Replacement for Suburban water heater

[vanagonman]

I have a sw6d unit that is probably original to the 97 eb sportsmobile. Took the anode out(in pieces) and all the inner porcelain came out in chunks. Time to replace if i want hot water.

A replacement can be had on aliexpress for $300 bucks, i saw suburban also have a tankless unit that fits in the same space.

My use case is all offgrid where water use is a premium, seems like a tankless unit will require extra plumbing to recirculate if i dont want to waste a liter or 2 of water to wait for the hot.

Has anyone switched from tank to tankless and liked it?

Would getting a electric and propane(del) unit make much of a difference in heating time? i do have a 300 ah 12v house battery

 

[1der]

How many gallons of hot water do you require for your use? If you had 2.5 gals at 160F that is mixed with cold water to provide 125F at the tap would that be enough?

How long do you stay in a spot before driving? Solar input?

All these questions will determine if electric is going to fit as a water heating energy source.

Is your rig diesel or gas? Lithium? How fast can you charge your house bank?

You can always capture the initial flow of water before hot arrives.

 

[N147JK]

Another way to do it..

I installed a couple of valves so that we can heat water on the stove top then pump it to an outdoor shower - no dedicated hot water heater needed. We get a hot shower in a roomy area behind the van, and it completely packs away and takes up no space at all when not in use.

 

[vanagonman]

How many gallons of hot water do you require for your use? If you had 2.5 gals at 160F that is mixed with cold water to provide 125F at the tap would that be enough?




How long do you stay in a spot before driving? Solar input?

All these questions will determine if electric is going to fit as a water heating energy source.

Is your rig diesel or gas? Lithium? How fast can you charge your house bank?

You can always capture the initial flow of water before hot arrives.

Pretty much just water for shower and dishes, I had a hot water setup in the vanagon that used a coolant loop to heat all the water. We only had 10 gallons total but would make it about 4 days camped out. Sounds like I would have 6 gallons of hot water to mix with the current setup?

For electric, we don’t really ever stay parked for more than a few days without moving.
40 amp dc dc charger
200 watt solar on the roof

Upon doing more research It seems a lot of people that use tankless are using hookups so water conservation isn’t a big deal. It’s more about long showers ect.

 

[vanagonman]

I installed a couple of valves so that we can heat water on the stove top then pump it to an outdoor shower - no dedicated hot water heater needed. We get a hot shower in a roomy area behind the van, and it completely packs away and takes up no space at all when not in use.

That is an interesting setup. I am kind of set on some sort of heater in my case because it came with the van. Eliminating it would mean having to do something about the 18x18inch hole in the side of the van body where the unit slides in.

 

[doublevan2]

Possibly have a storage box fabricated to fill the empty water tank slot - IF - you need more storage space and can find another hot shower solution ?

 

[KTMRIDER-SMB]

I believe Surburban offers the hot water heater with the “motor-aid” heat exchanger. I have their three way propane/electric and motor-aid in my van and I love the motor-aid as water is hot when you arrive at camp and stays hot/warm for a long time. Of course you have to route coolant lines to the heater and that becomes another source of potential issues.

https://www.suburbanwaterheater.net

 

[batgirls]

Hi all,

I too have a dying suburban heater. We have minimal hot water needs, but living in Colorado, we do need space heat.

I looked into Combi water/space heaters, but the chatter on the interwebs says they start to clog and auto ahut down at about 3000 feet.

We live at 6800 and camp at anywhere from 12,000 feet to sea level.

So … has anyone seen or built an altitude friendly combo water/air heater that runs on propane?

Thanks!

 

[N147JK]

So … has anyone seen or built an altitude friendly combo water/air heater that runs on propane?

Need a motivated young engineer to do this..

Create an add-on water line for the typical Suburban propane cabin heaters. No tank. Line runs through the furnace heat exchanger and creates on-demand hot water simply by running the furnace.

Any designers out there..??

 

[batgirls]

Need a motivated young engineer to do this..

Create an add-on water line for the typical Suburban propane cabin heaters. No tank. Line runs through the furnace heat exchanger and creates on-demand hot water simply by running the furnace.

Any designers out there..??

Think i could hack the star cool with a hydronic radiator and run a hot water loop to it?

The fan and distribution system is there ;-)

So, heat from the water heater rather than hot water from a space heater.

I can’t really imagine where a space heater would go in our van.

 

[Scalf77]

I have a Truma Combi Unit in my van, I like it but haven't had extensive use at altitude. As a DIYer they are an impossible company to work with. If I had to replace my existing unit I would probably go with Aqua Heat Gen 1. They say they have high altitude performance up to 15,000 ft, they also have propane/electric, diesel/electric or gasoline/electric versions.

I have used electric mode via the inverter while driving to enable having hot water upon arrival if needed.

 

[batgirls]

Thanks, Scalf77! I hadn’t heard of aqua hot gen1s.

I’ve seen several used truma combis on facebook marketplace in Colorado. People pull them from their $200k sprinter vans because they soot up and shut down at altitude.

At least my grit/lining spewing old propane water heater turns on and heats. For now ;-)

 

[Scalf77]

I have seen some Chinese knock offs, of the Truma Combi also. I don't live at altitude, but do occasionally use it at altitude, so far so good, I purchased the unit when some company went out of business, and another company purchased their unused stock. I had a warranty for a year and installation support.

I have no support from Truma, I had purchased a newer WIFI accessible controller from a European source only to find out that they have removed the iPhone/Android apps from the American market. So I like the unit and so far have had no issues, but if something goes wrong I wouldn't hesitate to move to Aqua Hot other than price.