5 Best Water Heater Venting Solutions For Tiny Spaces Nomads Swear By
The best venting options for life on the road.
You’ve spent weeks framing the perfect shower, and now you’re staring at a water heater, a tangle of pipes, and a big question: where does the exhaust go? In a tiny home, van, or skoolie, that’s not a trivial detail. It’s one of the most critical safety and design decisions you’ll make, dictating your layout, your wall cuts, and your peace of mind on a cold night.
Getting your water heater venting right is about more than just checking a box. It’s about preventing moisture buildup, maximizing precious fuel, and, most importantly, ensuring the air you breathe is safe. The wrong choice can lead to condensation, mold, and the silent danger of carbon monoxide. In a small, airtight space, there is zero room for error.
We’re going to break down the venting solutions that seasoned nomads actually use—the ones that are safe, efficient, and designed for the unique challenges of a life on wheels. From all-in-one units that simplify installation to budget-friendly options that require a bit more know-how, this is the real-world guide to keeping your showers hot and your air clean.
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Why Your Tiny Home Water Heater Venting Matters
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Venting isn’t just about getting rid of fumes; it’s a life-support system for your tiny space. Any fuel-burning appliance, including your propane water heater, produces carbon monoxide (CO). In a traditional house, a small leak might dissipate, but a tiny home is a small, sealed box where CO can build to lethal levels in minutes. Proper venting removes this danger entirely.
Beyond the critical safety aspect, venting directly impacts your home’s health and your heater’s performance. An improperly vented unit can introduce massive amounts of water vapor into your living space, leading to condensation on windows, dampness in walls, and eventually, mold. A well-designed vent also provides the necessary combustion air, allowing your heater to run efficiently instead of struggling for oxygen, which saves fuel and money.
Your choice of venting solution will fundamentally shape your build. A direct-vent unit requires a specific spot on an exterior wall, influencing your kitchen or bathroom layout from day one. A unit requiring a vertical flue pipe dictates cabinet placement and requires a carefully sealed roof penetration. Thinking about venting early in the design process saves you from a major, space-compromising headache later on.
Girard GSWH-2: Your All-in-One Vent Solution
Enjoy continuous hot water in your RV with the Girard Tankless Water Heater. Its onboard microprocessor maintains consistent temperatures, while the digital control panel allows for easy temperature adjustments and troubleshooting.
The Girard tankless water heater is a favorite in the conversion world for one primary reason: its venting is brilliantly simple. The entire combustion process—air intake and exhaust—happens through the exterior access door. You don’t have to run a separate flue pipe through your roof or wall.
This integrated design is a game-changer for tiny spaces. The installation involves cutting one clean, rectangular hole in an exterior wall, framing it out, and mounting the unit. All the complex parts of venting are contained within the appliance itself. This preserves your interior space and dramatically simplifies the build process, which is a huge win when you’re doing the work yourself.
The tradeoff is a lack of placement flexibility. The Girard must be installed on an exterior wall, and its access panel will be visible from the outside. This isn’t an option for an interior closet or a more central location. But for most builds, the sheer convenience and safety of its all-in-one venting system make it a top contender.
Suburban IW60: Reliable Direct-Vent Performance
Experience on-demand heating with the Suburban Mfg Co 5286A Iw60. This 60,000 BTU unit provides powerful and efficient warmth for your needs.
The Suburban IW60 is another tankless powerhouse that solves the venting problem with an elegant direct-vent design. Like the Girard, it’s a self-contained system that doesn’t use your precious interior air for combustion. It’s a workhorse, trusted for years in the RV industry for its consistent performance.
Its venting is managed through a single, small tube that passes through the exterior wall. This concentric design pulls fresh air in through an outer layer while exhausting fumes through the inner core. The result is a minimal footprint on your wall—just one small, round hole to cut and seal. This is far less invasive than cutting a large rectangular opening for a door.
For nomads, the IW60 represents reliability. Its direct-vent system is inherently safe for small, sealed environments and highly efficient. By keeping the combustion process completely isolated from the living space, it eliminates worries about CO and moisture, allowing you to focus on enjoying that endless hot shower, even when you’re miles off-grid.
PrecisionTemp RV-550: Your Freeze-Proof Option
For the all-season nomad, the PrecisionTemp RV-550 offers a critical feature that goes hand-in-hand with its smart venting: freeze protection. This unit is engineered to withstand cold climates, which is a massive advantage if you plan on chasing snow or living in a region with four distinct seasons. Nothing ends a trip faster than a frozen, burst water heater.
The venting system is, once again, a clean and efficient direct-vent design. It pulls air from the outside and exhausts it directly back out through a single port, ensuring your interior air quality is never compromised. This sealed combustion is the gold standard for any vehicle or tiny home where airtightness is a priority for heating and cooling efficiency.
What makes this a go-to choice is the combination of safe venting and cold-weather resilience. You get the peace of mind of a sealed system without the seasonal chore of having to drain and winterize your heater every time a cold snap is in the forecast. For full-timers, that kind of set-it-and-forget-it reliability is priceless.
