I would not recommend one of these for you van or RV, i have had one installed for the past few months, It only heats up to around 40degrees, (on a warm day). Now the weather has turned cold were lucky to reach 30degrees. Takes several attempts to start if it starts at all. Have tried to contact Camec but keep getting told they will have to call me back. Never hear from them. About to have another brand installed and try to return this one to them as not fit for purpose.
I can agree with your sentiment. I picked one up in late 2018 at very special price using a discount voucher I received from Camec so thought I would give it a go. Me being not in a rush didn’t fit it for 12 months, a couple of days. before Christmas.2019.
Any way the heater was a problem from that moment but unfortunately I was unable to seek technical assistance due to Xmas shut downs. Finally in mid January I got onto Camec and must say they were very helpful.
As I am a plumber and gas fitter, they shared information so I could do some fault finding for them. This resulted over a period of time with replacing the control panel, the lead for the panel, along with a few other things, all to no satisfactory outcome.Some of the problems experienced included failure for the ignition to ignite the burner, burner would light but couldn’t get water to sufficient temperature or couldn’t adjust the temperature on the control panel. Most of the problems are associated with the flow control valve.
I could get it to light when on mains pressure but not pump. As a result I replaced my pump with a Sureflow unit with a flow of around 12 lt/m. This still didn’t help. Specifically the it required around 7 lt/m to trigger the ignition and then you needed to throttle the water flow back to get to temperature.
Anyway after mucking around over a couple of weeks or so, they finally agreed to give me a new heater. I installed the new heater and although it is temperamental it works better than the 1st one.but still not great, main issue being around the flow control valve. It would make perfect sense that the unit won’t work well in cold weather as the water temp being colder would require the water to move slowly to be heated adequatelily but that would then trigger the burner to cut out as it won’t detect the low flow. ( I use to have similar issues with Rinnai type heaters in the blue Mts in winter).
I was told that a version 2 of the heater was going to be released in the 1st quarter this year but may not have happened post Covid-19.
Would I install another one, no unless the version 2 was substantially improved.
What would I buy next time, not sure. Ive installed the Truma heaters in a couple of vans that I have been involved with the build and they work great but double the price. I wouldn’t install anything with a Surburban label as I am aware of the issues they are currently experiencing and may continue to experience in future with all their products.