Swapping Girard for suburban

[CWatts7303]

I’m changing out my girard hot water heater for a suburban 6 gallon. I was curious for the ones that have done this, were there any difficulties with wiring it? I’m assuming since I’m going from a propane to a water heater with electric and propane it will not be a plug and play. Appreciate any input. I have a 2014 Jayco GreyHawk 31FS.

[hoppers4]

I did this exact thing on 2015 29MV Greyhawk. There's enough 115VAC wiring close by so that it's really not a problem. I elected to use the output line from my inverter to power the electric side of the water heater. The only problem with this choice is that I have to shut off the water heater power before disconnecting shore power or I'll get an inverter overload alarm. I put the power and propane switches on the side of the fridge above the stove.

The Girard was so awful that it only took me one overnighter to decide to change it out. Sure, there's workarounds to improve it's operation but I'm not willing to deal with that and still have a half assed water heater.

[JimD]

Have I got the info for you. I swapped out my 2017 Girard tankless for a Suburban 6 gallon and couldn't be happier. I added the 120 volt capability which turns out to make me even happier.

Go to the following link for my full swap information.

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...ter-73569.html

[CWatts7303]

I received my suburban and took out the Girard, could you tell me which wire you used? I’m assuming the orange wire coming out of a junction box, there are four wires. A yellow, two white and an orange.

[JimD]

I installed a new control panel that included switches for both propane and 120 volt operation and ran new wires from that panel to the water heater. The wires from the tankless control panel were not used.

Depending on what model water heater you got, you most likely need a ground wire and a switched 12 volt wire. There is also a wire connection from the water heater that feeds a light on the control panel. That light is used to give a flame status. When first turned on in propane mode the light come on indicating the flame is currently not lit. When the flame is finally lit, the light goes off. Nice feature to let you know if there is a problem.