Camplux Pro: Smart Venting on a Tight Budget
Enjoy instant hot water anywhere with this portable 6L tankless propane water heater. Its compact, lightweight design and included handle make it easy to transport, while simple setup and adjustable temperature control provide on-demand hot water for RVs, camping, and more.
Camplux has made on-demand hot water accessible to almost any budget, but it puts the responsibility for safe venting squarely on the builder. Unlike the all-in-one RV units, many popular Camplux models require a separate, traditional flue pipe. This is typically a 3-inch or 4-inch double-walled B-vent that must be routed through a wall or, more commonly, the roof.
This approach gives you more flexibility in placement—the heater can be mounted on an interior wall as long as you can run the vent pipe. However, the installation is far more complex. You must maintain the manufacturer’s specified clearances from combustible materials (like your wood framing) and ensure your roof or wall penetration is perfectly waterproof. This is not a step where you can cut corners.
The key to using a Camplux safely is to meticulously follow the installation manual and pair it with a high-quality carbon monoxide detector. It’s a fantastic way to get endless hot water on a shoestring budget, but only if you have the skills and attention to detail to create a venting system that is just as safe as the more expensive, integrated options.
Protect your family from carbon monoxide with this portable, battery-powered Kidde detector. It features an electrochemical sensor, visual/audible alarms, and event memory to track CO levels.
Dometic 6-Gallon: The Tried-and-True Venting
Enjoy hot water on demand with this 6-gallon RV water heater, powered by efficient gas or electric. Its electronic ignition and anode rod-free design ensure quick heating and low maintenance for your indoor installation.
Sometimes, the old way is the best way. The classic 6-gallon propane tank water heater from Dometic or Suburban is the definition of tried-and-true. Its venting system is incredibly simple and robust, having been perfected over decades of use in millions of RVs.
Like the tankless direct-vent models, the entire combustion process happens outside your living space. The heater is installed inside a cabinet, but it’s accessed and vented through a large panel on the exterior of your rig. The burner, thermostat, and exhaust are all contained behind that door, completely isolated from your interior.
The major downside is the space it occupies. A 6-gallon tank and the required clearances around it can eat up a significant chunk of a lower cabinet. But for those who value simplicity, repairability, and don’t mind the larger footprint, this venting solution is virtually foolproof. It’s a heavy-duty, reliable option that just works.
Your Venting Checklist: What You Need to Know
Choosing the right solution starts with asking the right questions. Before you buy a heater or cut a single hole, run through this mental checklist. It will save you from costly and dangerous mistakes.
First, make the foundational choice based on safety and your build’s design. Your primary options are:
- Direct-Vent: Pulls air from outside and exhausts outside through a sealed unit. This is the safest and most common option for tiny mobile spaces.
- Power-Vent / Flue Pipe: Pulls air from inside and uses a fan or natural draft to push exhaust out through a pipe. This requires careful planning for makeup air and clearances.
- Vent-Free: Never an option. These are not safe for small, airtight dwellings.
Next, consider the practical realities of your specific build. Where can you physically install it? Think about clearances from windows, doors, and other openings as specified by the manufacturer. Do you have the space on an exterior wall for a direct-vent unit, or does your layout demand an interior placement with a flue running through the roof? Remember that every roof penetration is a potential leak point that must be sealed with obsessive care. Always read the installation manual before you buy.
Expert Answers to Your Common Venting Questions
One of the most common questions is, "Can I just use a cheap residential water heater?" The short answer is that it’s usually a bad idea. Residential units are designed for the large air volume of a house, not a tiny home. They often require large, 4-inch or 5-inch B-vent pipes with huge clearance requirements that are simply impractical and unsafe in a compact, wood-framed space.
Another frequent and dangerous misconception involves "ventless" or "vent-free" propane heaters. These should never be used as a primary water heater in a tiny home, van, or bus. They are designed for temporary use in well-ventilated spaces, and they exhaust carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and enormous amounts of water vapor directly into your living area. This is a recipe for poor air quality, condensation, mold, and a severe safety hazard.
Finally, people often wonder if a carbon monoxide detector is truly necessary if they have a good venting system. The answer is an absolute, unequivocal yes. Think of it as a seatbelt. You hope you never need it, but it’s non-negotiable. A CO detector is your essential backup, your final line of defense against a blocked vent, a malfunctioning unit, or an installation mistake. It’s not an accessory; it’s a critical part of the system.
Ultimately, the best water heater venting solution is the one that is purpose-built for the unique environment of a small, mobile dwelling. For the vast majority of nomads, a direct-vent system—whether on a tankless unit like a Girard or a traditional tank like a Dometic—is the gold standard. It offers the highest level of safety by completely isolating the combustion process from your living space.
Your final decision will be a balance of budget, space, and your desired convenience. A more expensive, RV-specific unit buys you a simple, integrated, and foolproof venting solution. A budget-friendly option can work beautifully, but it shifts the responsibility for designing and executing a safe venting system onto you.
Whichever path you choose, prioritize safety above all else. Read the manual, respect the clearances, and install a carbon monoxide detector. A hot shower is a wonderful luxury on the road, but breathing clean, safe air is a necessity you can never compromise on.
