Hot water heater

[silverloaf]

Don't know if it'll help at this point, just saw this thread. On my 83 Avion the water heater is actually out of a 70s Winnebago. Same kind that's was originally in the Avion, it'd gone missing before I got it.
Anyway when I skirted the thing up for winter living the water heater was an issue. The things are pretty much exposed to the outside, not a good thing when the temp drops to -40! Initially I was going to replace it with something electric until someone on a Facebook group mentioned the Hott Rod electric conversation kit. For 85 bucks I figured I'd try it. It's just a heating element that goes in the drain plug and a thermostat you stick on the tank, takes 400 watts of power.
Thing works great! Actually have more water than I did on propane and I was able to insulate over the water heater on the outside. Been about a year since I put it in.
An on-demand unit might be nicer if you take long showers or have other people using the shower in the morning. But I can keep the water going, turned down a bit, the whole time I'm in there and not run out of hot water. Always had to turn the water on and off before, I hated that.

If memory serves me correctly, the Atwood on-demand water heater requires minimum and constant flow of 1.5 gallons per minute. Under these conditions, there will be an un-interrupted flow to the faucet being run. However, most RV fixtures are low flow. The flow of hot water will be either inconsistent or no hot water at all.
Our bathroom is adjacent to the tank.The faucet head had 3 sediment screens in the aerator. I couldn’t get hot water. After removing 2 screens, I had tons of hot water.
In fact, the only way to get hot water to the kitchen sink an shower was to crack open the bathroom faucet.
It is clear the kitchen and bathtub faucets are well below the volume to energize the water heater.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to experiment with some different techniques to get consistent hot water to each location. It may involve opening up the offending faucet. I hav learned it is prudent to insulate the hot water lines. The heat rejection from the water lines to the floor is almost instantaneous.

I’m sure I’ll get this figured out, as long as my expectations don’t mimic the performance expected within the walls of a house.