Girard Tankless Water Heater offered on Skylark, Greyhawk and Melbourne

[jrnert]

Hi Everyone,

I'm Jerry Rennert with Girard Products and I wanted to let you know that Jayco is offering the Girard Tankless Wtaer Heater as an option on the Skylark, Greyhawk and the Melbourne.
If you have our Water Heater (or considering this option) and you have any questions please call our Tech Support at 866-559-1221 or visit our web site: www.greenrvproducts.com for further product and technical information.

Thank you!

[Terry]

Welcome to the forum Jerry. We appreciate vendor contacts.

[Wildkats66]

We are planning on a 2012 Greyhawk 31DS with the tankless water heater. The saleperson at the Camping World dealer advised against it saying her research shows the unit does not output that hot of water. I really can't see Jerry's folks making a unit or JAYCO making this an option if this is the case.
I know this is a new option but has anyone any info on the concern I have expressed. Also how is the noise level when the blower is activated.
Thanks all

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Wildkats66

We are planning on a 2012 Greyhawk 31DS with the tankless water heater. The saleperson at the Camping World dealer advised against it saying her research shows the unit does not output that hot of water. I really can't see Jerry's folks making a unit or JAYCO making this an option if this is the case.
I know this is a new option but has anyone any info on the concern I have expressed. Also how is the noise level when the blower is activated.
Thanks all

The sales person is full of it. I saw a demonstration of it up in Prescott last Spring and it put out water hot enough to scald you while being pumped through an Oxygentics shower head. When the flow was adjusted to enough to take a shower, it was still hotter than I cared for.

One problem with the Girard is, in order to cut costs so the price could be kept significantly lower than it's closest competitor, the RV 500, they used only bare bones control componentry (this doesn't mean low quality). Because of that, usage is different from a conventional water heater. Temperature contol is achieved by regulating the flow of the water instead of blending it with cold water; the faster the flow, the lower the temperature. Many people don't understand this, use it incorrectly, then they assume the unit is no good. Also, many people have trouble getting it to work correctly because of flow restrictors in the plumbing. Using it is a completely different ball of wax but if one can adjust to it, it will do just fine.

I don't recall any blower noise from the demo unit (we were outdoors) so it's probably not any worse than a conventional water heater.

Being an old dog, I prefer staying with something I'm used to and would prefer the RV 500 even though it cost almost twice as much. But then, that's me. Your mileage may vary.

[RVhiker]

Some people don't like the Girard tankless water heater. Some people like it. The positives are that it can make endless hot water --- if you have a sewer connection, or a large gray tank to put the waste in. It is supposed to use less propane than a propane tank type heater. The Girard can not use electricity - which you may have paid for already. Some complain that the temperature is hard to adjust. Here's a link to a long thread on another forum: Girard Water Heater Discussion.

My take away from this is that this device can be handy if you usually have a sewer connection, but is entirely inappropriate if you boondock a lot. At least that's what I think.

Just consider how you use hot water and what works best in your situation.

[Wildkats66]

Thanks all for the advice. Guess the only thing remaining is to talk it over with the wifie the goods and the not so goods.

[ezridermd]

I got the tankless unit as a option on my 2012 26A Melbourne. It does not work! Either scalding hot or ice cold. I know the propane supply is OK and I have been using the hot water only. Regardless I cannot achieve a consistent temperature. My first reaction is that the Jayco 12 volt pump does not provide adequate pressure to allow the adjusting of the flow to achieve the desired temperature. Everyone recommends a flow restrictor to minimize blowing the fittings on the water system if you are using an outside source for water. Another issue is that you want to conserve water (gray water tank filling) when showering so you turn it on and off (soap up and then rinse). The tankless unit does not work when using that procedure.

Any suggestions? I am to the point of pulling the unit out and replacing it with a standard 6 gallon hot water heater. I love the concept but the boss is ready to call it quits if this shower water temperature issue is not solved.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

[RVhiker]

There are lots of suggestions contained in this thread on another forum. Some of them may help.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by ezridermd

I got the tankless unit as a option on my 2012 26A Melbourne. It does not work! Either scalding hot or ice cold. I know the propane supply is OK and I have been using the hot water only. Regardless I cannot achieve a consistent temperature. My first reaction is that the Jayco 12 volt pump does not provide adequate pressure to allow the adjusting of the flow to achieve the desired temperature. Everyone recommends a flow restrictor to minimize blowing the fittings on the water system if you are using an outside source for water. Another issue is that you want to conserve water (gray water tank filling) when showering so you turn it on and off (soap up and then rinse). The tankless unit does not work when using that procedure.

