Swapped-out Girard WH in Seneca 37TS

[Robbbyr]

Decided I had enough of dealing with limitations of Girard tankless water heater in my unit so I bit the bullet and swapped it out. Installed in its place a 10-gallon Atwood XT.

Removal of Girard was easy, you just have to unscrew the flange and slide unit out to disconnect wiring, water lines, and propane hose. Hardest part of swap was cutting into my unit to enlarge the opening. Duct taped around opening to protect paint and provide a surface to lay out the cut lines. Used a reciprocating saw to cut the opening. Cleaned foam out under aluminum skin around the opening and then epoxied 1" square aluminum tube to frame in the enlarged opening.

To access the rear of the new heater I cut an access hole into the rotocast compartment. Fabricated and riveted an aluminum frame to inside of opening so cutout can be screwed back in place. Ran the Atwood's new 12-volt and 110-volt wiring into the compartment. Adjusted hot and cold water pipes to mate up with new connections. Heater went in and out several times to make sure everything fit correctly. Original propane hose had enough slack to connect to new heater's inlet fitting, no modifications necessary. Butyl tape installed around flange and stainless screws placed to anchor heater in place.

Inside the coach I had an opening in my breaker panel, installed a 15-amp breaker and connected wire from new heater. Ran 12-volt wiring from heater to location of original Girard "dial" and installed the new two-switch control panel.

Unit is going into body shop this week to paint new entry door (Jayco gave up trying to fix my keyless entry keypad, door being replaced with new style), I am having them also paint the new heater's cover to match. Since my unit is winterized I won't be able to test it now. But I am certain I will be happier with this unit than the Girard.

A few pictures:

[norty1]

Nice work!

[TCNashville]

You'll love the 10 gallon Atwood. We have it in our camper and take full showers without ever turning down the cold side. I tried to run it out once until I started to shrivel up like a prune and stopped. Nice work on the install.