Recirculating tankless water heater

[GallopingGrandpa]

Very disappointed in the performance of my tankless water heater. Too long to get hot water which wastes water while boondocking. Does anyone know anything about recirculating on my Hideout 22MLS.

[RickV]

I don't know what model you have but, on our you have to turn the thermostat up to around 120 degrees before the recirculating feature works. The drawback to this is you use more propane. It is like a Catch 22.

[notanlines]

We have circulating hot water at home in the kitchen and the master bathroom. It is powered by a 1/16 HP motor located at the water heater. How does this work in your RV?

[Mikendebbie]

I have read here on the forum that Keystone installed the Suburban IW60RL recirculating on-demand water heaters in Alpine fifth wheels for a short time maybe 2020-2021 ??? (sorry but I don’t know the exact time frame).

On Keystone’s YouTube channel (Camp Better) they have a video posted Nov 2022 that states they are installing Girard GSWH-2 (42,000 btu) on-demand water heaters in the 2023 models. Girard is owned by Lippert. This unit is NOT a recirculating water heater. You would need to do your own research to find an external 12 volt recirc pump to add to your system. Most recirc pumps I saw were 120 volt.

I watched a few videos and read some reviews on the Girard and it seems to be a pretty good unit. Do a search for Girard water heater videos and you will find lots of them. You might get some tips on how to maximize the use of your water heater.

You might also consider selling your Girard and replace it with an “old school” standard water heater like they used in RVs for the past 50 years. The “standard” water heaters tend to cost $500-$600…about the same for on-demand RV water heaters. However - even if you swap water heaters, the physical distance from your heater to the faucet is still the same, so the amount of “wasted” water while you wait for hot water will be close to the same. I assume the “order of the day” while boondocking is short and quick Navy showers to conserve water, so you can’t really enjoy the benefits of the Girard.

I have a Suburban IW60 (60,000 btu) non-recirculating water heater in my RV and we do not boondock. I don’t miss 50 years of Navy showers in my previous RVs with standard water heaters.

[GallopingGrandpa]

Thanks guys. I guess I should have mentioned that my Hideout is a 2023. My tankless is a Girard.

[GallopingGrandpa]

Does anyone have experience with retrofitting their RV with a recirculating pump and bridge valve?

[Mikendebbie]

I googled “diagram for recirculating hot water”. Lots of stuff comes up for residential applications. The diagram below is fairly typical for what I found. This shows the recirc pump located at the farthest fixture from the heater, but the pump can also be mounted near the heater. I suspect the concept for an RV would be the same. It looks like you will need a cold return line To create a loop. I am not a plumber and I know nothing more than what I learned researching this topic for the past 30 minutes. If you plan to recirculate hot water in your unit - I think your Girard water heater will sense flow continuously and will fire the propane burners continuously. Seems like that will use far more propane than you currently use.

[GallopingGrandpa]

Guess we'll have to work on our "navy shower" technique. Thanks to everyone for the help.

[mr. parker]

There is another option. I think it's called the shower miser, or something like that. It is a diverter valve installed in the shower that will direct the water from the hot line back to the fresh tank until you have hot water at the shower valve. Thus reusing the normally wasted water waiting for hot to show up. I would expect it to work well in a system like yours.