Dear Dave,
This is my first winter in Lancaster, PA, and the temp got down to 11 degrees last night. My tankless water heater froze and I currently have a space heater on it from the inside. My heated hose is working and I have water to the toilet. But my question is, does this model have the automatic freeze protection feature? I’ve attached a photo of the model. —Randy
Dear Randy,
I contacted Lippert, which owns Furrion, and got a copy of the service manual that explains the “freeze protection” function of your water heater. Here is the reply:
I have snipped the section in the manual that covers the antifreeze protection. I have also included the manual. This is located on page 13. As long as there is power and gas (turned on), the water heater will activate when temps get lower then 43 degrees and will shut off when it warms up, I believe it is around 50 degrees. Keep in mind, at extremely low temps, even this system could fail as it will not be able to keep up with the colder temps. Please let us know if you need anything else.
Winterizing Furrion water heater
Back to Dave
So, the “antifreeze” function is basically just turning the water heater on occasionally to keep it above 32 degrees, and you must have power and LP for it to work. This could be a little misleading when leaving your unit for storage.
More on winterizing
Some tankless or on-demand water heaters will not be fully purged with just compressed air, as some chambers inside the system will still have water. This requires RV antifreeze to be used instead. However, according to the service manual, your model can be completely drained using compressed air.
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Dear Dave,
I have an Intertek tankless water heater on my 5th wheel camper. We live in the Midwest and have very cold winters. There is no place to drain what little water is in it and no bypass valve either. Is it all right to run RV antifreeze through it? —Dave, 2023 Keystone Cougar 23MLE
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Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and the author of the “RV Handbook.”
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Thank you for sharing the information, Dave! Have a great day and safe travels!
Not sure why Randy didn’t contact Furrrion?
Would it be also smart to keep a regular water tank ON , when weather gets cold ????
During my two-year army military obligation in 1954 and 1955, as a southern California boy who had never experienced truly cold weather, my two winters and a summer at Ladd Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska, was very instructive. When it was cold the barber shop in a small Quonset hut got its water from the mess hall next door in a very large Quonset hut via underground hot and cold pipes. The faucets were left on all winter long as moving water is less likely to freeze. Even so, sometimes the pipes would freeze. A truck would come out with arc welding equipment. He would hook up one power clamp to the mess hall pipe and the other to the barber shop pipe. High current warmed the pipe.
Hi, Gary. That reminds me of when my dad was in the Seabees and stationed at Point Barrow, AK, during WWII. Some of his buddies dared him to put his tongue on a frozen axe blade. Yeah. I think hot water removed the blade, and some of his tongue, eventually.😱 Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com