You may be thinking to yourself, “Why would people need portable water heaters?” Most RVs come with a water heater, either with a tank (generally Suburban or Dometic/Atwood) or tankless (like Truma or Girard). But there are many tent campers and car campers out there, and there are lots of rigs like self-converted vans, schoolies, …
The ability to have a nice hot shower in your RV is a real luxury and one we all appreciate, especially after a long hike, or a cold day, or even after a satisfying day of DIY or maintenance work. There are different ways to heat water in your RV, including the popular Suburban and …
RVs are like homes – they have a multitude of systems to tend to, such as plumbing and electrical systems. When something isn’t working properly, for example when there’s no hot water in your RV, the troubleshooting process begins. Sometimes we find that some part of the system has failed, but other times we find …
If your RV water heater stops working unexpectedly, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise. There’s nothing worse than hopping in the shower and discovering there’s no hot water! ???? There are some common reasons for water heater problems. We’ll tell you how to deal with each of them so you can be an …
RV manufacturers are pretty good at replicating the features of sticks-and-bricks houses in our homes on wheels. Everything from kitchen appliances to air conditioners have been incorporated into today’s RVs. It’s safe to say that the RV water heater has become a necessity. As RVs evolve, the water heater is one appliance that most campers …
Even though we’ve been on the road full-time for nearly 15 years, we never stop learning. Since it’s virtually impossible to know everything about every topic, the most valuable tool we keep on board is an open mind. Last year we added a great new piece of (inexpensive) gear to our DIY utility belt: a …
Over the years we’ve shared quite a bit about maintaining an RV water heater. Last year we even performed an internal inspection using a borescope. But this is the first time we’ve had to share a repair project. Actually, “project” seems like too strong a word for what’s involved in replacing the thermostat on the …
Should any of us be surprised that conventional wisdom is so often wrong? We’ve all been taught that a flush wand is all we need to clean our RV’s water heater. Water runs clear = clean. NOT! We use a video borescope to take you inside our heater to show the real story. Step by step, we’ll demonstrate our …
Besides telling you about our newbie mistake, we have an LED contest winner to announce! Someone just won $250 worth of LED lights. Was it you? Scroll down to the bottom of this post to find out. ;-) On April 11, 2014, we marked 11 years of full-time RVing. After all this time, we’ve learned …
If you’ve seen our previous 2 videos about flushing RV water heaters, you’ll know we’ve talked quite a bit about anode rods. Generally, Suburban brand water heaters require an anode rod to protect the steel tank from corrosion. The rod is made of a metal that sacrifices itself, so that corrosion will attack the rod …
We demonstrate how to thoroughly flush and clean an RV water heater. UPDATE – April 3, 2012: Regarding our use of an after-market anode rod. There are questions about which metal to use – magnesium, aluminum or zinc. As we mentioned in the video, we only chose this particular anode due to the extreme …