On demand water heater
- Thread starter Emhead83
- Start date
BryanValRox
Elite Member
Ok, I will take a shot at this one.
If the heater works fine when hooked to city water, in my mind it would support that you have a flow issue when using your water pump when not hooked to the city supply.
This is likely a result of the water pump cycling on and off and that is affecting the flow rate thru the heater. These heaters require a minimum flow rate to stay lite.
As a test, try opening a second faucet when using the pump and see if you get an improvement. If you do, you could have a restriction in the aireator if this condition is limited to a certain faucet.
The other possible solution is to increase the pump cut out pressure , so it continues to run during a demand, instead of cycling on and off to try to maintain the pressure.
This copy paste link was posted previously on this forum.
Weird condition when switching between the fresh water tank and city water
This is a weird one, all our 38DBL faucets get hot water when connected to city water. However, when switching to the fresh tank and water pump, the kitchen and shower faucets don't get hot on their own. We have to turn on a 2nd faucet to get hot water out of either of those two faucets. Any...
alliancervowners.com
Last edited:
George
Well-known member
Not an applicable answer to your question but more of a heads up to Alliance...
After a horrible experience with an on-demand water heater in a previous camper we feel that having one in a new camper would be an absolute deal breaker. We would look elsewhere if a gas/electric water heater was not at least an option.
.
I know technology has changed since then but sometimes it doesn't need to. We've never ran out of hot water in our DSI water heaters. We can add the tiniest amount of hot water from the water heater to the cold without risking it turning itself off due to lack of flow.
.
This is just our opinion. I understand there are plenty of owners who love the On-Demand water heaters.
.
FWIW – the water we had was an Atwood (no longer made) in our Winnebago Journey. I finally got so tired of it that I changed it to a normal water heater. So to answer your question of can it be retrofitted, yes it can. The only problem you may have is supplying it with 15A of 120VAC.
After a horrible experience with an on-demand water heater in a previous camper we feel that having one in a new camper would be an absolute deal breaker. We would look elsewhere if a gas/electric water heater was not at least an option.
.
I know technology has changed since then but sometimes it doesn't need to. We've never ran out of hot water in our DSI water heaters. We can add the tiniest amount of hot water from the water heater to the cold without risking it turning itself off due to lack of flow.
.
This is just our opinion. I understand there are plenty of owners who love the On-Demand water heaters.
.
FWIW – the water we had was an Atwood (no longer made) in our Winnebago Journey. I finally got so tired of it that I changed it to a normal water heater. So to answer your question of can it be retrofitted, yes it can. The only problem you may have is supplying it with 15A of 120VAC.
To support/ add on to what Bryan said, I just went through this. Same situation. Pump would cycle when trying to use hot water in the kitchen or the bathroom sink, but not in the shower. Dealership “could not replicate the problem”. Head-scratcher there. Anyway, for the bathroom sink I swapped out the 1.5 gallon-per-minute (GPM) aerator with a 2.2 GPM. Bathroom solved. For the kitchen I purchased a new sprayer head. Kitchen solved. I disassembled the kitchen sprayer first, but finding the correct tiny aerator proved painful, so I just bought the new sprayer head. So now, all fixtures have sufficient flow to pull water past the tankless heater sensor.Ok, I will take a shot at this one.
If the heater works fine when hooked to city water, in my mind it would support that you have a flow issue when using your water pump when not hooked to the city supply.
This is likely a result of the water pump cycling on and off and that is affecting the flow rate thru the heater. These heaters require a minimum flow rate to stay lite.
As a test, try opening a second faucet when using the pump and see if you get an improvement. If you do, you could have a restriction in the aireator if this condition is limited to a certain faucet.
The other possible solution is to increase the pump cut out pressure , so it continues to run during a demand, instead of cycling on and off to try to maintain the pressure.
This copy paste link was posted previously on this forum.
Weird condition when switching between the fresh water tank and city water
This is a weird one, all our 38DBL faucets get hot water when connected to city water. However, when switching to the fresh tank and water pump, the kitchen and shower faucets don't get hot on their own. We have to turn on a 2nd faucet to get hot water out of either of those two faucets. Any...