Any suggestions? I am to the point of pulling the unit out and replacing it with a standard 6 gallon hot water heater. I love the concept but the boss is ready to call it quits if this shower water temperature issue is not solved.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

I would go back to dealer and let them deal with it. If it's something you are doing wrong, they should have shown you how to use it before you took possesion. If it is mafunctioning, it is a warranty issue.

[cat_and_matt]

So I am out on my first trip with my Greyhawk 31 SS that has the Girard Tankless. I think the dealer was more excited about it than I was. I too had water as too hot or ice could. I figured the ice cold was because it has a safety switch to cut the burner off when it exceeds a limit. If you take some time to think about it things start to make sense. The slower the water goes through the tank the longer it the burner has to be able to heat it which equals hotter water.

So if I had my tap wide open and it is still too hot then water must not be moving through fast enough. To test this I turned on the kitchen sink full and then I turned on the bath room sink and just getting it to trickle was enough for the temperature to be good coming out of the kitchen sink.

So problem is water pressure. I had hooked up as follow:

Site Water-->Water Pressure Regulator-->Y coupler-->quick connect--hose-->quick connect-->city connectiion

Figured that quick connects must be restricting the flow too much so I removeded them from the picture.

Site Water-->Water Pressure Regulator-->Y coupler-->hose-->city connectiion

That did it and now I had enough flow to get normal warm showerable water temperature and can make hotter with adjustments of less than 1/4 to 1/2 turn.

By the way I am also set from Automatic to Low on the Girard.

I still plan on calling Girad to see is what pressure they have it tuned for and see if can be adjusted or if something is wrong that I had to do this.

Will also need to put on one of those push button shower heads so I can cut water off and on or it will use too much water when dry camping.

[Toby2011]

Well, we've now made three weekend trips with our new Greyhawk 31FK equipped with the tankless water heater. Over the last 20+ years, we have had propane or propane/electric water heaters in 19-foot TT, 27-foot TT, 32-foot 5er, and 8.5-foot camper.

The verdict on the tankless so far - we're ready to get a quote to pull it out and go for propane/electric if we can, if not, propane. The system wastes water and makes a lot more noise than traditional water heaters.

The best luck we have had with the tankless has been with city water connection. The kitchen water almost got hot enough to get the dishes clean.

Relying on the fresh water and pump, the shower is the only reliable hot water.

We like to do a lot of dry camping. That was a big part of Class C instead of Class A. Wasting water hoping it will get hot just isnt an option.

The dealer will be installing a slide awning next month. We will have them check out the tankless system, but will get an estimate for tank system, too.

[Toby2011]

This is a followup to my earlier posting.

We have had our Greyhawk 31FK to the local Jayco dealer to have some warranty work done. One of the issues was to test the tankless water heater. The GM wouldn't let service handle our warranty work since we bought the RV from an out of state dealer. However, during the three weeks service had the unit they did check the Girard tankless water heater and reported to me that it was not delivering reliable hot water. After the Jayco dealer sent us on our way we worked with he new Camping World to make arrangements to complete the warranty work, inlcuding testing the Girard tankless system.

The Girard tankless water heater apparently performed to specifications, but Camping World acknowledged that the hot water was not reliable and agreed that the temperature fluctuations in the shower were too wide to allow our grandchildren to use. While connected to city water, and allowing a LOT of time they did get hot water to the kitchen sink and bathroom sink.

I have had several conversations with Paul Martin and a service rep at Girard. The Girar rep was to contact Camping World to discuss the testing, but we've never heard back. My latest conversations have been with Vin at Jayco Customer Service. Vin is handling things now. He described the "new" Girard unti that was supposed to solve the "old" Girard issues. On January 7, nearly a month ago, he told me that "Fred" at Girard would contact me within the next couple business days to discuss the issue and seek resolution. "Fred" was described as having worked for Atwood and that he wouldn't let the ball drop.

January 25, I tried to reach Vin at Jayco since I have not heard from Jayco or Girard. I left a message since he had left for the day and Paul Martin was on the phone with another customer.

Guess I will have to try calling again. Jayco doesn't seem to have much concern for Customer "Service"

[edatlanta]

My only concern would be being limited to propane only. I host in the summers and wouldn't want to pay for propane when electricity is "free". The temp fluctuations wouldn't be good either even if they could be eliminated with proper flow settings. Imagine the water wasted while getting it just right and if boondocking this just wouldn't work.

As far as the sound while the heater is working - who cares. It is bound to be hard to hear when in the shower and even if you can hear it, it will stop when you turn off the water.

I like my 12 gallon Suburban.