Aftermarket Water Tank Heating Pads

[tsdanforth]

Hi - Am interested in adding water tank heating pads to help in the shoulder seasons when temps may dip down below freezing. A couple of questions:

1. Is it worth protecting the tanks if you don't protect the supply lines, valves, etc...?

2. Most of the pads I see that are commercially available seem to have an internal thermostat that comes on about 45 degrees F and shuts off at 68 degrees F. Seems like a waste of energy to have them heat the tank to 68 degrees. Any out there with manual/adjustable thermostats?

3. Assume you need shore power to operate these heaters , correct?

Thanks in advance.

[cpaharley2008]

I had 12v pads on my first Escape and determined that you had to be hooked up to electric as the pads use 12v to heat your tank which is not very efficient. I find as long as you have the heat on and are using the Escape, you should be fine.

[hugh]

Originally Posted by tsdanforth

Hi - Am interested in adding water tank heating pads to help in the shoulder seasons when temps may dip down below freezing. A couple of questions:

1. Is it worth protecting the tanks if you don't protect the supply lines, valves, etc...?

2. Most of the pads I see that are commercially available seem to have an internal thermostat that comes on about 45 degrees F and shuts off at 68 degrees F. Seems like a waste of energy to have them heat the tank to 68 degrees. Any out there with manual/adjustable thermostats?

3. Assume you need shore power to operate these heaters , correct?

Thanks in advance.

I don't know on the E19, but on the 21C, the water supply lines are exposed below the trailer. On a windy, below freezing day, they can freeze pretty quickly.

And yes, the thermostats built into the pads are a waste of energy. On shore power, it probably doesn't matter, but heating up your poo to 68F on batteries will run them down quickly.

For more efficiency, you can install an external 12V DC temperature control like this one ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CH7W3XP/ ) which has configurable set points. If you just want to have the pad turn on within a narrower range than the built-in thermostat provides, you can just use the external thermostat in addition to the internal thermostat.

[brroberts]

On my ‘21 E19, water lines are inside.