Running Out of Hot Water

Hey Guys,
New to the forum and to the wildcat and need some advice. My wife and I just got back from our first trip with the Wildcat and everything went great except for my wife running out of hot water first thing in the morning. The hot water had not been used before use in the shower and it only stayed hot for about 3 minutes after turning it on. Our cat is equipped with a 6 gallon water heater. I have always camped with my mom and dad in a jayco with a 10 gallon water heater but never had any problems of running out of water. Do you guys have any suggestions or advice. I thought about installing an electric tankless water heater in the cat to keep water hot. Thanks for the help.

to the forum. I am not sure about te water heater problem. I haven't had a chance to try ours out yet. If you have an electric/gas water heater maybe you should use both electric and gas.
We bought " Oxygenics Body Spa RV Shower head" , that is suppose to use less water and I hope that helps.


Happy Camping and Good Luck.

We had both electric and gas running, thanks for the tip how much and where did you get the new shower head

Others have said that if the outside showers valves are left in the open position that cold water will mix with the hot water before it gets to the inside of the trailer. Might not be your issue but it's someplace to start.

Shower head link
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/product/oxygenics-body-spa-rv-showerheads/5006

They work great !

Welcome to the forum, The only problem we have had is the cold burst in the shower. I put a shut off on the shower head, that way I do not have to change the faucet handle setting and can shut off the shower head and then turn it back on. Some have changed the shower head that has a shut off built in.

Make sure your by-pass valve for the water heater is closed.

Sounds like you may have all three valves open.

Don't ask me how I know...

[quote="jacandjan"]Others have said that if the outside showers valves are left in the open position that cold water will mix with the hot water before it gets to the inside of the trailer. [/quote]

I 2nd that quote. I had that happen to me with leaving the outside shower hot and cold valves on and the shower head valve closed.

rbledsoe to the forum.

I read somewhere to fix the cold burst, install a backflow valve in the hot water line near the shower faucet. I am doing this for sure. As far as running out, I'm sure when ours is on electric only, we'd be close to out after three minutes of running. I think my total shower, get wet, turn off, soap up and rinse isn't three minutes. Ours too is 6 gal. Our old TT had a 10 gal. I think. You almost didn't have to turn off during your shower if you had full hook ups.

Agree with Mountain Man check the valves first.

I assume you had the hot water on so that it was already hot before your wife took the shower, if by some chance you did not, it takes a little while for the water to get completely hot. You really should not have a problem my wife and I both take showers (DW longer of course) and we have not run out of really hot water.

Good luck and please let us know what you find.

We almost always dry-camp, so are very careful with the water; the amount of hot water is not a problem.

azandy700 wrote:I read somewhere to fix the cold burst, install a backflow valve in the hot water line near the shower faucet. I am doing this for sure.

Several have tried this; the backflow valve does nothing to solve the problem. My next attempt is going to be replace the OEM shower head; I'll be doing that this week and will let you know how it works.

scottz wrote:We almost always dry-camp, so are very careful with the water; the amount of hot water is not a problem.

azandy700 wrote:I read somewhere to fix the cold burst, install a backflow valve in the hot water line near the shower faucet. I am doing this for sure.

Several have tried this; the backflow valve does nothing to solve the problem. My next attempt is going to be replace the OEM shower head; I'll be doing that this week and will let you know how it works.

We replaced the shower head with the Oxygenics and put some backflow preventers in and still have the cold water blast.

I agree with Rich. We don't have any problembs with ours either and we use electric only. We do allow some time between showers, about 5min. just to be safe. sometimes it isn't that long. Our shower head is the original that came with the trailer. 2009 rlbs

If we run ours on both Heat and Electric, I've never been able to run out of hot water. I cant say we tried on purpose, but 5 people took showers back to back without problems.

Did you make sure the hot water heater was up to temp (gas had kicked off) before using it?

Joel

I installed the backflow valve and it cut the cold water burst down to about 1-2 seconds. This is way better than it used to be.
For those that installed the valve with poor results, did you mount it vertically or horizontally? If Horiz. I suggest rotating it 180 degree's and see if it works any better. Just a hunch but maybe that will solve the problem. FWIW, mine is vert. and in the hot side.

ScottandGrace wrote:For those that installed the valve with poor results, did you mount it vertically or horizontally?

I don't have access to be able to mount mine vertically, so I had to mount it in the basement horizontally.

Where exactly did you mount yours?

The pics that I saw, they installed the valve right near the faucet. They cut an access door.

azandy where did you find or see the photos?

oldelmer1 wrote:

ScottandGrace wrote:For those that installed the valve with poor results, did you mount it vertically or horizontally?

I don't have access to be able to mount mine vertically, so I had to mount it in the basement horizontally.

Where exactly did you mount yours?

For some strange reason, my TT has a small access door on the outside behind the plumbing for the tub/shower. I was able to install it within an inch of where the hot water connects to the faucet.

I too have that access door, but its too high up, I have to reach way down inside to feel the back of the faucet. So there is no putting one in there on my CAT.....