Water Heater Jealousy

[charliem]

[font size="3"]Dusty,

When you have shore power available you can use both electric and propane. Just turn them both on. Recovery time will be cut roughly in half. After it warms up the electric will take priority and maintain the temperature without using propane. If/when you use small amounts of hot water the electric element will come on to reheat. If you use a significant amount of water the gas burner will eventually come on to help the electric catch up. No need to turn anything on or off unless you just want to save propane.
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[thedusty]

[font size="3"]Dusty,

When you have shore power available you can use both electric and propane. Just turn them both on. Recovery time will be cut roughly in half. After it warms up the electric will take priority and maintain the temperature without using propane. If/when you use small amounts of hot water the electric element will come on to reheat. If you use a significant amount of water the gas burner will eventually come on to help the electric catch up. No need to turn anything on or off unless you just want to save propane.
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It makes perfect sense. For whatever reason I just assumed it would be dangerous...glad I was wrong.  The wife is going to be mighty pleased with this news.  Thank you guys for helping a newbie like me keep learning more and more.

[tinkeringtechie]

[quote timestamp="1458701602" source="/post/19823/thread" author="@thedusty"]
[quote timestamp="1458699838" source="/post/19822/thread" author="@charliem"][font size="3"]Dusty,

When you have shore power available you can use both electric and propane. Just turn them both on. Recovery time will be cut roughly in half. After it warms up the electric will take priority and maintain the temperature without using propane. If/when you use small amounts of hot water the electric element will come on to reheat. If you use a significant amount of water the gas burner will eventually come on to help the electric catch up. No need to turn anything on or off unless you just want to save propane.
[/font][/quote]It makes perfect sense. For whatever reason I just assumed it would be dangerous...glad I was wrong.  The wife is going to be mighty pleased with this news.  Thank you guys for helping a newbie like me keep learning more and more. [/quote]It's perfectly safe because both the propane and electric components have thermostats. The propane will stop first and then the electric. The heater also has a pressure release in the very unlikely event that a thermostat were to fail.

[charliem]

[quote timestamp="1458703973" author="@tinkeringtechie" source="/post/19824/thread"]It's perfectly safe because both the propane and electric components have thermostats. The propane will stop first and then the electric. The heater also has a pressure release in the very unlikely event that a thermostat were to fail.[/quote][font size="3"]Actually there are additional high temperature safety thermostats on both electric and LP assemblies plus the pressure relieve valve will also trip at 210F. So it take three serial failures to get into trouble. Can this happen? I've got a PM in to Murphy, but no reply yet.   [/font]