Girard gswh-1m water leak & gswh-2 upgrade???

[Smac]

Went to prep the Rv for new season & when hooked up the water line i had a nice surprise waiting for me. Water was running out from my Girard tankless heater. It is clearly coming from the heat exchange, so must be a busted pipe. I had used the air method of winterizing so I'm very surprised that water must have been left in the system. Apon researching it sounds like this is a frequent problem for the Girard systems due to extremely thin sections of copper on the bends. Anyhow can't find any replacement heat exchange so my plan is to replace with the gswh-2 model. Sounds like an easy swap, but any advice or experience with this would be appreciated!!

Thanks in advance, and Happy Rv'ing!!

Scott

[pconroy]

I have the 1M too. Remember the 2 has a different control panel that you'll need to wire up. 1M's appear to be still available online.

[Smac]

Yes wiring the control I've not found any info. But in today's world its out there just have to find it. I've been happy enough with the 1m, its by no means perfect, but for 2-4 day trips not an issue.

[pconroy]

Googling says the 2 is the same size. I agree it should be an easy swap, if you can figure out if the new control panel can reuse the 1M wires to the rheostat.

[pconroy]

I pulled up the 1M installation manual and quickly scanned it, then the 2 installation manual. Looks like both use just two 18h wires between the rheostat / control panel and the heater.


I'm with you now. Should be an easy swap.

[wsherm]

The second wire on the reostat is ground so that will not work for your control panel on the new unit. You will have to pull a new wire from the control panel or relocate the conrol panel somewhere else where you can get the two control wires to it.

[Smac]

Thats what I was afraid of, which kinda sucks. Anyway, thank you all for your thoughts and effort! I am receiving the -2 today so I will let you know how it goes. Thanks!!

[Mike-NM]

Are you sure it is the heat exchanger and not the flow pipe? If you look to the right you can see the flow pipe and the set screw where the pipe connects. I have had that flow pipe damaged by freezing causing the flow pipe to pull away from the seat causing it to leak. The set screw damaged the flow pipe when it was forced out of the seat by the frozen water/ ice expanding. I also used air to winterize but no longer I use air and anti-freeze. I replaced it by ordering the flow pipe part and installation is fairly easy without taking the entire unit out.

[Smac]

Just wanted to finish out the results of my water heater issue. Ended up being a blown copper line line in the heat exchange. Due to not being able to find a replacement I had the newer version -2 installed. I paid a local mobile RV guy to do the work, he did a quality job & charged $360 in total. Swap required lengthening both hot & cold lines 12", also had to run a cable for the user control panel that we installed in the bathroom where the version 1 heat control was. It took an experienced guy 3.5 hours to do the complete job. Lesson learned, next year I winterize with coolant!

Happy Camping!