B190 Enthusiasts

Is it possible to replace the hot water heater set up in a 1997 B190 with an instant hot water set up?

Oh... I am liking the sound on this one. I'm waiting to see if there are some good suggestions!

After not searching for very long, I found that yes, there is a tankless heater that will fit into the space the B190 water heater and tank uses. A company called Girard makes it. It costs about $520 and is fairly easy to install.

I'm in Mexico till the end of February but I'm going to investigate further when I get back to the US.

I don't use hot water a lot but having only cold water showers down here in Baja is making me rethink ascessable hot water.

Mark,
Thanks for passing along the information as you find it. My heater still works fine. So I'm not in the market right now. However, I am interested to know how it works for you, if you do it! I'll go take a look at the Girard. I wonder if a tankless system would be more cold weather friendly...

I've learned that they raise the water temp about 50 degrees. They have a hard time with very cold water.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about them and have decided they aren't right for me. Your usage might vary.

1. As already mentioned by Mark, they raise the water only a given amount. If your incoming water is colder than that, you're getting a lukewarm shower.

2. If you only camp in warm weather, you'll never run into this, so you can skip the rest of the paragraph. However, we camp in freezing weather several times a year, and a tankless water heater has to kick on every so often (depends on how cold it is) to keep from freezing, all night. With our tank water heater, we'll fire it up before we go to bed, let it run a full cycle, then shut it down for the night, and it won't run all night nor will it freeze, and we have hot water for washing our hands during the night.

3. The other thing about tankless in general is that they take a few moments to get up and running, so first they have to detect sufficient flow of hot water, then they can start their cycle of firing up and heating water. That takes a few seconds - for a home unit, it can be up to 30 seconds, I think; hopefully an RV unit would be faster. But while that's happening, water is running down the drain. This isn't a huge issue if you have city water, but if you don't, you're wasting more water than you would with a tank. (In both cases, there is cold water sitting in the lines in the camper, but with a tankless, it takes a bit longer for hot water to start flowing.)

I do love the concept, but I think a tank water heater is a better solution for us. And, let's face it, the water heater doesn't draw much propane anyway. We shut it off after our showers, sometimes run it before bed (or if we need to do dishes), and then we'll fire it up in the morning before our showers, and one fill of propane lasts for months that way.

As always, your usage varies, and there are plenty of people out there with them that love them.

Has anyone tried the Solar water heater option?

https://carkart.com/index.php?route=pro ... OGEALw_wcB

I called the company to get Tech specs. They are based out of Texas, but use call center agents so the service sucks and I couldn't get much info. I did find out that they have wires! I've looked up similar ones made for houses so I'm assuming its the same thing just on a larger scale. My understanding is they will need to use an extra pump to circulate the water, but I think it's minimal so probably will barely use any juice. I don't think it's a good idea in freezing weather and it probably won't work, but it could be a good alternative for the slightly warmer sunnier states.

Here is an Amazon link that shows a schematic in the images: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Panel-H ... WYPWTY5V5S