Recon Hot Water Heaters

[FrannyLee]

Does anyone have info about the original water heaters in the Revcons? It appears to heat the water while underway or by 110 electricity. My mechanic is trying to figure out where and how this is set up to get hot from the engine. 

I would like to install a tankless LPG and if possible keep both types. Never know where I may end up for days or weeks at a time. 

[Chris Ramey]

Hi Franny- Well, it looks like only ONE of my responses to you was posted TWICE for some reason. Sorry about that! Anyhoo- you're welcome. And also, in the other message I wrote that, in addition to a Marine water heater, you could also run an on-Demand unit, but that's IF you had enough space... HEY! it turns out that the UPS guy is just now delivering our new Marine Water Heater. I'll snap some pics of it and post em on my page ASAP. Cheers! Chris

[FrannyLee]

Thank you Chris. Long winded is good. :) I need all the help I can get in understanding the workings of this. Now I have something to show my mechanic when he comes over. 

I try to check in once a day now that I have someone to work on my rig .. he is very sharp but still this is old and different and I have no documentation for him to refer to. So I appreciate the fast responses. 

[Chris Ramey]

Hi Again Franny... I tried posting a reply to hopefully set you on he right track... I don't know if it "went through". Anyhow what you want as a replacement is gonna be a marine water heater. My wife and i have an old Dodge landau that originally had a Suburban propane water heater with a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is basically an extension of the big radiator that cools the rv's engine, or better yet, the marine style water heater has an inner tank that holds your fresh water, and then it has tubes in a second skin that circulate hot radiator water from the coaches motor in order to heat the tank that you'll eventually get your hot water from... The marine water heater also has an electric heating element INSIDE of the tank that holds the fresh water, it'll run off of 110 Shore Power and also if you run your GenSet. Phewwww. Sorry to be so long-winded! Anyhow, I ended up buying a Whale-Seaward S1100 to replace the ancient Suburban with. The water heater's heat exchanger is gonna have 2 barbs on the back of the cabinet. One sends water from your Rv's radiator in, the other sends it back. If there are no Y valves or fittings there now, that means someone in the past has just eliminated them to bypass the heat exchanger feature of the original water heater. All of that is available, and if you need a little visual help, ask a boat mechanic to show you how the setup works. Oh, by the way... I think Suburban still makes a water heater that works on electric, heat exchange AND propane, but they're about a million dollars. We got our Whale Seward S1100 by searching the Google shopping thing, and ended up paying like $280 for it, free ship. CHEERS!

Chris in Columbus

[Chris Ramey]

Hi Again Franny... I tried posting a reply to hopefully set you on he right track... I don't know if it "went through". Anyhow what you want as a replacement is gonna be a marine water heater. My wife and i have an old Dodge landau that originally had a Suburban propane water heater with a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is basically an extension of the big radiator that cools the rv's engine, or better yet, the marine style water heater has an inner tank that holds your fresh water, and then it has tubes in a second skin that circulate hot radiator water from the coaches motor in order to heat the tank that you'll eventually get your hot water from... The marine water heater also has an electric heating element INSIDE of the tank that holds the fresh water, it'll run off of 110 Shore Power and also if you run your GenSet. Phewwww. Sorry to be so long-winded! Anyhow, I ended up buying a Whale-Seaward S1100 to replace the ancient Suburban with. The water heater's heat exchanger is gonna have 2 barbs on the back of the cabinet. One sends water from your Rv's radiator in, the other sends it back. If there are no Y valves or fittings there now, that means someone in the past has just eliminated them to bypass the heat exchanger feature of the original water heater. All of that is available, and if you need a little visual help, ask a boat mechanic to show you how the setup works. Oh, by the way... I think Suburban still makes a water heater that works on electric, heat exchange AND propane, but they're about a million dollars. We got our Whale Seward S1100 by searching the Google shopping thing, and ended up paying like $280 for it, free ship. CHEERS!

Chris in Columbus