I think the size is close to a 10 gallon tank heater, but I am not sure. To modifiy the sidewall and cabinet inside to accomidate a replacement heater might be difficult or impossible (my RV would be impossible).
The problem is the heater has a 55,000 Btu burner, and will put out 85F water per gallon, so if you only need 1 GPM and 85F temperature rise will work, then everything is fine. But if you require 2 GPM, you will only get a maximum of about 43F temperature rise. At 60 - 65F water input, that might still make for a comfortable shower, but with cold ground water like in Oregon, where it comes out at 45F, it would make for a very cold shower.
My dishwasher likes 130F water temp, and the 6 gallon water heater supplies it well, 1-2 gallons at a time. But with a tankless heater, if the flow is less than 0.5 gallons per minute, it will not cycle on, and above 2 GPM it will come out cool, not hot. So when conserving water while dry camping, it might not come on until the water flow is fairly fast.
Lets say you are taking a shower while dry camping, and the hot water flow drops below 0.4 GPM and the heater goes off. Very cold shower! Then the shower comes back on as you increase the water flow, and it will get really hot.
I have not used one yet, but the drawbacks seem clear to me. There are also drawbacks with a 6 gallon tank too, and expanding to a 10 gallon tank is another thing that I think will be more likely to work better.
I have heard about 16 gallon water heaters that are installed in park model RV's. However I am not sure if they are the same style or not. It might even be all electric? I don't know.
I even thought about how to get more hot water capacity in my RV and I think the only way is adding a electric element to my heater, or using a hot water line to fill the fresh water tank with some hot water, then running the pump, with 70-80F "Cold" water, the shower would last longer.
It would also be possible to install a 10 gallon or so tank into the RV, and then use this as the feed water into the hot water tank, then with another 12 volt pump, move water from the factory hot water heater into the inlet of the new tank, then you can heat both with the gas burner (or use a 10 gallon electric water heater with a 1,500 watt element).
Basically I am stuck with short showers or using less than a gallon per minute for 6-7 minutes.
Good Luck,
Fred.
Money can't buy happiness but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche or Country Coach!
If I were you I would go directly to their web site Precision Temp and read all of the literature. Some info at their site differs from the previous post. In addition, buying direct from Precision Temp will save you $100 dollars over the price at the web site in the previous post.
If my water ever goes out I will be looking very hard at replaceing it with a tankless. We are almost always on full hook-ups and there is nothing like a long hot shower
Frank, Martha & Ryan
2007 Ford F-250 SD Crew Cab
2006 Cougar 289EFS
Speaking as a retired plumbing contractor, I'm not a big fan of tankless heaters. I know they're popular in Europe and elsewhere but from our experience the temp varies too much, the flow has to be sufficient to turn it on, and they're a lot more expensive and complicated than a storage type heater. A good percentage of the ones we installed had to have callbacks for problems, and the customers weren't too happy about their operation when just a small amount of hot water was needed. I'll never install one in my home or RV. For whatever its worth...
Also one other point to mention, as another poster mentioned DryCamping. You had better have a very large battery bank. As an instant Hot Water is going to really pull the power out of your batterys. Check the amps Draw on an instant Hot Water Heater. You also need a pretty hefty inverter to handle the instant load required. Something else to think about, if you only have twin batteries, and a small invereter to begin with. We sure wouldn't invest in one. Not worth the lost space, or the cost. Espically when our 6 Gallon does a fine job just for the two of us anyways. Happy Camping, Dan & Jill
1997 Ford F-250, H.D. Extended-Cab, Short Bed, 7.3 PSD, K&N Air Filter, 5000 lbs air bags w/on board compressor w/guage, SuperChips Tuner/Programer. 1996 Nash 24fter 5er, 15K "Lil" Rocker Hitch w/BedSaver, Twin EU2000i Gen's W/Kit. Nam-Vet, 33 Months.
If you have a Suburban or Attwood standard RV hot water heater, every RV dealer and his brother will have parts, or could easily get them, you can get them from numerous sites on the web. If your tankless heater fails on a trip, will you be able to get it repaired in a timely fashion??
I certainly believe that a tankless heater is better; RV hot water heaters are inefficinet, and poorly insulated, but you can get them serviced anywhere. If you full timed at a single site with full hookups, and knew the installer could take care of it, it might make sense, but not it you're planning to roam regularly.
Google Precision Temp, I would give you the link if I was a little more computer savy. The model # for the rv heater is RV-500. This is one of those things that you have to look at and decide what works better for you. When you have hookups you can shower like home, but you loose the electric element. When you are drycamping you will use less LP. It weighs about 1/4 of a full water heater, and flue temp is about 200 degrees cooler.
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