No hot water after 6 minute shower

[ajg617]

It's more about flow rate. Best way to determine a close approximation of your flow rate is throw a meter on your city connection and turn the shower on, count how many gallons are used in 60 seconds. I was surprised. Pressure is nice to have, too.

Actually flow rate is also governed by the flow restrictions in the shower sprayer combined with the input pressure. Our shower stream 'curves' down due to the flow restrictor. If the restrictor is removed you'll run out of hot 12 gal pretty quickly with constant flow - Navy showers since I installed a 10gal tank in our live aboard boat.

[Timmer]

We have a 6 gallon and we get 2-3 showers without running out of hot water. One thing to note is we turn off the water using the button on the shower head between shower actions. Wet your hair, turn off the water while you shampoo, turn on the water to rinse, etc.

[llr2800]

Check the bypass valve: Some RV hot water systems have a bypass valve that allows you to bypass the hot water tank when you're not using it. Make sure the bypass valve is closed when you want to use the hot water tank.

If you are not sure how to use these valves take a picture of the valves on the back of the water heater and post it. There is probably an access panel on the inside that will need to be removed for access.

[Anna2223]

Correct. No temp control on a Suburban water heater.

Try this....

1. Turn the water off coming into your camper;
2. Turn you water heater off;
3. Open your bathroom faucet hot and cold taps (if single lever put in in the full on and middle position);
4. Open the low water point drains and when open, flip open the water heater blow-off valve (the brass valve at the top of the water heater) for about 5 seconds and then close it;
5. Turn off the low point drains;
6. Turn the water on again to your camper;
7. When the hissing and sputtering of air stops at your bathroom faucet shut the water off;
8. Turn the water heater on;
9. Wait a good 30 minutes for the water to re-heat before taking a shower.

All this assumes that somehow there is an air pocket the water heater (very unlikely) but it doesn't hurt to re-establish the water pocket.

TELL US THIS
Do you run the water constantly when you shower or do use the "Navy" method?

Want to know how much water you use when you shower?.....

• Time how many seconds it takes to fill a one gallon bucket at your normal rate of flow when showering (just run the shower hose into a container);
• Time how many seconds you let the water run when showering;
• You can now calculate your shower water consumption (minutes spent showering with water running = time running water in shower divided by time to fill one gallon container).

Hopefully some of this will help.

That’s gonna take me a while to figure out. (I’m not even sure I’m replying to these post correctly)
I don’t have a button to push for pause showering. The shower system is the black one that has the hand held spray plus the rain shower head and the water coming out to hit your back. I don’t use all 3. I wouldnt have any hot water then. I just use the hand held spray and do a quick shower
It makes sense to me that at 123 degrees isn’t hot enough to keep it hot when cold water comes in
But I can’t get suburban to look pass the quick check they do or grand design to look further into it
What’s the point of a warranty if they won’t look pass the obvious solution
Feeling very frustrated
I don’t want to forget to thank everyone for helping.

[Anna2223]

I don’t have that button. Can’t figure how to put a pic of shower here.
new stuff is hard for me to figure out. Lol

[llr2800]

I don’t have that button. Can’t figure how to put a pic of shower here.
new stuff is hard for me to figure out. Lol

If you are replying to the shower bypass valve it would be on the back of the water heater, there will be a panel to remove or a door to open to access this. If you winterize / de-winterize your self you will need to use these valves for that.

[Anna2223]

I have checked a few things No leaks Outside shower all closed. Temp is 123
pressure is good coming out of shower Don’t know about bypass valve. I have the nauticus system if that what you mean and all the valves are in the proper place Using both propane and electric.

We live full time and valves are in proper place.

[Hoopy Frood]

Do you have a pressure regulator on your incoming water supply? If so, is it adjustable? "pressure is good coming out of the shower" is a little too general to be descriptive. What is "good" to someone will be poor to someone else. I think the idea of checking the water flow is an excellent idea. With the lower temperature and high flow, you would run out of water pretty quickly. IMO anyway.

Did you buy the trailer new? Is there a chance that a different shower head has been installed, one with a higher flow rate?

[cfowler55]

Possibly I missed this in the thread , but where are you located? Ground water temp makes a big difference in how long we can shower before losing the hot water.
Charlie

[LanerC]

I don’t have that button. Can’t figure how to put a pic of shower here.
new stuff is hard for me to figure out. Lol

If you use the reply with quote button then you are replying to just that message. it helps keeping things straight.