FOGATTI InstaShower 8 Plus RV Tankless Water Heater, Propane, 12V DC, Black

Using for an off-grid cabin. Follow other reviews' instructions on installing pressure relief valve. Took me a while to figure out all the parts I needed to make it work for a cabin rather than an RV. Lots of trips back and forth from the hardware store, but alas, it works and water is HOT!!! Wife and I use it for showers and washing dishes. Hooks up to a standard grill tank. NOTE: Use a 100 psi pressure relief valve. NOT the standard 150 PSI valve you commonly find at Lowes or Home Depot. Fogatti sells the right one on Amazon. 12/2022 UPDATE: So, most of the US just went through the deep freeze. During this time, water inside the heater froze causing a part to rupture and water was spraying like crazy inside the unit. I called Fogatti and spoke to an actual person on US soil without a foreign accent. I'd add an extra star for this if i could. I explained the issue and texted them an image of the part that broke and they immediately shipped me out a replacement part! If I were to knock off a start for the part breaking, I'd have to add ot back just because of the customer service. So I still remain at 5 stars for this product. It's actually 6 stars because I spoke to an actual American. 1/2023 UPDATE: Shipping was slow. Very slow. But the part was very easy to replace. While i was waiting for the part to come in, it still made hot water even though it was leaking. Do I still give it a 5 star? Almost. I'd say a 4.9 star. 4/2023 Update: Not sure if I can recommend this anymore. A few days ago the water heater stopped turning on. I connected a multimeter to the 12V batter and am ready 12V. Tested the wires that go from the battery to the unit' still getting 12V. Tested the wires coming from the unit, going into the remote - 0V. Spoke with customer service and they were very pleasant to work with. Again, it was personnright here in the US and not some foreign call center that you can't understand. So anyways, I spoke with the support tech and he asked me to check a few more things and he determined it may be the board that has gone bad. They're shipping me a new one, and while I do appreciate the good customer service, this thing isn't even a year old and it already needs new parts. I do have a 5 year warranty, so I'll he able to get parts for the next 5 years, but after that, if this thing still keeps breaking, I'm going to have to look for a different unit. If Fogatti's units were as superb as their customer service, this would be a 5/5 stars all day. Dropping to a 3 star. It would be a 1 star as far as reliability, but their customer service is so good it brings them up to a 3. If I get these new parts and I don't have any problems anymore, it'll go back to 5 stars if it stays problem free. 6/2023 Update: Git the parts, installed and it wasnt working still. Spoke with Fogatti again. We used the multimeter to see the voltage going into the unit: 11.67V. Apparently this was way to low and it won't turn on. My led lights turned on, but not my water heater. I rewired a few things and got it plugged into my solar power station, sure enough, it's turned on with hot water. It wasn't them after all. I need to calll the technician again so I can confirm he was right. 5 stars again. What a rollercoaster lol 2/2024 UPDATE Since I rewired the water heater to plug directly into the AC solar inverter, I have not had any issues with the unit turning on. Now, if you're using hot water, and suddenly it goes cold and the little black control box starts beeping, turn off the faucet/shower, wait a few seconds, and turn it back on. If it still keeps happening, turn off the faucet/shower, and turn the hot water 3/4 of the way, let it get hot, then turn on all the way. Not sure why I need to do that, but it seems to work. 11/2024 Update: Still no problems since the last update. Wiring this thing to be able to plug directly into a standard wall outlet was the ticket. Significantly less issues with water suddenly going cold. Still happens though, but the trick I used in my previous update still works. Heading into winter now so we'll see if the pipe freezes and explodes again. 3/2025 Update: Coming out of winter. Pipes did not freeze. FYI, this unit can supply 3 fixtures with a bit of decreased performance. Built an addition to our cabin, will need to upgrade to a larger unit or get a second unit.

I purchased and I nstalled the Shower 8 Plus 55,000 BTU and it fired right up immediately and I had hot water within seconds. It’s a self contained unit that includes the high pressure relief valve. The only external part’s considerations you will need to make are the 1/2”” water inlet and outlets and the 5/8” male gas fitting that is on the back of the unit. My advice is to buy two flexible 1/2” faucet lines that include the 1/4 turn shut off valves on one end and 1/2” shark bite connection on the other end. Simply cut your existing 1/2” PEX lines in the appropriate locations and slip the two new flexible lines on and tight by hand the other end onto the inlet and outlet of the water heater. The shutoff valves will allow you to be able to shut off both water lines in case you need to service and flush the unit without having to shut off water to your entire RV. The electrical is self explanatory and uses a 12V positive and a negative/ground. The included digital controller uses two small wires that connect to the two blue wires on the back of the unit and it doesn’t matter which way you terminate the blue wires to the controller. Make sure you clean the outside mating surfaces before attaching the twelve screws on the outside of your RV and use new butyl tape and/or a good marine sealant to prevent leaks. Inside where your water heater sits screw down a couple pieces of wood snug on each side of the unit to help keep it stable so it won’t tend to shift when your RV is going down the road. That will prevent stress on the outside mating surface during transports. Overall I’m super satisfied with this water heater. I run the temp at 109 degrees and it’s perfect. It runs very quiet. You will have hot water when the electricity is out or if boondocking. Propane is cheaper than electricity and this unit is more efficient than older units and tank water heaters. It’s definitely worth the investment if you are on the fence just know that it’s a high quality product that is well put together with quality parts and materials. Fogatti customer service is better than other companies so that’s another reason to buy from this company. I threw my 100% working Suburban tank water heater straight in the trash bin and didn’t look back. I didn’t shed one tear and I threw it like an angry gorilla! I can now have continuous hot water!

