Furrion tankless water heater retrofit

[howson]

SATA Adventures -- concur with Brian that it's a great write-up but could use larger pictures. If you email the originals to GDRVModerators@gmail.com one of us can update your posts.

Howard

[WondersAwait]

SATA Adventures

Thank you for sharing this project with us! I've been undecided on what to do with my Furrion TWH. I plan to drive my rig through Midwestern winters as soon as a couple months from now and have been unsure how I should go about the well documented issues with the TWH I have. Ideally I think I want to do this retro fit but haven't had the time to tackle it myself yet. I'm thrilled to see someone else jump in and post the progress here. I probably won't be far behind you, but making good use of the info you have shared. Cheers!


Oh, also regarding use at elevation. I just got back from a trip to Colorado and New Mexico. I can speak to the version 1.0 Furrion TWH working just fine at decent elevations. We stayed in Estes Park for a week (7500'), a couple nights on the side of Blanca Peak (9000'), and a week in Albuquerque (5300'). We had zero problems with operation of our TWH.

[WondersAwait]

A question I still do not know is when is this active and how it really operates. Does the control panel in the bathroom need to be on? or will it fire up when that is off and the unit is turned on at the water heater? They say it kicks on at 38degrees and heats water to ~58degrees then turns off. I have not been able to test that and probably won't now this year. Probably going to have to wait till spring. Might use it with guests at Christmas time and if I do will report back when I have experienced it cycle.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I just called and spoke with a tech who confirmed that the propane and electric needs to be fully turned on for it to operate. When I had the follow up question asking if both the external power switch and the internal control panel needed to be turned on, I got a bit of attitude but she did confirm that both needed to be on or it would not work. I had to laugh because she clarified my question as "you mean does the unit need to be turned on in order to work?" Yeah, that felt great. lol

Anyways, I now have one of these boards on order and hopefully this prevents the experience of a broken TWH or the need to upgrade. Fingers crossed!

[SATA Adventures]

I received the board today. When speaking with a tech at Furrion/Lippert they told me is was an easy job just a couple of screws. Well, it was a bit more involved but I was able to accomplish the removal and install in about 15 mins. I will document the process I used.

1 - unwrapped the unit, came in a sturdy box with a good bubble wrap inside of a plastic bag. I felt it was pretty secured shipping.



2 - disconnected battery just in case from the trailer, removed shore power
3 - opened up the water heater from the outside.
4 - There are 4 screws that need to be removed from the existing board, 2 top and 2 bottom. Also 1 ground screw (yellow w green strip wire).



From here I made the decision that I was gong to remove the cap off the old control box and see if I could remove the existing harnesses. This is with 4 tabs on the box lid. You can also see in the pic where I circled a twist type kind of wire holding the power cords. You can see all kinds of wires going into the water heater on the right side of the box. This is what 'encouraged' me to see if harnesses could be removed vs. having to break deeper into the water heater. That may have been a show stopper for me.



Next post with more steps.

I think I was able to put larger pics in the write up. Let me know if that did not work.

[Jim-Dot]

Warranty Covered Retrofit of On Demand Water Heater.

I just returned from the dealer after they installed the retrofit, under warranty, on the Furrion water heater. After seeing people above paying for retrofit I thought I would explained what I did.

Took delivery of 303 RLS in June of 2021 from a dealer in Wisconsin. I didn't even know the unit had the Furrion WH. It was never discussed when we ordered it 2 months earlier.

Use it that summer and fall. Winterized it according to owner's manual, nothing mentioned about the OD WH.

In December left for Texas in 12 deg. temp. Our first night stopped in SW Missouri with 55 deg. Began to flush out antifreeze and found WH leaking. Fortunately Grand Design sent me replacement while in Texas which I installed myself.

This past summer I heard about the retrofit on this forum. Contacted the dealer (which was bought out by large chain of dealers) where I purchased it. Explained the problem and the news about the retrofit even giving them the new part number. The dealer said they would contact the warranty department. A couple weeks later, I was contacted by the dealer saying it was covered and part was ordered. It arrived about two weeks ago and today it was installed.

Because of the winter weather I haven't been able to try it, but the dealer said it worked perfectly.

Just wrote this note to advise people to check with their dealer to see if Lippert/Furrion will cover under warranty. Good Luck!!

[TucsonJim]

I do see a couple of changes between the new and the old boards. These might be routine changes, or they could be related to the modified circuitry. It looks like they deleted one diode on the right side of the capacitor and added two diodes to the left side of the same cap. I highlighted these in blue...

[SATA Adventures]

Great observation TucsonJim.

