Can you take long shower with 6 gal water heater?

[EmptyNest]

Can you take long shower with 6 gal water heater? My answer is yes, I can take a 10 to 12 minute shower and not run out of hot water. My shower head flows at 1.5 GPM. My heater is 6 gallon and will scald your hide off if not mixed with plenty of cold water. Make sure the water is hot before starting and turn on both the gas and electric (if connected to service) and shower away. When we don't have a sewer connection we take navy showers and use very little water.

[Marmot]

Originally Posted by brightsky

Can you take long shower with 6 gal water heater? Do you need to stop and wait for hot water to recover?

How about another person washing dishes with hot water at the same time?

A Navy shower is the way to go in most RVs with 6 gallon water heaters.

[Spaceguy85]

Originally Posted by brightsky

Can you take long shower with 6 gal water heater? Do you need to stop and wait for hot water to recover?

How about another person washing dishes with hot water at the same time?

We can and do. The secret for us is to turn on both electric and Gas at the same time.

[jimmoore13]

A little math:

A basic home hot water heater is 30 gallons.
More recently, homes have 40 or 50 gallon hot water heaters.
Also, whether electric or gas/propane, the burner units in these are pretty substantial or the electric elements are designed to require 30 amps at 240 volts.

The basic RV hot water heater is 6 gallons...10 gallons is a big one. Some have dual fuel (if you are connected to shore power), and that substantially improves recovery time.

That's all you need to know.

If you're a prodigious hot water user, look into a tankless heater designed for RVs. A tankless heater is designed to deliver a continuous flow of hot water with no storage.

[krbjmpr]

Remember a water heater's draw down capacity is roughly 50%. Basically means when do you have to start messing with hot & cold valves to keep temp constant. When using hot water, cold is introduced into tank and mixes with hot water. Smaller amounts of cold means less mixing and more hot water.

Adding a mixing valve on output of water heater set for a certain temp (102°F here) goes a long ways to extending supply. If anything, just eliminating waste when adjusting to get preferred temp. Increasing tank temperature with a mixing valve on output can lead to holy grail of showers.

I dont use my eagle anymore, but current trailer has 30G Rheem residential from oem installed. Just finished swapping tempering valve (mixing) for one that works better on cooler temps. Water heater tstat was twisted way past E (no #, just a b c d e) into danger area. Tank temp is 155°F. Keeps utility compartment on the 5er warm too ☺

I don't care about shower time anymore. Even my 16year old hasn't been able to run it cold yet. Now I worry if the gray valve is still open after 16yo dumps black tank.

Correct me if I am wrong, most Atwood / Dometic 10g water heaters are all equipped with tempering valves now? Used to be distinguished as XT series?

[spark of insanity]

We never had a problem with the Jayco and long showers until we got the clipper. First it was fine then we had problems. Taking it back in in April to figure out what the problem is. They say it might the heater coil. Otherwise I will get a new one. 3 people took hot showers with the 6 gallon. Otherwise if you really want a long hot shower we use the bath house. Solves a few problems.

[Trapper2020]

As long as you want. Never ran out of hot water while showering. Better have full hookups when you do this so you do not run out of water to heat and can drain the grey while you shower. We do not do dishes while someone is showering. Makes it hard to regulate your temp.


Enjoy the journey

[Silvernelle]

Obviously as pointed out how long is long to each person? My first thought is some of that as well as how many showers are going to be taken might depend on if you have a sewer hook up real handy or not. Every shower adds to that grey tank pretty quickly, and they all have a capacity.


So, if you have sewer hookup at your site it is only a matter of how long the hot water lasts and how fast it can reheat more. On the other hand, if your dump station requires you to move the camper to it the capacity of your tank might be another factor in the length of your shower to consider.


You will figure it out in just a few days. Happy trails!!

[Cujonaut]

We have a 6 gallon dual electric/propane water heater. We have 3x people that shower nightly and we turn on both the electric and propane part of the water heater before the first person goes to shower. Not sure what you consider a long shower, but each person takes a 10-15 minute shower and we give about 10-15 min in between each shower to let it heat back up and we don't have any issues.

Washing dishes goes through hot water fast. I wouldn't recommend doing dishes while someone showers.

We're thinking about upgrading to a tankless water heater. Will let you know how it works out if we do.

[Bookemdanno]

I'll play...there's typically 4 of us in the RV with our 6 gallon tank. When we start showering I put both the gas & electric on. We've yet to run out of hot water. Now when the in-laws come along that's another 2 people and we typically run out of hot water when the 5th person is finishing up. I usually go last, so I just wait about 15-20 mins and I have no problem with hot water. After I'm done, I turn off the gas heater & leave on the electric.

[bobm]

I take the same shower as in my home. I don't do a navy shower. The water runs constantly and I have enough time to get wet, soap up, and rinse off. Sometimes I stay a little longer for a back massage. Been doing this for many years and have never run out of hot water. Have the usual 6 gallon hot water tank and standard shower head.

BTW I tried an oxygenics and didn't care for it. When I tested the GPM with a gallon bucket found the stock unit used almost half the time to hit the gallon mark vs the oxygenic unit.

[TnHiker]

Originally Posted by brightsky

Can you take long shower with 6 gal water heater? Do you need to stop and wait for hot water to recover?

How about another person washing dishes with hot water at the same time?

I never had a problem getting a hot shower from my old camper that had a 6 gal. But, I did have the water temp on the heater set hot!!!!

There is never a problem with my present camper. It has an on demand heater and as long as you have a gray water hookup that can continue to drain you can just keep running the water. Happy Camping and God Bless!

[TCNashville]

Originally Posted by Bookemdanno

I'll play...there's typically 4 of us in the RV with our 6 gallon tank. When we start showering I put both the gas & electric on. We've yet to run out of hot water. Now when the in-laws come along that's another 2 people and we typically run out of hot water when the 5th person is finishing up. I usually go last, so I just wait about 15-20 mins and I have no problem with hot water. After I'm done, I turn off the gas heater & leave on the electric.

Dan I could be wrong but I believe your Northpoint has a 10 gallon water heater. Night/day difference over a 6 gallon.

[Robby]

Use the navy method. In our case the shower is located at farthest from the heater so a lot of the water is wasted getting the warm water to the shower head. But in the 7 years we have been using our trailer, we have never run out of hot water.

[Bookemdanno]

Originally Posted by TCNashville

Dan I could be wrong but I believe your Northpoint has a 10 gallon water heater. Night/day difference over a 6 gallon.

You are correct...I was thinking of our previous RV.

[DonC757]

Yes, Definitely. We run three or four adults through the shower one after the other fairly often with no problem. Maybe waiting five or 10 minutes in between but we don’t worry about it at all. If you are worried about running out of hot water turn on the propane heating function also. It heats up the water super fast.