Truma AquaGo water heater question

[Fargoman]

As mentioned in my post last night, my wife and I are researching which options to get when ordering a Legacy 2 (thanks to those who replied to my questions). I forgot to ask about the advantages or disadvantages of the Truma AquaGo on-demand water heater.

[John E Davies]

Take a look here, there have been lots of discussions.

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/3930-truma-hot-water-heater-questions/?tab=comments#comment-38221

I remain steadfastly in the KISS camp. Keep It Simple Stupid. The standard unit is primitive and inefficient, but VERY easy to maintain by the owner, and cheap to replace it if fails. It is also fairly loud if you are sleeping on top of it, I turn it off at night, then switch it on in the morning when I start to wake up, the switch is easy to reach from that bed without getting up, if your head is toward the galley.

OTOH, if you are plugged into city water and sewer often, you might love the endless hot water the Truma offers. For boondocking, not so much. Where and how do you plan to camp? That is the question....

,John Davies

Spokane WA

Edited November 22, 2020 by John E Davies

[Frank C]

We have the Truma.  Very happy with it.  But as John mentioned, it’s better suited for camping at full hookup campsites.  The point of the Truma is to be able to have more hot water for longer showers, etc.  so that means using more water and filling up the gray tank faster.   So the Truma makes sense at a full hookup site where you have a city water connection so you don’t have to worry about running out of fresh water, and you can empty the gray tank as often as needed.   No problems with ours as long as I remember to turn on the propane.  

Edited November 21, 2020 by FrankC

[Mike and Carol]

We’ve got the standard hot water tank.  As JD says, it’s simple and I’ll add reliable.  I’ve switched out the anode once in 5 years and replaced the on/off switch once (both easy to do and cheap).  When we have no shore power the propane works well.  Mike

[SeaDawg]

If you find that you camp more often with hookups, an instantaneous water heater is a direct swap out. Plus a new door.

For boondocking, heating water to a good temp in a standard water heater works fine. Then, turn it off.. if the shower gets cool, you've used too much water. 

Plus, with the standard heater,  you can avail yourself of free electric heating in campsites with hookups, and save propane. But, you'll need to replace the sacrificial anode more often if you use electricity,  I think. We replaced ours at 25 to 30 per cent. Better early than late.

 

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by SeaDawg

[BlueHighways]

With 10 days under our belt, I’ll give you a slightly different view.  I’ve had 3 standard water heaters and this is our first Truma.  We love it and wouldn’t go back to the standard.  We can get up from eating, turn on the truma and start washing dishes with immediate hot water.  When we are done, we turn it off.  I believe that is much more efficient than our other water heaters.  Then, after being off-grid, it’s nice to schedule full hookups for a night with a nice long shower.  
 

When we are in freezing weather, I plan on turning the bypass valve and dumping the truma which takes all of 90 seconds. No tools required. We did not get the 12v travel heater for that reason. 
 

Now, was it worth the extra $? For us, yes. 

Edited November 22, 2020 by BlueHighways

[Fritz]

On 11/21/2020 at 11:27 AM, John E Davies said:

I remain steadfastly in the KISS camp. Keep It Simple Stupid. The standard unit is primitive and inefficient, but VERY easy to maintain by the owner, and cheap to replace it if fails. It is also fairly loud if you are sleeping on top of it, I turn it off at night, then switch it on in the morning when I start to wake up, the switch is easy to reach from that bed without getting up, if your head is toward the galley.

I agree with this, but am leaning toward ordering the Truma unit anyway.  

It's not that we're interested in long, uninterrupted showers.  On the contrary, in our current camper we have a diesel-powered Espar hot water heater, and we generally use it to  simply fill a solar-shower bag at the closest faucet to the heater, and then move the bag to the shower.  This approach uses *much* less water than that which is needed to get the shower-water temperature set at the shower itself.  Less water from the freshwater tank, and less water in the gray tank. 

My current (but not firm) logic behind the Truma is that the Truma should heat water more quickly than the standard heater (thus using less LP), heat just the amount of water needed (which is typicallynot much), and be substantially lighter than the standard option (6 gallons that doesn't effectively add to the freshwater supply weighs about 50 lbs).  50 lbs here, 50 lbs there -- it adds up.  It's appealing to use 120V power to heat water, but we are often not plugged in to shore power.

I'm also hoping that while perhaps somewhat delicate, and Overland's experience notwithstanding, that the Truma will, in fact, be relatively reliable.  How many of you have had ongoing, unresolvable trouble with the Truma?

 

 

[Overland]

33 minutes ago, Fritz said:

I'm also hoping that while perhaps somewhat delicate, and Overland's experience notwithstanding, that the Truma will, in fact, be relatively reliable.  How many of you have had ongoing, unresolvable trouble with the Truma?

See my update linked below.  I think part of my problem was a circuit board issue that I believe was unique to the Comfort Plus model, and the rest was Oliver installation issues, which again, may have been related to it being the first of that model they installed.  It seems to be working great now, though of course only time will tell.

 

[Ray and Susan Huff]

On 11/21/2020 at 12:09 PM, SeaDawg said:

If you find that you camp more often with hookups, an instantaneous water heater is a direct swap out. Plus a new door.

For boondocking, heating water to a good temp in a standard water heater works fine. Then, turn it off.. if the shower gets cool, you've used too much water. 

Plus, with the standard heater,  you can avail yourself of free electric heating in campsites with hookups, and save propane. But, you'll need to replace the sacrificial anode more often if you use electricity,  I think. We replaced ours at 25 to 30 per cent. Better early than late.

 

 

Are you saying the anode only comes into play when the water heater is run on electric power?  

[Ray and Susan Huff]

21 hours ago, Overland said:

See my update linked below.  I think part of my problem was a circuit board issue that I believe was unique to the Comfort Plus model, and the rest was Oliver installation issues, which again, may have been related to it being the first of that model they installed.  It seems to be working great now, though of course only time will tell.

 

Is Oliver now installing the Comfort Plus Truma?  This is what we had in our Leisure Travel Van; never had a problem with it.  My concern, however, is that if the Truma requires service, under warranty, certified technicians are few and far between in the PNW.  Before choosing the Truma upgrade, first check on warranty service locations.

As some have stated, we like the simplicity and track record of the standard water heater.  Frequent or long showers are not on the agenda when we camp.  The few times I showered with the Truma, I did not notice a remarkable difference in the hot water supply; if anything, it fluctuated more and was harder to control the temperature at the shower head than it was when our RV had a standard tank water heater.

[Overland]

1 hour ago, Susan Huff said:

Is Oliver now installing the Comfort Plus Truma?

Not that I'm aware of.  You can check with the sales team to see for sure though.

[SeaDawg]

7 hours ago, Susan Huff said:

Are you saying the anode only comes into play when the water heater is run on electric power?  

No, it's mostly a chemistry thing. The anode is sacrificial,  dissolving instead of the steel tank rusting.

I  do think use of electricity may accelerate the dissolving of the anode. We never used the water heater on electricity,  and our anodes lasted a really long time. 

We have an instantaneous heater (not a truma) for the last three or four years. 

Edited November 26, 2020 by SeaDawg

[BackofBeyond]

I like our Truma, not absolutely sure its worth the added cost. Despite instructions - we only turn it on when needed. We don't leave it on otherwise. So n that respect, I can't see a much more power saving water heater than the Truma - other than my old solar water pouch shower.....