So here is a further interesting story. I didn’t get to try the wh out on an adventure before I put the rig away for the winter. Rig all winterized w pink run through all lines, batteries removed, propane turned off, disconnect key removed (however I do have shore power connected in case I want to turn a heater on just in case on long cold days) and 5r all covered. I was near the rv outside and heard a fan…got wondering and sure enough I had not turned the wh off on the wh itself outside. Wow… had propane been turned on that could have been a real problem w cover over the exhaust and all. TBH I am not sure if it is off on the inside, have not reverified, but I was sure I shut it off. Lesson learned.

[TucsonJim]

Great observation TucsonJim.

So here is a further interesting story. I didn’t get to try the wh out on an adventure before I put the rig away for the winter. Rig all winterized w pink run through all lines, batteries removed, propane turned off, disconnect key removed (however I do have shore power connected in case I want to turn a heater on just in case on long cold days) and 5r all covered. I was near the rv outside and heard a fan…got wondering and sure enough I had not turned the wh off on the wh itself outside. Wow… had propane been turned on that could have been a real problem w cover over the exhaust and all. TBH I am not sure if it is off on the inside, have not reverified, but I was sure I shut it off. Lesson learned.

Yes sir. That could have got real interesting. But for 15 minutes or so, you wouldn't have had to worry about anything freezing in the RV

[JBill9694]

SATA Adventures, on the serious side, that the WH fan was operating with the batteries removed means that your convertor is still energized and still providing 12-volt power to the trailer. No personal experience but others on the forum have stated that running the convertor without batteries is not a good idea. You might want to consider flipping the breaker for the convertor off.

[Jlawles2]

Looking at the board, there is 3 pin connector vs a 4 pin connector next to the black choke. Also the black choke is closer to the capacitor and the associated circuitry between the choke and the side appears to have been moved toward the center. Around the rectangular and square chips it looks like (hard to tell) but some of the resistors and such have changed in orientation and quantity.

Hard to tell, but I would guess the added a temperature probe to the board to help with determining temps.

Are all of the older units eligible for the retrofit? If so, did you call Furrion or the dealer to get the process started?

[RRCampers]

Are all of the older units eligible for the retrofit? If so, did you call Furrion or the dealer to get the process started?

We purchased a 2023 303RLS (delivered in July) and Retrofit from what I understand is paying the $100+ for the board and replacing it in the water heater. Our unit heads to the dealer soon for some warranty work and I plan to replace the board after it gets back since it's going to be winterized this weekend and the season done for a few months.

Also, looking at the picture of the outside of the control box, what the heck is a 'WARING" diagram.

[Country Campers]

We purchased a 2023 303RLS (delivered in July) and Retrofit from what I understand is paying the $100+ for the board and replacing it in the water heater. Our unit heads to the dealer soon for some warranty work and I plan to replace the board after it gets back since it's going to be winterized this weekend and the season done for a few months.

Also, looking at the picture of the outside of the control box, what the heck is a 'WARING" diagram.

Having a 2023 model year you may want to make sure that you do not have the new version before ordering a new board, I am not sure when the new version came into the assembly lines. Also worth noting that although the new version is used for "colder weather" camping it will not do anything unless the propane is on as well as battery or shore power.

Brian

[ncitro]

We purchased a 2023 303RLS (delivered in July) and Retrofit from what I understand is paying the $100+ for the board and replacing it in the water heater. Our unit heads to the dealer soon for some warranty work and I plan to replace the board after it gets back since it's going to be winterized this weekend and the season done for a few months.

Also, looking at the picture of the outside of the control box, what the heck is a 'WARING" diagram.

Brian is exactly right. Also if you're winterizing and will not be using it until it warms up it does you no good, it's more for if you'll be traveling through freezing areas. If you're a camper who will winterize and be fine the upgrade will not gain you anything.

[SATA Adventures]

RRCampers "Also, looking at the picture of the outside of the control box, what the heck is a 'WARING" diagram."

I had to look at this several times before I got what you were asking. LOL, certainly is a misplaced word! you

[nprario]

Just did the same process Steve did and put in the new cold weather board. Really thankful that I could reuse the current harnesses from the old board as my fuse holder was broken on the new one. Did just what Steve did and then tested that hot water comes out. I may be able to test in a few weeks as we will be in some colder weather but with the heater running the WH may not get cold enough, we will see. Peace of mind is why I replaced it. Really surprised a part like this comes with no instructions or diagrams at all. Just the part. Pics show taking the plugs coming off the old board and the broken fuse holder. Thank you Steve for posting what you did so I could copy your procedure 👍