Installing water tank heat pads

[SteamboatSailor]

Hi, all;
We're considering purchasing a 2013 cyclone 4100 that does not have any cold weather packages ( e.g., the Canadian Arctic package, Yeti, etc.)
Living & playing in NW Colorado means lots of cold weather, so we would need to upgrade the insulation & water line/tank protection.
I'm not finding in this forum any reference manuals or commentary on DIY install of heat pads for the tanks. Am I just not looking in the right spot...everything else seems to be covered in this wonderful forum.
Any thoughts/suggestions on what would be involved would be appreciated.

Thx in advance....

 

[carl.swoyer]

Possibly your furnace my be ducted into the belly. If so that may help

Carl & Christine, 2012 Landmark Rushmore, 2005 Silverado crew cab lt 8 foot bed 6.6 lly /Allison -custom dual exhaust-198000 miles !

 

[SteamboatSailor]

Carl,
yes, hopefully that will help but when temps hit 0 or lower & the wind had piped up I'm sure we'll need more.
( Some would say that's when it's time to head south with the geese......)

Rick

 

[danemayer]

Hi SteamboatSailor,

I've replaced the heating pad on my Gray #1 tank, along with other work, so I can share a little.

You can purchase heating pads made by Annod Industries. They are self-adhesive and easy to apply. You'll have to run your own wiring and switch(es) and add a circuit breaker to your main panel. That's assuming you get 120V AC pads. 12V DC pads are also available and would require power from the fuse box. The 12V DC pads can run while towing. The 120V AC pads cannot (in 6 winter seasons in Colorado, I've never had a problem). When there's a power outage, you'll either need to empty the tanks or run a generator to keep the 120V AC pads working. On the other hand, you can draw your battery down by running 12V DC pads.

Heartland uses 120V AC pads on most models. I think the Oakmont may come with 12V DC. Not sure why.

You'll want heating pads on all your tanks and as long as you're doing all the work, you might want individual switches. If you put in a single switch, in order to run the heating pads, you'll need to keep a few gallons of water in each tank to prevent damage to the tank. Individual switches would add flexibility.

The hardest part of the job is that you have to take down the coroplast underbelly cover in order to get to the tanks. Also, on some models, (not sure about yours), the black tank is above the gray #1 tank, so getting in to install the pad might require removal of the gray #1 tank.

While you have the underbelly open, let me suggest adding heat tape , controllers, and pipe insulation to all of your water lines to protect them from freezing.

While you have the coroplast open, I'd suggest marking the location of the gate valves and installing zippered trap flaps so you can access them easily. If one freezes (and they can), unzip and thaw the valve with a hair dryer. Put pop rivets around the edges to prevent airflow from peeling back the adhesive.

You might also want to review the tips in our Water Systems Winter Usage Guide.

 

[travelin2]

Hi, all;
We're considering purchasing a 2013 cyclone 4100 that does not have any cold weather packages ( e.g., the Canadian Arctic package, Yeti, etc.)
Living & playing in NW Colorado means lots of cold weather, so we would need to upgrade the insulation & water line/tank protection.
I'm not finding in this forum any reference manuals or commentary on DIY install of heat pads for the tanks. Am I just not looking in the right spot...everything else seems to be covered in this wonderful forum.
Any thoughts/suggestions on what would be involved would be appreciated.

Thx in advance....

Try this post in the forum...
https://heartlandowners.org/showthr...ons-for-installing-fresh-tank-heater(s)-in-LM


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[SteamboatSailor]

Thanks to all for the quick response & suggestions. It appears there's been more discussion on this topic than I initially found. Sounds like a task that's doable...just time & $$.

 

[TravelTiger]

We installed various heating pads by Ultraheat in our ElkRidge.

In our case, there were no available free breakers to add AC pads, so we went with DC. We added a fresh tank pad, and then pipe heating pads to the water lines going to the kitchen sink (furthest run) and the line from the fresh tank to the water pump. The fresh tank was on one switch, kitchen line on one switch and fresh line on one switch. We totaled the amps used and distributed to 3 fuses we had available in our DC panel. Added the switches in our switch cabinet. The pipe heaters did not have a thermostat, they were either on or not via the switch. The tank heater had a thermostat to come on only if below 40 degrees (but also had a switch.)

We also wrapped all water lines we could get to with the foam pipe wrap.

Removing & reinstalling the underbelly coroplast and thermal insulation (silver bubble wrap) was the hardest part.

We also redirected the heat vent that goes to the underbelly, so it was mainly focused on the valves and tanks.

We did not add heaters to grey and black tanks, only because we felt the underbelly furnace heat was adequate for that.

In progress, you can see the heaters wrapped around the pipes

Tank pad



Switches




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