Everyone likes a stream of steady hot water when they shower, so why is mine cycling between hot and cold?!?
A little history.
When we upgraded our RV in 2015 it came standard with a tankless hot water heater. I was excited because I had always heard that means unlimited hot water! We often had our kids or another couple with us so those few gallon tank water heaters can run out fairly quickly. But I was disappointed because this tankless setup never seemed to work like I thought it should. I would try to use the cold faucet to get the right temperature (like I do at home or in the previous RV) but then I would get a blast of cold water. Turn the cold down and a got a blast of hot. Try just a little cold and it would cycle. I read the manuals, they said I needed “adequate pressure” but some campgrounds just didn’t seem to deliver. I adjusted the temperature setting (mine is right next to the bathroom sink) but nothing seemed to “fix” the temperature cycling. I found myself blaming the source… not enough pressure or flow… and often used the campground showers instead.
Along comes COVID
When COVID hit I lost my confidence in using the campground facilities and wanted to see if I could solve my water temperature problem. Determined to figure out if my unit needed repaired or if I was doing something wrong I turned to the web to see if I could learn more. I found many articles but they all said the same thing, you need constant pressure and high flow. Not enough flow and the unit will cycle off. So it sounded like adding cold water to the shower flow was robbing to much flow from the heater that it would cycle off. Then I finally found a comment where a fellow camper said “you only turn on the hot faucet”. AHAH… it finally made sense. Armed with that information and reading between the lines I finally understood how to get a hot shower every time.
One of the things that annoyed me was that I assumed if I was pulling off of the fresh water tank the pump should be providing enough pressure, otherwise, why design the unit with a tankless heater. So I focused on that to get rid of the shore water pressure variable. And it was just that easy. All this time I would have the water temp set high enough to wash dishes which required me to turn on the cold shower faucet to try to achieve the right temperature.
Only use the shower’s Hot Faucet
But now I know – You just turn on the hot shower faucet and dial the water temperature setting down (or up) to the temp you want for the shower. It is located just right that I can have one hand in the shower and reach the temperature setting with the other. I did figure out that once the temperature feels right on my hand I stick my arm in a little further to check, and then end up increasing the temperature “just a little more” before I get in.
Can you put a mark on the wall once you figure this out? No, you can’t, unless your supply water temperature is always the same. We camp up and down the east coast so temperatures vary. You will need to set it every time as the supply water temperature changes. And one last thing. Don’t forget to turn it up a bit when you are done so its ready to wash the dishes.
