A hot bath on a cold morning? Great. But a hot bath while traveling? Even greater. Your RV water heater might just be your golden treasure in your mobile home. You should be able to get the feeling of being at home while traveling on the road in the simplest way possible. Here’s what you need to know on your RV heater.
The Basics
What’s installed in your mobile home is what should be a propane gas appliance. The usual water heater installed in RV’s features a 6-gallon tank. Larger mobile homes might have 10-gallon units.
Your RV heater has two power options, it may either function with gas or with a 120 volts AC. All water heaters in recreational vehicles are equipped with a pressure relief valve that is designed to open if the temperature of the water within reaches 210 degrees F or if excessive pressure builds up.
Your RV heater tank vary in size, common heater tanks hold about 6-gallons or 10-gallons, normally you might also see some tanks that hold up 4-gallons only.
To avoid misconception, remember that most RV heaters are particularly smaller to water heaters for home usage. A small home heater is usually at 40 to 50 gallons. You have to keep in mind that using your water wisely is of top priority. You don’t want to end up bathing cold water in a chilly morning.
Fueling your RV Heater
You have 3 options in powering up your heating treasure. The three primary fuel options for your RV heater are Electricity and Liquid Propane (LP), Motoraid and Liquid Propane (LP).
Your RV heater might have the option to alternatively have two options for fuel and that would be using electricity and liquid propane. Some RV heaters are designed to operate on both fuel options. By being flexible enough to have such an option, a consumer would be satisfied both ways.
Motoraid, your RV’s engine cooling system uses such fuel to heat the water. The water circulates through the tubes that are inside your water heater and as your engine is running, water is circulated through these tubes and then your water starts to heat up, this uses up the waste heat from the engine and uses that energy to heat your water.
Liquid Propane, traditional RV water heaters only use Liquid Propane to fuel up their engine and do the heating.
Your heater’s modes
Now that you know about your heater’s fuel options which are still related to its modes there still some things that you need to know about them. Remember, not all are applicable to your RV heater, it would be a good choice to invest on something that you ought to remember well in the near future such as its capacity and its features.
Manual Pilot Light, this mode is considered to be the most basic model. It uses a pilot light that is usually manually lit.
Direct Spark Ignition (DSI), while having a mode that is of the basic model, this one is considered to be the most common RV water heater. While having no pilot light, the gas mode thermostat sends a signal to the heater control circuit board that then opens the gas valve.
Your Maintenance and Troubleshooting
While using your RV heater, it requires only minimal maintenance. Which is a good thing for people who don’t want to go all out fixing their heater in a day.
If your RV heater supports Electric mode it is usually maintenance free. While using LP gas your heater would likely need its burner tube cleaned annually. Thus removing the unnecessary things inside the tube. These things would include rust, spider webs or anything that’s clogging your tubes.
While people are normally too confused or are just plain stubborn to take in small details, the most common problem for an RV Water Heater not being able to operate is because of a clogged gas supply tube. When there are things in gas supply tube make sure to get rid of them.
A vacuum cleaner nozzle on the tube is usually sufficient. However, when you store the RV for long periods you should drain the tank and, if the sub-freezing weather is expected, winterize the associated water lines. Fun tip, doing this in the Spring might be your best choice.
Whenever your RV heater is not in use remember to always keep the tank flushed. Always remember to drain the water inside your heater as not to cause you any inconvenience.
Winterizing the water lines, many water heaters are equipped with a bypass valve to keep anti-freeze in the water lines and out of the tank. If your water heater doesn’t have a bypass valve, kits can be installed that perform the same function. If you do fill your heater tank with anti-freeze, be sure to thoroughly flush the tank before refilling it for use.
Always do the proper getting to know the stage of a product so you won’t have problems with it in the future.