Tankless Water Heater

[RVcoffee]

We have a Greyhawk 31FS. The tankless water heater has been fine, including a recent trip, but then we got an E1 error code this weekend. Cold showers! It sounds like we have to take it to the dealer, but I've been reading a lot of mixed reviews about the factory-installed Girard water heater. What have people done for an upgrade? Thanks in advance! I'm always appreciative of how everyone shares their experiences.

[Hivoltage98]

I installed the truma aquago. Love it. Hot water like at home.


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[Mnwelsh]

I also installed the Truma. It's been flawless, best upgrade I've made and my dealer did the installation for no labor costs if I bought the Truma.

[t18skyguy]

I also have a 31FS 2017. The first thing you need to do is open the cover on the outside of the Girard heater. Look down to the lower left of the unit and you will see two black caps, which are the tops of the gas valves. If those caps are all black then they are recalled and Jayco will pay the dealer to do it. The recalled valves are very problematic. The new valves have caps with a white circle around the top of them. Once you have the new valves, get an adjustable water pressure regulator(Renaldo on Amazon) and set it to 45 psi. Adjust the electronic thermostat to the hot water temp you want. Then use hot water only and keep it constantly flowing. Mine works with no problem with this method, but you have to have the new valve setup.

[Oklahoma Dan]

Replaced with the tried and true Suburban 6 gallon which fits in nicely as a replacement on my 31 FS. Best thing I did replacing Girard tankless junk.

[hoppers4]

Originally Posted by Oklahoma Dan

Replaced with the tried and true Suburban 6 gallon which fits in nicely as a replacement on my 31 FS. Best thing I did replacing Girard tankless junk.

X2

[Shakedown St.]

Originally Posted by Oklahoma Dan

Replaced with the tried and true Suburban 6 gallon which fits in nicely as a replacement on my 31 FS. Best thing I did replacing Girard tankless junk.

X3. 10 gallon Suburban though.

[GeorgiaRV]

Originally Posted by Shakedown St.

X3. 10 gallon Suburban though.

did you have to modify the opening to fit the 10 gallon?

[Shakedown St.]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaRV

did you have to modify the opening to fit the 10 gallon?

Yes about an 1" or so, but very easy and plenty of room for the 10 inside the cabinet. If you are going to a water tank you will be glad you installed the 10 gal!

[GeorgiaRV]

Originally Posted by Shakedown St.

Yes about an 1" or so, but very easy and plenty of room for the 10 inside the cabinet. If you are going to a water tank you will be glad you installed the 10 gal!

What model RV do you have?

[Midwest Jeffk]

Had the recall done on my Girard and all has been good since. Nice having unlimited hot water and not carrying an extra 6-10 gal of water weight.
Do the recall and see how you like it first.

[submariner]

We have the tankless water heater ,it seems to work fine but the drawback is that it uses propane and the tank could be a lot larger.It would be nice to have the ability to heat the water with electric when were plugged in at a campground and save on gas consumption.I think I have the ability to install a conventional tank water heater and hook up the water connections,but what worries me is the electrical connections and the control for the unit.Can anyone tell me how hard it is to switch.Thankyou in advance for any help.We have a 17 greyhawk MV.

[Shakedown St.]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaRV

What model RV do you have?

15' Greyhawk 31fs

[Shakedown St.]

Originally Posted by submariner

We have the tankless water heater ,it seems to work fine but the drawback is that it uses propane and the tank could be a lot larger.It would be nice to have the ability to heat the water with electric when were plugged in at a campground and save on gas consumption.I think I have the ability to install a conventional tank water heater and hook up the water connections,but what worries me is the electrical connections and the control for the unit.Can anyone tell me how hard it is to switch.Thankyou in advance for any help.We have a 17 greyhawk MV.

I have a 31FS, so different model but should be similar. Your water, propane and 12v connections are all at your existing tankless location. On our FS, the water tank is under our kitchen sink area. We installed the switch for propane heating in the cabinetry at the sink. The switch for the electric element is on the unit itself, however, we ran a dedicated 120v circuit with breaker back to the panel under our bed to power that line. We had a couple extra slots in our panel, which made it possible and easy.

Best mod on my rig so far. With a 10 gal tank I have yet to run out of hot water on consecutive showers. When we are back to back with wife, kids, dishes, etc. I will run the gas with electric for a faster turnover on hot water. Hope this helps!

[submariner]

Thanks Shakedown.We too have the 120 panel mounted under the bed.Hopefully it wount be too much of a problem to run a dedicated line to the heater.I will also have to mount a control to operate the unit and also I believe a relay to turn on the 120 electric to the unit.I guess the controls and switches have to be ordered seperately along with the heater.Quite a little project......

[hoppers4]

No relay necessary. A standard 120VAC switch will do the trick as the heater only draws about 12 amps. The switch I put in also has a pilot light so I know when it's on. I put it and the propane switch in the wall between the fridge and stove. There's enough space in there to put a box and a switch.

For power I spliced into the line coming from the inverter as it runs very close to the water heater. When on shore power the inverter is out of the circuit so there's no overload concern. I just have to remember to turn off the water heater before unhooking. If I forget to power down the water heater I get reminded by the inverter panel yelling at me that it's overloaded.

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by submariner

We have the tankless water heater ,it seems to work fine but the drawback is that it uses propane and the tank could be a lot larger.

I realize that the tankless water heater itself is controversial, and a Girard branded one doesn't help. But...

IMHO - I think we use less propane with the tankless that the tanked. That's a 1000% informal perception on my part. Based on owning a 6 gallon Atwood in the old coach and a Girard Gen II in the Greyhawk.


As for "tank size could be larger" - I'm not sure what you mean. The tankless water heater means unlimited hot water.

It took some work, but we figured out how to work with the Girard. And now, with five (almost) adults in the coach, I won't go back to a tanked heater. It probably won't be a Girard, but I will stay tankless.

[NC Roamer]

Originally Posted by Oklahoma Dan

Replaced with the tried and true Suburban 6 gallon which fits in nicely as a replacement on my 31 FS. Best thing I did replacing Girard tankless junk.

Originally Posted by hoppers4

X2

X3. We had a lot of annoyances with the Girard but the Suburban tank model has been perfect.

[blujay40]

We have the Girard Gen 3 and after a few growing pains, we absolutely love it. We initially got numerous E3 errors which we found out was because our input water temp was too warm and that issue was resolved by Girard. Then we had a cooling fan making noise by rubbing on the shroud and that was also fixed by Girard. Then yesterday, we showed up at our site and when I went to use the hot water, we got an E1 which surprised me for a second until I remembered I never turned the propane tanks on.

So if your unit has the older recalled valves, I would get those fixed first and give the Girard some time. It takes a little change in mindsets as far as how a hot water heater should work, but once you get the hang of it, you can't beat 30 minute showers if that is what you want.

As for us, the Girard will be around until it isn't then it will most likely be replaced with a Truma Aqua Go. The Truma resolves most, if not all of the hassles of the Girard by having a variable higher temp burner, a mixing tank to allow you to turn the hot water off and back on again without getting the cold blast, and requires only a quarter of the water flow thru the unit to keep the burner lit so you can basically run it at a trickle or mix in as much cold as you wish, and if you choose the middle level "comfort" model, it not only has freeze protection built in but it also has a neat way to descale it by using a "pill". For us, there is no going back to a tanked water heater.

[submariner]

pconroy,what i meant was the size of the propane tank,should be larger in my opinion.