GIRARD Tankless RV Water Heater, 12V Power, 42,000 BTUs, Quiet Operation, Onboard Microprocessor, Digital User Control Panel, Freeze Protection, Easy Installation - 2022107534

Top of the line RV water heater.

The monitor allows for simple adjustment of the water temperature. It is a great feature. The monitor also has a red LED and a green LED. Nowhere in the instructions does it explain the meaning of the LED’s. Apparently, the red LED means that the unit is armed. I still don’t know what the green LED means but I can switch it off and on. It doesn’t seem to matter.I bought this to replace a 6-gal tank unit which froze and burst. When I opened the Girard's white control box cover to inspect the circuit board, I found that the blower wiring harness was pinched during assembly between the box housing and the box cover possibly damaging the wires: just another example of lousy workmanship, poor supervision, and lack of quality control. To be fair, I find poor workmanship and manufacturing defects everywhere I go. Winterization is a problem because there is no way to drain the unit without draining the water system and blowing air through it. Otherwise, you need to maintain LP gas and 12V DC power to the unit to protect itself, or antifreeze the whole water system. This is important because if you drive/pull your RV through freezing temperatures, the heat exchanger could freeze because it is exposed to the outside air through the door vent and your propane needs to be shut off when you are on the road. I don’t like that because the rest of my water system is insulated and my fresh water tank is electrically heated to prevent freezing so that I can camp in freezing weather with liquid water, even without propane, and I wouldn’t have to drain the whole water system (and blow air through it) every time I drive through the mountains or spend a cold night in the desert without propane on. How is one going to blow air through the heat exchanger when on the road? Hot water tanks, by comparison, are insulated and come with a drain plug. This on-demand unit needs a drain valve so I tapped my water line at the lowest point next to the Girard unit and installed my own drain just for the hot water circuit. I may have voided the warranty by doing this but the warranty does not cover damage due to freezing. See attached photos.UPDATEThis water heater works great and has the best features. I found a defective pipe weld but I still think this product merits 4.625 stars. To be fair, I find defects in EVERYTHING!I sprung a leak in the water inlet pipe that the pressure relief valve is connected to. It happened when the temperature went down to 32°F for about an hour and I did not have 12Vdc power applied. The pipe that was damaged is only a $29-dollar part but a lot of work to replace.I highly recommend checking the pressure relief valve adjustment after installing the unit. This is not covered in the manual. It’s the thing that looks like a splined shaft in the bottom right.To adjust the pressure relief valve, turn the inside (core) of the relief valve with a flat screwdriver until water comes out with water pressure applied, then turn the core until the water stops.When I installed my unit, I also installed a drain valve in the lowest part of my hot water system so I would not have trouble winterizing in storage but I eventually discovered that I could have accomplished the same thing by removing the pressure relief valve assy by unscrewing it from the joint on the water inlet pipe. You can accomplish this by turning the splined shaft counterclockwise until it separates from the water inlet pipe. You will still need to blow some air through the system to get all of the water out.For all-season use, I think this is better than using an tank-type unit.

My wife and I are Full Time RV'rs. We roll in a 2016 Coachman Pursuit 32 ft Class A. Our hot water tank split and was totally trashed. After lots of research we opted to go tankless. Again, lots of research brought me to this unit. I have to tell you the install was very easy. If you have just basic skills and knowledge you can install this yourself. Make sure you have a roll of Butyl Tape and for us a small junction box. After removing the old unit, we installed a small junction box to connect the 12 volt power right off the furnace that sits next to the water heater. I also replaced both water line connections with new ones. I opted to use the steel mesh lines like the ones used on washer machines. Gas line connection was easy peasy. The only thing you don't get is the door cover. You can not use the old door cover because the exhaust system is completely different. The one that is recommended with this unit fit perfect. The gas usage is 100% more efficient than before. As you know throughout any 24 hour period the gas would light off and reheat the water in the tank as the temp dropped. And if you really needed to use it for say a shower, you need to shower fast. 6 Gallons does not last long. With tankless. The gas fires off ONLY when you open a hot water valve. After about 15 to 20 seconds you have wonderful hot water. This unit claims that it can run continuous for almost 2 hours. Have not tried it but our showers are now wonderful. The control panel is simple. It is preset at 115 degrees. you can change it up or down at your pleasure. We have found 115 is perfect for us. So far this has been a great unit and the replacement cost for my original unit, 6 gallons, gas fired.....was 811.00. So this purchase with the door, saved me 300,00. Its a great unit and we love it!!!!

Installed 1 year now and I can’t wait till it breaks so I can replace it with hopefully something that works right. It works just enough to keep me from ripping it out of my RV and throwing it in the dumpster for the amount of money I paid for it.Here’s the problem, it can’t keep up with any sensible amount of water flow. I set it at 120F, I bought an expensive commercial grade water regulator after the cheap ones didn’t help. I’ve adjusted the built in regulator and it still can’t keep up. At first it could keep up with the kitchen sink, but never the shower. After 1 year of use it can’t even keep up with the kitchen sink now.I have to turn the hot flow on the shower so far down that hot water only trickles out for it to reach anything over 90 degrees. Turn the water flow a hair up and it will not heat anywhere near my 120 degree set point. Turn the water down to a trickle and I can walk it up to about 118 degrees but if I turn the water pressure down any lower its built in sensor doesn’t see the water flow and it shuts down completely. The water flow is such a balancing act that what tends to happen is when my hair and face are covered in shampoo it thinks there’s no water flow and it shuts down, instantly blasting you with freezing cold water. If I increase the hot water flow it can’t heat the water fast enough.It almost works like a dream, it just needs a few tweeks in its design to be perfect, but as it is its worthless and will anger even the most passive person trying to use it to take a hot shower. They just need to slightly increase the size or capacity of the heat exchanger portion so it can keep up with normal water flow and pressure. They also need to make the water flow sensor a little more sensitive to lower water flow so when you do have to turn it down lower to keep up it doesn’t just shut off. I can not believe they didn’t see these obvious problems with it during the testing phase prior to putting into production and on the market, they were so close to nailing it.