Heat Tape

Message Share Topic Printable Version Google Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Windows Live Yahoo Bookmarks reddit Facebook MySpace Newsvine Furl Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic

   One of my regular trips is to BC in the fall when temps can fall below freezing during darkness. The water lines can be drained and what not so I'm not worried about them. What I am worried about is the gray and black water tanks freezing and ruining the valves or piping. Has any one ever tried attaching heat tape to these two tanks for over night protection?

If so, how did you attach it?

Author	Message Share Topic Printable Version Google Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Windows Live Yahoo Bookmarks reddit Facebook MySpace Newsvine Furl Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic
_WW_ Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 25 Dec 2021 Location: Mt Vernon, WA Online Status: Offline Posts: 16	Post Options Post Reply Quote _WW_ Report Post Quote Reply Topic: Heat Tape Posted: 20 Jul 2022 at 8:46am
	One of my regular trips is to BC in the fall when temps can fall below freezing during darkness. The water lines can be drained and what not so I'm not worried about them. What I am worried about is the gray and black water tanks freezing and ruining the valves or piping. Has any one ever tried attaching heat tape to these two tanks for over night protection? If so, how did you attach it?
	2014 RAM 1500 2016 R Pod 179

offgrid Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290	Post Options Post Reply Quote offgrid Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 21 Jul 2022 at 6:59am
	If it stays in the mid to upper 20s F at night and warms up during the day I wouldn't worry about the tanks. There is a lot of thermal mass in the tanks and drain lines so it would take quite cold temps to freeze them overnight. Otherwise if you're winterizing the water lines why not also just drain the tanks since you won't be using water anyway? There are heating pads you can glue to the bottoms of the tanks. As for the drain lines I've used heat tape (actually heat cables tie wrapped to the water lines) on my well water lines at home and you need to add insulation over them for them to work properly. They have integrated thermostats and work well if you are careful to heat the entire line. And of course you have to have a 120Vac supply for them.
	1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold

_WW_ Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 25 Dec 2021 Location: Mt Vernon, WA Online Status: Offline Posts: 16	Post Options Post Reply Quote _WW_ Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 23 Jul 2022 at 2:41pm
	Thanks for the reply. Not really "winterizing" but just draining water lines for the night. The place I camp has power and water but no sewer. I hold water inside in a 5gal cooler for use during the night, but have no way to drain the holding tanks without leaving the camp site. There are public toilets and showers but I still am going to generate some gray and black from cooking and middle of the night toilet use. As for temps, it is usually during the last week of the trip when things start getting cold. Last trip it would drop below freezing shortly after dark and then be 17F in the morning and not get above freezing until 10-11am. Looking into the heating pads... When I camped there before I was in an Aframe with no bath and managed to let the water run a little all night and drain on the ground. Not going to work with the R-Pod.
	2014 RAM 1500 2016 R Pod 179

offgrid Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290	Post Options Post Reply Quote offgrid Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 24 Jul 2022 at 1:29am
	The additional info us helpful. Based on what you're describing I doubt you'll have any problems. If you did the vulnerable areas would be the two tank dump valves. The tanks themselves should be fine, a few gallons of ice lying in the bottom of a tank isn't going to hurt anything. So I'd suggest skipping the heating pads, those would keep the tanks from freezing but likely won't do much for the dump lines and valves which are lower. How about this. Dump your tanks before the colder weather sets in. Then pour one or two gallons of RV antifreeze into each tank. Then monitor how much water youre adding to each tank and keep the percent antifreeze concentration above say 20% until you dump the next time. From what your describing you probably won't be adding any more. Why 20%? RV antifreeze is misnamed. It should be called antiburst. It will freeze, and at fairly high temps, but it won't burst your plumbing until its really cold. Your temps are warming up every day so by afternoon you should be thawedout if you wanted to dump. See the attached chart as an example of freeze and burst points vs antifreeze concentration. This is for the Dow product, others might be a little different. Antifreeze temp vs concentration
	1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold

lostagain Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2587	Post Options Post Reply Quote lostagain Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 24 Jul 2022 at 6:28am
	If you are going to consistently camp in the temperatures you mentioned, you may want to consider doing a few things to keep the residual heat a little longer under the trailer. You could consider enclosing the bottom of the trailer, at least where the tanks are, with some insulating materials. A number of trailers have enclosed under chassis areas and it may be worth a peek to see how they did it and what they used. Ours, for example, is enclosed with a some kind of corrugated plastic with a foil reflective backing, that supposedly hold some of the heat in. If you enclose the bottom, you might also want to add a small duct to heat the space inside the enclosed bottom. When your furnace runs, you would be dumping a little of the hot air around the tanks and can keep them just barely warm enough that they don't freeze. Finally, you can consider using some adhesive closed cell foam tape around the drain lines up to the gate valves. Though the tape won't heat the pipes, it can help hold enough residual heat from the contents of the tanks to keep the contents of the pipes just above freezing. In another post, I described a trip we took across the country and encountered sustained 10 - 15℉ for much longer than you described in your post, as we drove across Wyoming and parked for the night in a rest area near Cheyanne. The only thing that froze were the low point drain lines for the pressure water system in the inch or so where they stuck out from the bottom enclosure. The bottom of our trailer has the so-called "Arctic Package" [the foil backed plastic cardboard], the heater duct, and the wrapped tank drain lines. I left the furnace turned on and set at around 60℉ while we drove through that cold. The pex to the drain valves thawed with no problem.
	Never leave footprints behind. Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost

_WW_ Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 25 Dec 2021 Location: Mt Vernon, WA Online Status: Offline Posts: 16	Post Options Post Reply Quote _WW_ Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 24 Jul 2022 at 10:10am
	Thanks for the other ideas! It's only this one trip in the fall each year that I encounter these temps. In the spring it's only a few frosty mornings and of not much concern. The closed cell foam tape and RV antifreeze would probably do the trick, or heat tape around the dump pipes, or all of it.
	2014 RAM 1500 2016 R Pod 179

gpokluda Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 11 Nov 2018 Location: NM Online Status: Offline Posts: 275	Post Options Post Reply Quote gpokluda Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 24 Jul 2022 at 11:10am
	We routinely camp all year round. As Offgrid said, you are good to the mid 20's as long as the days warm into the 40-50F range. When it is going to get that cold over night, we disconnect city water and drain the hose. We normally do not hook up our dump hose until we have to drain.
	Gpokluda 2017 Rpod 179(sold 2023) 2022 Escape 5.0TA 2022 Ford F150 4X4 3.5EB Triumph T120