How Good (or Bad) is an On Demand Water Heater? | Ian's RV Talk

Should you believe everything you hear about tankless water heaters on RVs? Near limitless hot water? It sounds too good to be true. So, we’re exploring how a tankless water heater compares to a standard six-gallon water heater to see the difference.
There’s nothing better than a warm shower when RVing. But waiting for the water to heat up and then fearing when it will run out puts a damper on the amenity. There must be a better way… An RV tankless water heater should heat up your water quickly and it should be able to continue heating water for as long as you need for a warm shower-and then some! That’s the promise at least.
In this video, Ian and Aaron set up a somewhat rigorous experiment to determine the true value of a tankless water heater, finding out once and for all whether this investment makes as much of a difference as it promises.
We won’t give the details away here-you’ll have to watch the video to find out-but you should know whether a tankless water is the amenity it promises to be or not! We hope this is helpful for you as you shop for RVs or decide what amenities are the most important to add-on.
What has been your experience with tankless water heaters? Leave a comment below!
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00:00 What are tankless water heaters?
00:22 Testing process
02:56 Initial water temperature of a 6-gallon water heater
04:57 Giving more time to heat up
06:14 Turning on the hot water
07:36 Timing the length of hot water
08:54 Conclusions from the 6-gallon heater
09:28 Timing the tankless water heater
09:53 Timing the tankless water heater's capacity
10:37 Test #2
10:49 Conclusions

[@gerardplank3780]

The problem is they lack the flexibility of what we call the old fashion propane and electric as a back up. In the old days if you run outta propane just switch on the electric my instant hot died on last trip and I did not have the electric element as a back up!

[@campingworld]

That's a great point! Thanks for bringing this up!
-Ian Baker

[@jim78]

you always talk about tanks dropping out. is that really a thing you cant fill your tank? we fill ours all the time

[@campingworld]

Hey Jim! You can absolutely fill the tanks and that's what they're intended for. The reason I talk about the tank dropping out is that I was putting a fair amount of water in the grey tank and wasn't monitoring the tank level. IF the tanks are full and more water continues to get put in, it IS possible for the tank to eventually drop out. Therefore, I figured I'd just do the easy thing and open the valve up and let it run on through into the sewer.
-Ian Baker