Raritan12 Gal Water Heater

This is replacing an RV water heater of identical brand, capacity, and features that lasted 38 years and probably would last a few more but I was refurbishing the RV and decided it was time to change the old one 'just in case'. The new one has some slight differences. For example the entire exterior cover including the blue top, white sides, and lower blue mounting flange are made of some kind of plastic. This is probably a good thing given my old painted metal water heater was riddle with rust stains. But it is worth knowing that the nicely thermal formed edges behind the electrical connections cover warped when I applied a heat gun to my heat shrink wire connectors. I should have known better.Another improvement is the conformant treatment of the electrical connections under the electric connections cover - this should reduce risk of corrosion and resulting resistance (and heat). I will not be using the heat exchanger feature at this time so probably could have saved a lot of money by not doing so, but I hope to find a good hydronic diesel heater at some point in the future to provide off-grid hot water. It is designed for engine heat, but I prefer to keep my chassis and house systems completely separate. Engines are too expensive to risk overheating due to some monkey-business with hot water heat exchangers, although I know many people use them all the time.

I put this unit in my motorhome to replace my failing Aqua hot system. I now have all the hot water I need and it does a good job warming the engine when I need it.

On a boat that has crossed the Atlantic twice and is now in the Pacific heading for Alaska.I seem to have a slight leak in my 25 year old Raritan. And even after 25 years, the leak is probably my fault because i did not realize there is an anode (aka zinc) that I should have replaced eons ago.This water heater will keep the water very hot for 12 hours, hot for 24 hours and warm for 48+ hours and that's in cool climates and sea water.The only option is with or without an heat exchanger, which uses the hot coolant from the engine to heat the water. I obviously like that because I run the engine a lot and it uses no electricity until I need to run the generator.Again, boats are tough on things like water heaters, boats in salt water even more so, so 25 years is as much as one could possibly hope for. i know it will be my last water heater.