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We're working on building/Designing our Trailer to be as efficient
as possible in all sorts of ways ...so instead of installing a more
conventional tank type of RV water heater ...like the Atwood one I
installed in our bus
Latcho Drom , I went for an
on-demand type.
On-Demand LP Gas water heaters
work by heating the water as it flows through the water line into
the heater versus the more typical heater which heats up a whole
water tank making them much more energy efficient and quite a bit lighter in
weight .
Originally I was going to install a wall-mounted Aqua Star or Paloma
heater ...but because of the amount of wall space those heaters
would use .. I went for the
RV-500 water instead.
But there's no reason you cant install one of the wall-mounted water
heaters if you'd like.
You will hear a bunch of you cant install a 'house' type of
on-demand in an RV because these heaters are designed to only work
with a steady flow (PSI) of pressurized water and RV water pumps
just couldn't supply the flow.
Which is a bunch of unadulterated Bull-$@%& because the newer RV
water pumps , like the AquaJet I picked up for our project have no
problems with handling this....
I personally know numerous folks who installed house type
on-demand water heaters in their Buses and they work just
fine....
So....don't listen to the majority of 'experts ' that tell you this
cant be done ...( these are the same Buggers who will tell you it's
impossible to safely install and use a woodstove in your rigs ...Idiots!)
... so if you have the wall-space to spare or a cargo-bay underneath
your rig ...you can install the 'house type' of heaters...they'll
work out just fine for you.
Plus they're quite a bit more affordable then the RV-500 is .... I
paid $879.00 plus shipping for ours . You can pick up really nice
Aquastars for around $550.00
So...why did I buy the more expensive RV-500 ????....
Basically it was all about having the
limited space I have for installing stuff in our trailer ...and how
I want to use it.
Plus aesthetics played a big part in my choice.
Even though our trailer will be 38-40 feet in length ...which is pretty
big , all things considered ...I looked at my 'plans' and figured
the only place I could install a wall-mounted water heater was in
the bathroom above the toilet ...
Which would have worked for us because the AquaStar 125HX is only
approx. 30 inches high by 19 inches wide ....but then I started
wondering how our bathroom would look by having a white rectangular
'box' hanging on the wall ....
Since I want our trailer to look gorgeous with lots of pretty
woodwork and such , I wasn't too keen on this....so I thought
, well. I'll just build a pretty cover for the heater. I figured on
designing a nice cover out of Oak 1"x1",s with Chair Caning panels
...which would pretty up the heater and at the same time allow
plenty of air-flow ....but decided in the end to just 'Cowboy up'
and get the RV-500 .
NOTE
If you do go for a wall mounted water heater make sure you
have plenty of Air-Flow going on....this is really important stuff when dealing
with on-demand type water heaters of the 'house' type....
Just remember to vent the rig well and you'll do fine
.....realistically speaking any RV or self-conversion is already
somewhat dangerous to live in ... we've got all sorts of stuff going
on that would give building Code inspectors a heart attack .
Just about any RV appliance ...LP Gas Stoves , Fridges , Heater &
Such , even though it says 'safe for RV use ' would never pass even
the most lenient House Building Code .
Does that mean we should install dangerous stuff in our Rigs ?....
Nope of course not . It just means we should realize the RV Code is
a Industry created thing and isn't written in stone at all.
Here's a few Pics of what the RV-500 looks like out of the box...by the way
they're designed to fit into the water heater cut-outs on most RV's
, which makes it easy for folks to switch over from their Tank water
heaters.
We bought our RV-500 from
House Needs online ...they appear to be
the only dealer out there that sells them .
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