Camco 11673 Hybrid Heat 6-Gallon RV Water Heater Electric Converter

If you camp where there's shore power, running your water heater on propane the whole time doesn't make much sense. The Camco Hot Water Hybrid Heat converter fixes that. It takes any standard 6-gallon RV LP gas water heater and gives it a second way to make hot water, straight off 120V electricity on demand. Plug in at the campground, flip the switch, and let the electric element do the work while your propane tank sits full for the days you're actually boondocking.

Here's the idea. The kit adds a stainless steel heating element and its own thermostat to a tank that was built for gas only. You keep the original LP gas system exactly as it is. Nothing gets ripped out. On a hookup site you run electric and save propane. Off grid, you switch back to gas. That flexibility is the whole point, and it's why a lot of full-timers and long-weekend campers add one of these the first season they own the rig.

The element itself is stainless steel, which matters in a water heater. Cheaper elements scale up and corrode fast in hard water. Stainless holds up. The included thermostat holds the tank between 90 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit, so you get a genuine hot shower, not a lukewarm rinse, and it cycles off once the tank is up to temperature instead of cooking the water all day.

Camco includes everything you need to wire it in. You get the heating element, the thermostat, an ON/OFF power switch, a mounting bracket, the power cords, and the wire assemblies. The element goes into the tank, the thermostat sensor mounts to the tank body to read temperature, the switch gives you clean control from a spot you can reach, and the cords land it on your 120V circuit. If you've done basic RV 120V work before, this is a doable afternoon job. If you haven't, it's the kind of thing a mobile RV tech can knock out quickly.

The propane math adds up faster than people expect. Every gallon of LP you burn heating water is a gallon you're not using for the furnace, the fridge, or the stove, and it's a gallon you have to drive out to refill. Move water heating to electricity while you're plugged in and your bottles last a lot longer between fills. For a snowbird parked all season, that can be the difference between one refill and several.

The ON/OFF switch is the part you'll actually touch day to day. Mount it somewhere handy and switching between gas and electric becomes a one-second decision. Arriving at a hookup site? Flip to electric. Heading out to a dispersed site with no power? Flip back to gas. No tools, no crawling under the rig every time you change how you camp.

Who's this for? Anybody with a 6-gallon gas water heater who spends real time on shore power. Seasonal campers who park at the same site for months. Snowbirds sitting on a full-hookup lot all winter. Anyone who's tired of watching the propane gauge drop just to keep the shower warm. It's not the right pick if your rig already has a factory gas-electric heater, since you've already got the electric side. And it won't turn a 6-gallon tank into an endless supply. It heats the same 6 gallons, just with a different energy source.

A couple of honest notes. The electric element draws a real load, so plan on it running off your shore power connection, not your battery bank. Recovery time on electric is steady but not instant, same as any tank heater. And before you power it up, make sure the tank is full of water. Running an element in a dry tank burns it out. That's true of every electric water heater, RV or house.

Once it's in, it just works. Pull into a site with power, flip it on, and you've got hot water without touching the propane. That's the kind of small upgrade that pays for itself over a season of camping.