The 13” cover model fit perfectly. While the installation seems easy, allow some time to do it right. This unit replaced a Gerard which leaked even after being winterized, and it seems this is very common! The new unit worked perfectly after the installation!! Recommend to anyone looking to replace their tankless water heater.

Wonderful replacement of a 6 gallon tanked heater. I purchased this water heater September of 2023. I live full time in my motorhome so the heater gets used daily and I like long hot showers. It has been a great upgrade. At the time, I didn’t have a clue about motorhome maintenance. But it turned out to be quite simple to install. Not necessarily easy, but simple. Both water lines were leaking so I replaced them. The propane line also had to be replaced because the old line was too long for the new heater. I purchased flexible lines, both water and propane lines, that were long enough to allow me to connect them before inserting the heater into the box. Wiring was simple. The color of the new heater wires matched the old wires. Following the instructions, I turned it on and it worked. The remote is simple. There is a power switch, a mode switch to change the display data from Fahrenheit to Celsius and two direction buttons to adjust the temperature minimum/maximum. There’s enough cord on the remote to allow you to mount it inside the RV but as I don’t have the need to make frequent adjustments and there’s a water heater power switch already available inside my RV, I left the remote in the basement. The only issue I’ve had is not directly related to the heater itself and I wouldn’t even mention it but I thought this information might be helpful to someone else. The issue was that Fleetwood didn’t put the heater inside the basement of my Bounder, they put it in an uninsulated box outside. So, in extremely cold weather the water lines can freeze. To rectify that situation I drilled a hole through the basement wall and into the heater box and ran a 2” vent from the furnace, which is right above the heater box. Now, Every time the furnace comes on it heats the box also. No more frozen lines. You can purchase 2” adapters a a flexible tube from Amazon. The only other thing I might recommend is to leave the backing paper on the putty tape. Apply the putty to the RV opening. The backing paper will prevent the putty from sticking to the mounting surface of the heater while still providing the weather seal required. That way if you ever need to remove the heater again you won’t have to pry the mounting flange away from the wall. I hope you enjoy having your new heater as much as I have.

My wife and I replaced our atwood 6 gallon hot water heater on our winnebago RV. Being that it is a motorhome, there was an added coolant line intended to heat water while driving...that had to be bypassed prior to install (nothing on the manufacturer but keep in mind if you have a motorhome) Install was very simple and only required a couple of 1/2" PEX to 1/2" NPT female fittings, and moving the 3/8" propane line brackets slightly. Writing this after using for almost 3 months and it is a blessing! Hot showers as long as you want, great heat to flow ratio and it's hot almost as soon as the pipe water is circulated, plus about 10 seconds. As long as you're connected to city water, this is the ticket! We have also saved a LOT of propane not wasting it to keep a tank hot all day/night. Only using the propane on demand has made 40lbs of propane last what seems like a year, whereas before it lasted 45 days at most. The built on control panel allows you to change top end temp and auto shuts down if there is a pilot flame out, making it safer and more reliable. If you live on tanks often, you may be disappointed with how much water you'll waste to get hot water. It doesn't stay on well with the HW valve less than half flow, meaning you need higher flow just to keep it on. Turning off the valve or shower head to save water doesn't work well either because as soon as it senses less flow, it switches off and begins cool down. Not a water saver, but a propane saver for sure.

Best thing we have added to our RV was this tankless water heater! Works great. It replace a 6 gallon hot water heater that was not enough hot water to take a shower in realistically without having to get wet, turn off to lather up, then quickly rinse. Now with tankless heater, can take a nice shower without having to worry about running out of hot water. Fairly easy to install. It took my husband approximately an hour. All lines were easy to connect. The only issue we had was it fit very tightly into the opening of the RV. Comes with a thermostat so that you can adjust the temperature to your liking. All in all it works very well.

It's been over 8 months now since we installed this water heater. I am very happy we did it. We seem to be using less propane, and we were very miserly before. Water comes up to temperature quite quickly. Build quality is good, the installation was harder than I hoped, but not because of the device, but just alignment of hoses of previous hot water heater with tank.

Works great

Easy to install and finding 12volts isn't to hard from the old regular hot water tank. Temperature control is great. I lived in my rv for awhile and a 20minute shower was no problem. Used very little propane as well. Love the change very impressed. During -30 Temperatures it never froze up i was impressed with that feature

Fairly easy to install. Partly because I only had to extend the water lines. The existing propane line and fitting were okay to connect as is. Easy to use and set the temperature you would like.

This is an excellent water heater, until it goes down to minus 20C. At that temperature the water inlet line freezes up at the pressure relief valve before it reaches the heating unit. Unfortunately, the pressure relief valve is located only a couple of inches away from the external access door and is exposed to the outside temperature without any provision to protect it from freezing. A minor design flaw but very inconvenient at -20C temperatures.

Super easy install, and worked perfectly

Was a little sceptical when I ordered it, of it not working, being damaged, etc. installed it no major issues…getting flexible plumping lines to go from the back of the unit, to the hot and cold plumbing hookups is something I wish they’d include in the kit. As the unit is much smaller, and the connections are much closer together. But other than that no problems. Installed this on a 2007 34’ Arctic fox 5th wheel. We can do dishes, and shower at the same time and have an infinite amount of hot water. It was a much needed change as we are full time RVers, and finally having endless hot water is a blessing LOL. It saves propane pretty good compared to the traditional tank systems running on gas. As it only ignites when you want hot water. And it takes about 4-8 seconds, sometimes 15 in the cold mornings. WORTH EVERY PENNY!