Water Heater run on batteries?

[Gliddenwoods]

Quick question. When not connected to shore power will the Dometic water heater operate off the lithuim batteries?

[jd1923]

22 hours ago, Gliddenwoods said:

Quick question. When not connected to shore power will the Dometic water heater operate off the lithuim batteries?

Yes, given you have a 3KW inverter wired to all circuits, including the hot water heater (HWH). If I remember correctly, OTT wires the 2KW Xantrex inverters to 110 outlets only, which includes the microwave, but not the fridge, A/C or the HWH.

Our 3KW Victron inverter is wired to all AC circuits, so I've done this a few times when we first get to a campsite when battery SOC% is high. If I remember correctly, it takes 20+ minutes to heat up the 6-gal Suburban. Ours SOC decreased 8% and based on our total 600Ah that comes to 48, call it 50Ah of power used. Don't run the HWH and A/C on inverter at the same time!

Then I suggest switching the HWH to run on LP. If it's windy out the HWH can cycle often. We turn ours off after dinner dishes and back on again in the morning. I do not like hearing it turn on while in bed (or wasting energy). When on LP you can certainly hear it fire up. When on 120VAC power it is much quieter, just a soft whine. 

I leave the outdoor AC switch always in the ON position and unless we want it on AC, we leave the breaker in the 120VAC power panel OFF. This keeps from having to go outside and take down the awkward panel to access the switch. And of course there is the interior switch to power the HWH on/off by LP gas.

Hope this helps. Best wishes, JD

Edited April 12 by jd1923
Changed first paragraph to include “NOT the fridge.”

[Steph and Dud B]

We have 2022 hull #1150 with the Platinum package, too. At pickup I was told the water heater was not connected to the inverter but, to be honest, I've never tried it. You could use the Lithionics app to find out. Running on inverter with cold water in the tank and the WH external switch off, watch the power draw in the Lithionics app when you turn the water heater on. If it jumps up dramatically, the WH has kicked on. If nothing happens, it's not connected to the inverter.

[Gliddenwoods]

Yes I also have the (2022) Platinum Package and never tried to run off the batteries. I planned to do the "test" you suggested when we returned home, but got lazy last night and posted the question. 

 

[Mike and Carol]

16 hours ago, Gliddenwoods said:

Quick question. When not connected to shore power will the Dometic water heater operate off the lithuim batteries?

Is your HWH a Dometic or Suburban?  I believe what I have is a Suburban hot water tank.  It is not connected to my inverter.  If we don’t have 110v we run on propane.  The outside switch is usually left on so that it kicks on when we hook up to electricity.  Mike

Edited April 11 by Mike and Carol

[Tideline77]

I’m still learning

 

but every time I turn on the outside water heater switch an$ then go inside and turn on the inside switch

it always starts on propane 

 

how does one go about getting the water heater running on shore power ?

😕

 

I’m dumb

[topgun2]

Tideline77 - 

Which water heater do you have?

Edited April 11 by topgun2

[Gliddenwoods]

1 hour ago, Mike and Carol said:

Is your HWH a Dometic or Suburban?  I believe what I have is a Suburban hot water tank.  It is not connected to my inverter.  If we don’t have 110v we run on propane.  The outside switch is usually left on so that it kicks on when we hook up to electricity.  Mike

Miss-print: Suburban.

Too bad not connected to inverter with endless southern New Mexico solar charging.

[Tideline77]

49 minutes ago, topgun2 said:

Tideline77 - 

Which water heater do you have?

Suburban 6 gallon

[jd1923]

2 hours ago, Tideline77 said:

I’m still learning but every time I turn on the outside water heater switch an$ then go inside and turn on the inside switch it always starts on propane. How does one go about getting the water heater running on shore power? 😕

The interior switch turns the HWH on LP only (located under the pantry, in our hull).

To turn the Suburban HWH on by 120VAC shore power, there is a switch outside. You have to open the exterior cover plate and you should find it in the lower left corner, a bit hidden by other hardware. See @Mike and Carol's post above. He leaves it on and when connected to shore power it would automatically turn on by electric power. When they boondock, then he would would flip the interior switch to power by LP.

Nobody has been able to explain on this forum how OTT wires the Lithium Platinum package which I assume includes the 3KW Xantrex inverter/charger. Is it wired to ALL 120VAC circuits? If so, and if you have the Suburban HWH with dual AC/LP capability, then YES, you can run it off inverter as I explained in my first post above.

[topgun2]

37 minutes ago, Tideline77 said:

Suburban 6 gallon

OK.

If you have the electric switch on the outside in the "on" position and then turn the water heater switch that is inside the Oliver to the "on" position AND you are plugged into shore power, you will have BOTH electric and propane "on" at the same time.  This will actually heat the water inside the Suburban faster than either of the two would heat it alone and it should not "harm" either heating system.

If you are not connected to shore power then having the outside electric switch in the "on" position will not do anything since unless you have modified the original 110 volt wiring inside the Oliver.

Bill

[Tideline77]

3 hours ago, jd1923 said:

The interior switch turns the HWH on LP only (located under the pantry, in our hull).

To turn the Suburban HWH on by 120VAC shore power, there is a switch outside. You have to open the exterior cover plate and you should find it in the lower left corner, a bit hidden by other hardware. See @Mike and Carol's post above. He leaves it on and when connected to shore power it would automatically turn on by electric power. When they boondock, then he would would flip the interior switch to power by LP.

Nobody has been able to explain on this forum how OTT wires the Lithium Platinum package which I assume includes the 3KW Xantrex inverter/charger. Is it wired to ALL 120VAC circuits? If so, and if you have the Suburban HWH with dual AC/LP capability, then YES, you can run it off inverter as I explained in my first post above.

Thank You

edit

Fantastic , we have the Xantrex 3000 inverter and the lithium pro 3x130 ah  , not sure if we can heat water on the inverter 

but we kinda always thought using the electric heating element if we had shore power and propane if we didn’t have shore power

 

had no idea that I was so smart that I had turned on the water heater using both gas and shore power and didn’t even know it !

 

appreciate the help !

Edited April 11 by Tideline77
Correction

[topgun2]

Tideline77 - 

If you really want to jump down the rabbit hole on water heaters then you might be interested in looking up an old mod that could save you some propane and water.  This is particularly helpful if you boondock a bunch or are really frugal.

Using a cheap meat thermometer that has a "remote" probe, you can insert the probe under the water heater insulation, feed the cable from the probe out of the cold air return where you would place the readout.  In my case, when the readout reads around 95 or 96 degrees it means that the water in the tank is actually about 104 degrees.  At that point I turn off the propane and only use the hot water valve in the shower (i.e. I don't even turn on the cold water because the hot water by itself is already at my desired showering temperature of 104 degrees).  This saves propane since the heater wouldn't normally shut off until the water reached about 140 degrees.  And, it saves water since I don't have to "fiddle" with the mixing the hot and cold to get the temp back down to the desired 104 degrees.

Bill