Furrion Tankless Water Heater - Cold Weather

[dfleming103]

I received a response from Grand Design. Yes the Furrion tankless water heater "Generation 2" has freeze protection. They cannot warranty upgrade the "Generation 1" tankless water heater as they only receive complete units. If you are interested in upgrading your water heater please refer to the above part numbers and call Lippert.

Regards,

Does anyone have any thoughts as to how this gen 2 controller works?

[Basshunter]

Per Furrion: New Board has a built in sensor that automatically runs the WH for a couple minutes allowing hot water to run through it below 39deg.

[CaptainJustice]

Yep I understand. There is a range of wattages and sizes for those pads. It would only need to be 25 to 50 watts from my educated guess. Wouldn't take much to raise the inside of the water heater 10-15 degrees. There's room on the right side and behind the stiffening plate on the front.

I am curious as to exactly where one would place a 12v heating pad/tape. Do the tank tubes stay pressured with water when not in use? Place on the body? On the mixing tank? I figured out I can protect the tankless while stationary but while towing is the problem I see.

[Dadeo6472]

After reading this entire thread, I still don't understand what people do to keep the water heaters from freezing while traveling in sub freezing temps. Our little Imagine XLS has an old school 6 gallon tank and I leave it on when traveling below freezing, and by below freezing I really mean down to and below 0F. REAL COLD. I've thought about draining it to save propane but have never done so. I keep the furnace on at about 55 as well. Its worked so far, but it seems like a waste of propane!

[dfleming103]

After reading this entire thread, I still don't understand what people do to keep the water heaters from freezing while traveling in sub freezing temps. Our little Imagine XLS has an old school 6 gallon tank and I leave it on when traveling below freezing, and by below freezing I really mean down to and below 0F. REAL COLD. I've thought about draining it to save propane but have never done so. I keep the furnace on at about 55 as well. Its worked so far, but it seems like a waste of propane!

I think those folks that have the old school 6 gal tank heaters won't have any issues with traveling and freezing weather. I never did. yes it requires some propane to keep the hot water and the furnace going, but better than trying to winterize everything in between stops. I really miss my old school 6 gal heater. For those of us that have the tankless heater, the earlier mod with the heating pad and temp switch works great. I've only tested it travelling down to 25 degrees, but I had no issues with it dropping below freezing with that mod. If it was much colder when I was travelling, I would probably bypass the hot water tank with the nautilus and drain the tankless system. Just to be on the safe side at least the first time. I have min/max temp probes in the tankless area, and would judge future direction based on what I found when I stopped. I understand there is a fix now from furrion, seems that should be an item grand design offers it's customers at no charge that got stuck with the old style tankless system. The all season claims that were made when I bought my rig are not true with the old style. My dealer never once during PDI told me anything about having to winterize it at 39 degrees, and did say the rig was designed to be comfortable down to zero degrees. Maybe his comfort level doesn't need hot water?
C'mon Grand Design, step up to the plate and fix this issue.

[RPAspey]

I am curious as to exactly where one would place a 12v heating pad/tape. Do the tank tubes stay pressured with water when not in use? Place on the body? On the mixing tank? I figured out I can protect the tankless while stationary but while towing is the problem I see.

The pad goes under the "guts" of the water heater. I leave the power switch on at the heater. Temp control inside the camper is off. I left everything full of water, ready to go. When towing, there pads keep it from freezing. Keep in mind that I insulated the cover to the water heater. Our last trip : packed up at 25° traveled for 4.5 hours, set up camp 30°. No issues.

[Steveb]

Update on 12V pads and bilge heater. My 260RD has been stored at my house and winterized. I have it plugged to shore power so the bilge heater can run when the temps drop and have one 12V heating pad under the tankless water heater also connected to a thermostat. Last night we experienced the coldest temps of the season, 13 degrees and gusting winds up to 50 mph. I have multiple electronic thermometers placed throughout the 5th wheel. The lowest temp next to the front door on the countertop was 32 degrees, lowest temp in the under storage area at the Nautilus was 44 degrees. Lowest temp directly behind the vent on the exterior water heater door was 21 degrees and the lowest temp recorded 2 inches behind the the exterior water heater door where the drain valve and filter are located was 37 degrees. I feel if I had the trailer heater running, the lowest temp in the water heater compartment could be higher.

[WeGoode]

Attachment 41344Attachment 41345Attachment 41346Attachment 41347

There are many good ideas here on how to make the Furrion tankless HWH survive in temperatures below 39 degrees. But it seems that basically Grand Design has left it up to each customer to design, research and build their own fix for a problem that shouldn't be the owners responsibilty to fix. For those that may be interested, I've replaced the tankless with a 6gal Suburban HWH that heats water with either the electric heating element, propane or both. I feel that's what Grand Design should have installed in the first place. The 6 gal install was an easy replacement to make and the cost was less than $600.00 all in. Now I can sleep better on those cold nights and have the option to use the campground electric instead of my propane. The water heats to 137 degrees so mixing it with the cold water should make longer showers possible.

Just my 2 cents.

Anybody wanna buy a Furrion tankless HWH used only 7 days?

Bill

Bill, I'm glad to see someone who has done a replacement! I've been combing these forums for days looking for something like this. Lots of discussion about the problem, and a few "sort-of" solutions keeping the tankless in place, but I don't want a tankless even if it doesn't freeze. So - we just bought a new Reflection 297RSTS (2023), but we insisted they change out the tankless for a tank heater. They agreed, albeit for an exorbitant price. We asked for a Dometic/Atwood model, 'cuz that's what we're used to and you don't have to mess with anode rods (the tank is aluminum, I think). Anyway, I have two questions for you:
1. Did you have any problem fitting the Suburban into the space that the Furrion came out of?
2. How did you pipe the propane to the new heater? Any problems?
3. The tech who is going to do the work says he will try to run the control wires to the place where the existing control is now (which will be removed, of course). Is that what you did? Any problems or issues getting a dedicated 120v circuit to the unit?
Even though I'm not doing the work myself, I'd like to know what to expect and what to ask for. Thanks for your post, and for any help you can provide.

[HowardC]

Did the Suburban fit the existing opening for the Furrion ok? I am planning the same upgrade.

[Soundsailor]

Did the Suburban fit the existing opening for the Furrion ok? I am planning the same upgrade.

Hello Howard, looks like this is your first post, welcome to the forum. I can't answer your question although @JustDucky did report that the wiring was the hardest part.