, it keeps SWMBO happy to have enough hot water for a shower when she wants one. The first two reasons keep the in-camp chores to a minimum so there is more time for fun!

We are lucky that the NY State campgrounds that we spend most of our camping season in all have really decent shower facilities. That's the place for long, hot showers.

[pwb01]

I agree with Steve, at least 10 to 15 minutes recovery on gas and a bit longer on electric power to recycle the hot water. Gas is much more effecient but if recovery is not an issue, electric is cheaper since you're already paying for electricity at a full service site.

We normally drycamp as Steve mentioned we take a Navy shower to conserve water as well as hot water. Quick wet down, turn the water off, soap up, quick rince. Even with full utilities a 6 gal water heater isn't made for a lot of use at once.

Keep in mind too that using "all the hot water" really means using about 3 gallons. When 3 gallons is used, 3 gallons of cold water is mixed in the tank with the hot water and cools it down quite a bit. That's not a lot of hot water.

I might also mention that I leave the water heater on all the time. Some shut it off and turn it on ahead of use. I'm not sure what uses more propane but it takes a long time to heat 6 gallons of cold water and only a short time to re-heat during a normal cycle.

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by OhhWell

Has anyone with an older, gas only, water heater added an electric element to it? I did a search and the "Hot Rod" seems to fit the bill. Does anyone have a better recomendation?

.

Hi Ohhwell

I agree with Steve and Paul on the reheat times,

Now to the "hot rod" There is a few cautions, the aluminum tank threads on the Atwood. For sure if you go this route use a good application of teflon tape on the fitting. The metal of the hot rod and the tank can start corroding. The teflon tape would help insulate.

The metal hot rod going in and out of the drain plug hole, since that is how you drain it you will need to pull the hot rod in and out to do the draining. The heads up is the odds of cross threading and then affecting the tank. For sure be carefull to not cross thread. Atwood on the newer ones and maybe the older ones used a nylon drain plug so if you cross threaded it the plug lost and the tank won.

I have never used one of the hot rods so I cannot comment on it's use. How many watt's is it? I thought they where less then the standard ones due to the limited size to get in the drain hole. The Atwood ones are 1,400 watts.

In doing a search on this I ran into this. hott rod

It seems Atwood may not condone adding a hot rod but I can't find the link to their web site that works on the service bulletin. This much I know, the Atwood organization is top flight in my book. If you call and ask for customer service they will talk to you and give you real answers.

Good luck and hope this helps

John

[Sunline Fan]

We had one about ten years ago in a motorhome we only had for about a year and a half. The main reason for doing it was that they put the water heater right under the awning on the patio side, so it always blew out on people sitting there. It seemed to work well from what I remember...

[OhhWell]

Ahh, good information. I did not know that it went in the drain plug opening. Yes, mine has the nylon drain plug that is a pain to get to without an extender for the ratchet. I would not want to have to take that in and out all the time. However, it is extremely rare to have a hard freeze here and I don't imagine I would have to pull that plug too often as long as I keep up on sanitizing the fresh water system would I? Also, there is another purge higher up with a lever likle on a home HW heater, is that just to purge pressure?

My thought process behind the Hotrod or something like it was to use shore power during the day for dishes etc and then run both during shower time for quicker recovery.

As for the Navy Shower. My kids unfortunately have not yet gotten the concept of conserving anything or leaving for others. Therefore, they will shower after the adults heheh. 15 min revoery is not bad at all and I think I would be just leaving the heater on all the time as opposed to reheating a full cold tank everytime we need hot.

[JohnB]

Hi Ohhwell

A few things you asked about. The bronze lever valve is a safety relief valve. It trips on both over temp and over pressure.

I'll pass this along as many do water in their campers different. We have not really had a good long talk on water. Just never made it to that yet I guess or folks don't want to talk about it, don't know which or maybe both.

I work for a food company and I'm most likely skewed on the other end of the scale as far as water and what can happen in water as I work with machinery that has very strict requirements for water cleanliness. Since I could never find an agreement by an authoritative figure on RV water systems and many have practices that are the full spectrum from nothing to mini UV light systems, I adopted my work practices to the camper.

I myself drink from the fresh water system in our camper and have no concerns the water will be an issue as I follow a clean water regiment. I drain the water in the camper after every trip including the HW heater as it can sit for at least 2 weeks before we go back out again. I have hooked up an easy air blow out and drain system that everything is gone in about 10 minutes as I unpack the camper.

This HW heater draining process helps keep the buildup of minerals and foul water that can come from a non pressurized and non flowing HW tank.

There is also something that happens from not draining the HW heater. When you fill the HW heater from empty it creates an air pocket in the top of the tank. That air pocket serves as an expansion tank basically. When the water heats it expands and that air pocket helps protect from pressure build up. If you never drain down the HW heater frequently that air pocket dissolves away and then there is no longer one. Towing down the road with a full HW tank accelerates the problem.

Then over time as the water heats the expansion starts weeping at the safety relief valve. And over time from weeping the spring in the valve gets weak along with crud (minerals/calcium deposits) in the valve seat even more aggravating the problem. And the way they build the discharge port of the relief valve it weeps right down on top of the gas valve and that creates corrosion over time on the bare aluminum valve. On the newer direct spark units it also lands all over the thermostat and ECO switch. Why they did that is beyond me but a brand new one today is made the same way.

Some folks have reported they bleed down the water at camp from the saftey relief vlave lever and then refill the tank to recreate the air pocket. Have no idea where the water goes can only assume. It is is cold they may put a cup in there I would guess. I have seen and heard of others installing an expansion tank in the water system to take care of the heat expansion issue. So there are ways around the air pocket deal.

We turn the HW off when we are not using it. Since we only use hot water a few times a day and once heated up the insulation on the tank keeps it very warm. For dishes we flip the water on while we are cooking or just sit down to eat. Then it is all ready to go when we need it. Same as when we are ready for a shower, just flip it on a while in advance. If we forget, and it's happens, we do have a newer one with an electric element in the unit and we flip both electric and gas on at once for a faster reheat. Maybe 10 minutes then.

Some may not drink from the camper system and they have very justifiable reasons why. Some people and pets are very sensitive to water changes so they bring bottled water. And actually we do too some times too as our home water tastes better when we know a park has different tasting water. While everyone may not want to drink water from the camper it is still recommend everyone showering, washing, dishes etc in the camper still do a clean water treatment program with sanitizing the systems and practicing potable water methods.

Just passing along some things to think about.

Hope this helps

John