One of the single BEST things about an RV is the RV hot water heater? It is one of the FIRST and most critical upgrades from tent camping. The ability to take a hot shower.

First and foremost, ALL RV hot water heaters will heat the water using propane gas. Why? Because propane is one of the most efficient ways to heat water.

That being said, Sheri and I had a dual mode (propane gas and 120 VAC aka shore power) hot water heater in our Open Range 399BHS. That seems silly, but by using shore power we didn’t have to go out and buy propane. And in many cases, you are not charged for shore power. That isn’t true in Texas in the summer, but many places it is true.

There are quite a few small and subtle options when ordering RV Hot Water Heaters and I’ll list the here as I think of them:

• Water heating method
  • How does an RV hot water heater heat water?
  • All should use propane as the “base level” water heating method
  • Some might use shore power.
    • Shore power for hot water is AWESOME
    • Why? Because using shore power for hot water means you don’t have to swap out propane tanks as often.
• Igniting method
  • Pilot light. Simple, cheap and effective. Sheri and I have this type of RV hot water heater in one of our smaller RVs we have owned.
    • Pros are
      • simplicity
      • you could heat water on a dead battery with a pilot light
      • However with a dead battery you can’t pump water. No water pressure means no shower.
    • Cons are that you sometimes have to light the STUBBORN pilot light at the most inconvenient or cold times.
  • DC igniter
    • This type of RV hot water heater will ignite the gas with a spark from your DC power. This is really nice because you can turn it on and off from inside the RV. (see cons on pilot light).
    • Why would you ever want to turn off the hot water heater? Well – it does save propane gas. Even thought the hot water heaters are pretty efficient for heating water, you might extend the life of a bottle of propane substantially by turning the hot water heater off.
    • Sheri and I used to only turn our hot water heater on for morning or evening showers. We would wait the 15 minutes for the water to heat, take a shower, and turn it back off again. We’re silly that way.

Atwood Information Page for Tank Hot Water Heaters ( Atwood was purchased by Dometic and is now Dometic )

Suburban Information Page for Hot Water Heaters

Interesting conversion kit   to convert gas only hot water heaters to gas plus 120V . RV52 has not tried but this looks very useful and the Amazon ratings were good.

RV Hot Water Heater Owners Manuals

• Suburban RV Hot Water Heater Service Manual circa 1996
• Suburban RV Hot Water Heater SW6D SW6DE SW6DM SW6DEM Installation and Users Manual
• Atwood LP GAS RV Hot Water Heater Users Manual and more 2007
• Atwood LP Gas RV Hot Water Heater XT G9 GE9 GEH9 G18 GE18 GEH18 Users Manual

Note from RV52 : Your Atwood hot water heater does not need an Anode Rod. Don’t do it. You are going to see lots of baloney about anode rods in RV hot water heaters. Just read the manual that is all I have to say. Also, you’ll see Anode Rods for sale that even fit the Atwoods. But Atwood tells you to NOT do it.

More information on the whole RV Hot Water Heater Anode discussion

You’ve seen it everywhere. You’ve seen it on the youtube. You hear it from the dealers. Everyone is saying “Check and replace the Anodes in your hot water heater”.

It just seemed to me like such accepted wisdom that I personally accepted the wisdom – I never even questioned it. Not once. Never even really picked up the manual to my hot water heater.

I DID know I had an Atwood hot water heater.

• Atwood Hot Water heaters don’t need an Anode.
• You can’t find any reference about the idea in the Atwood manual.
• If you put an anode in an Atwood Hot Water heater it will WELD itself to the hot water heater, thereby causing you to buy a new hot water heater.
• Dealers and RV supply shops sell them recklessly – even though they are not needed.

So, like many things in the RV world – no one really knows anything – and lots of people have opinions that are simply “wisdom” which has been passed along with little testing. Remember – on the web – there are piles and piles of Chinese and Indian authors getting paid $5 an article to build up link and content farms to simply get Google Adsense clicks. You have to be very careful of your sources.

Unfortunately for all of us, you have to check – and you have to know your hot water heater – and you have to read the manual.

RV Hot Water Heater Replacement Parts