Tankless water heater

[Imnewhere]

What tankless water heater do you use for under $300??
I was going to order a flame king 10L and vent it outside through a window but not I'm seeing that's a big no no. How do you guys install and vent your water heaters and what's the best one on a budget?

Thank you!

[rossvtaylor]

Well...if you can stretch a bit, I like (and have) the Camplux CA318 which is right at $400. It does a great job of regulating and maintaining temperature, unlike those $150 outdoor shower heaters...which do heat fine, but require some fiddling with flow and gas knobs to get the temp right. And the CA318 is designed for proper venting.

Camplux does have another model, the CM264, which has a digital temp display and is right at $300. But it's got flow and gas knobs, so I don't know how stable the temp is. It does have a digital temperature display, though, so perhaps it would work fine? I just have no personal experience with that one. It it designed for proper venting.

[HamSkoolie]

One of the things we've noticed in researching tankless water heaters (haven't purchased yet) is that MANY of the cheaper ones have notes, usually hidden quite well, that they are limited to altitudes of 2000 feet or less, some a little higher.

Well here in the valley we're at 1400 feet already!
And we prefer the mountains.
So we're still looking.

[rossvtaylor]

Originally Posted by HamSkoolie

One of the things we've noticed in researching tankless water heaters (haven't purchased yet) is that MANY of the cheaper ones have notes, usually hidden quite well, that they are limited to altitudes of 2000 feet or less, some a little higher.

Well here in the valley we're at 1400 feet already!
And we prefer the mountains.
So we're still looking.

A good point. We're at 7000 feet here and the Camplux I mentioned works just fine. But I haven't looked to see if there's a caution against that. I should note that the Camplux manual says this heater should not be installed in an RV. I think that's a pretty common caution.

[Rucker]

Originally Posted by rossvtaylor

Well...if you can stretch a bit, I like (and have) the Camplux CA318 which is right at $400. It does a great job of regulating and maintaining temperature, unlike those $150 outdoor shower heaters...which do heat fine, but require some fiddling with flow and gas knobs to get the temp right. And the CA318 is designed for proper venting.

Camplux does have another model, the CM264, which has a digital temp display and is right at $300. But it's got flow and gas knobs, so I don't know how stable the temp is. It does have a digital temperature display, though, so perhaps it would work fine? I just have no personal experience with that one. It it designed for proper venting.

I have the Camplux 264 with flow and temp valves. Works great once they are set, but like you say, touchy when you fiddle with them.

[Imnewhere]

Originally Posted by HamSkoolie

One of the things we've noticed in researching tankless water heaters (haven't purchased yet) is that MANY of the cheaper ones have notes, usually hidden quite well, that they are limited to altitudes of 2000 feet or less, some a little higher.

Well here in the valley we're at 1400 feet already!
And we prefer the mountains.
So we're still looking.

Yeah I've seen that too, but a lot of the reviews I've seen said they had no problem at 7000 ft plus.

[Imnewhere]

How do you guys vent outside? Just like a wood stove?

[ol trunt]

I went with the cheap EcoTemp L5 heater. I mounted it on the rear wall of the bus and ducted the exhaust out of an unused rear window. The combustion air enters through a filtered inlet under the bus. With that all installed I added a steel "closet" to cover the entire apparatus to keep stray fumes from seeping into the living area.
Jack

.

.

.

.

.

.

[Rock-N-Ruth]

Originally Posted by HamSkoolie

One of the things we've noticed in researching tankless water heaters (haven't purchased yet) is that MANY of the cheaper ones have notes, usually hidden quite well, that they are limited to altitudes of 2000 feet or less, some a little higher.

Well here in the valley we're at 1400 feet already!
And we prefer the mountains.
So we're still looking.

We are using the Chinese 18L tankless from Amazon. We have used it for 3 years, under 300 bucks. It is reliable and consistent. We are at 4200' ASL. We have had zero complications.
It has a digital temp readout and temp control knob. It will chur out endless 60 degree Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) when set to its highest seeing. I prefer around 38-40 Celsius (100-106 Fahrenheit) for showering and hand washing, but Ruth likes scalding hot for rinsing dishes.
We love the low fuel consumption and the just works when we need it. The only thing we desire, we will add during our next build, (got the bus) is a recirc valve to make it truly instant hot water at the tap.

[Rucker]

Mine has a small exhaust pipe I put through the side window (with a baffle around it), then stow it for travel.

[DreamWeaverBus]

I bought an Ecotemp 18 tankless water heater on Amazon, but when my electrician installed my electric system, he said it would pull too much electricity on my 50Amp system. So I sold it and bought a 7 gallon mini tank water heater. I told a plumber about it and he said those tankless water heaters work great for RV's.


This is really annoying and confusing, when I get my plumber to do my plumbing, I'm thinking of inviting my electrician over and having them talk and agree on a water heater. I really wanted the tankless because it saves so much space. Worst comes to worst I'm thinking of reselling my unused tanked water heater and buying a tankless again, but only if everyone is sure. I'm loosing money in resale.

Has anyone else been told their tankless water heater would pull too much electricity? Has anyone else not been told that and found that it did pull too much electricity?

[Rucker]

I have a Camplux 2.6 tankless. Runs on propane. The electrical draw is practically nothing.
Was your Ecotemp electric or propane?

[TheHubbardBus]

The '18' refers to KW. 18KW. 18,000 watts (@240V, ). Your electrician is the one to listen to, and he's right.

EccoTemp models come in all kinds of different sizes / configurations, and many are liquid propane fueled. I'm sure those are the variants your plumber was thinking of.

[ism minerals]

Originally Posted by Imnewhere

What tankless water heater do you use for under $300??
I was going to order a flame king 10L and vent it outside through a window but not I'm seeing that's a big no no. How do you guys install and vent your water heaters and what's the best one on a budget?

Thank you!

I purchased a Fogatti Rv tank-less, supposedly good to 9000-10,000 feet. run on propane. Still waiting to hook it up, but I have it installed under the bus, right in front of the rear wheel well, so no worry about venting it. even though it is a front vent. its a little more than the 300.

[Jeff2010]

Since we’re on the topic. I found this on Amazon:
Bosch Electric Mini-Tank Water Heater Tronic 3000 T 7-Gallon for under $300

Anybody have any background on it?

[brokedown]

I've seen a few of these in vans, but I'm still generally in favor of using propane on-demand water heaters instead of tank systems, especially electric ones. The wife and I like to take 'real' showers but also don't like to run our generator!