Daily use of a RV hot water heater can take its toll. A few months ago the control board of our 6 gallon Suburban hot water heater died. It would try to light and then die a few seconds later. $170 it cost to replace the board with a generic. I also replaced the water fittings as they were leaking. Upon inspecting the tank itself, I noticed a lot of rust and corrosion on the steel fittings going into the tank itself.
Fast forward a couple of months. It had been working great until a couple of days ago. Normally, we use the onboard LP tank. It lasts a good three months normally. The last few weeks, however, has been snow storm after snow storm and we have been unable to move the motorhome. We finally ran out of propane and attached our backup 7 gallon tank. Coincidently, the hot water heater stopped igniting. I first thought it might have been an issue with the regulator, but switching back to the house tank (1 gallon left) had the same response. I disconnected the wires to the control board and reset it. No go. I then noticed
the sensors on the tank had fallen off due to support tabs rusting off.
Now do I spend the $600 to have it replaced, the $1000 to go tankless or $300 to put in a small office 110v regular hot water heater in the closet. This would mean while boondocking I would have to run the generator for 30 minutes to get hot water.
I’ll let you know.