Thor Forums

[TurnerFam]

we had a similar situation, though at our NC cabin, where I installed a shower in the former 1/2 bath... the original 'water heater' was a small simple 'on demand' unit, but was, for some unknown reason, not currently plumbed into the water line(?)...strange.

O.k., so I'll hook it back up, and use it as the main water heating for both the sink and the new shower, since this would be 'unlimited' hot water, and only used by our son once each morning. I got the shower installed, ran new pex for the water lines, and turned on the water...

Now I know why the unit had been removed from the 'plumbing'...

I got a 'shower' of water from the water heater! I removed the unit, and found that it had not been winterized and had experienced a 'split' in one of it's main copper internal lines, which was not easily 'seen', even with my previous visual inspection.


So, in my 'can do' attitude, I ordered a replacement unit, thinking that this would easily replace the other and we'd have 'immediate' hot water. I received it in a few days, and installed it in place of the original. I turned on the water, and 'voila!', I had cold water!!

Seriously, though, I realized quickly that I would need to adjust the water flow to get the 'red light' to come on, indicating that the heating element was operational. Fortunately, I had installed a ball valve in the incoming water line, so I could accomplish this, and even cut off the water later, if needed. I could not, though, ever get the sink, by itself, to trigger the flow trigger, though I COULD get the shower to trigger it. Interestingly, too, if I had the shower trigger it on first, even after cutting off the shower, I could then get the sink to trigger it. Go figure.

What I then realized, though, was that the heated water from this smaller unit would NOT be hot enough to make for a 'hot' shower, especially if you combined any 'cold' water with it, as most of us do when showering. But, the hot water, by itself, did not have enough 'flow' to make for a good shower, and adding any extra 'flow' from the cold side only made the 'hot shower' into a 'luke warm' shower....not good.

So, like mentioned on this forum, I decided to install a SECOND water heater, but not another 'on demand' unit, but a 'tank' unit, though only a smaller one, for a single shower. I found the 4 gallon model online, a Bosch brand, just like my on demand unit, which is also small enough to place in a closet next to the shower, but not large enough to take up too much room - it's also easily plumbed, and comes with it's own 120v 20amp extension cord that simply plugs into a nearly outlet.

Interestingly, I decided to plumb this new 'tank' water heater into the COLD line side of the shower, bypassing the sink all together, as the sink already had access to hot water from the other unit. I decided to do this because, after all, who really needs COLD water for a shower?

So, in the end, the TANK water heater actually makes the HOT water(and it's HOT, too!), and the TANKLESS water heater makes 'luke warm' water, though 'endless'!, to allow for the temperature control - and it works just fine.


So, who needs cold water in the shower anyway!! Nice.


(o.k., so this wasn't about my RV or Motorhome, but you get the same idea!)