Temp in the teens overnight, kitchen hw froze

[ourtinhouse]

Re: Thermo Cube

Well wish I had read the whole post befor cominting on my freez up; really wished I had read this before wel left out in January. Hope to be back in Texas soon with enougt time to work on this and some other thins as well.
Rex

 

[rvn4fun]

Re: Thermo Cube

We were in Texas last year and still had the same freezing problems, taking the bottum off and adding insulation to the waterpipe or boxing in the water tank and line with styrofoam and then extending the heater duct back in this box would fix the problem. BUT taking the bottum off is a lot of work that should have been done at the factory. What I did has worked for me although it does cost you more heat as you have to get more of your inside heat ducted out of the living room and running it into bottum of the camper. What we did was pull the living room vent up installed a t into the duct work with a short hose on the t, this was directed towards the water tank. Then a new closable floor vent was purchased. When this floor vent is closed it forces the heat down into the bottum area and so far has kept our pipes from freezing. Of course this forces the furnance to run more often to keep the inside warm as you are one vent short in the living room. We also dropped a digital thermometer down by the kitched drain pipe into the bottum this gives us a accurate temp where the freeze is going to happen. Even with this modification temp in the lower 30s are common. The bottum area is very big and without boxing the freezing area in or insuating it takes a large amount of heat in there to keep from freezing. I also took some pipe insulation and duct tape and made a cover for my freshwater drain hose where it comes thru the bottum area..

 

[hawkman54]

Just a mention for "jbeletti", I've read quite a bit of this thread and I also have a brand new Landmark. It's a 2013 Landmark San Antonio model built early 2013. If you need the build number, please pm me, and I'll give it to you. I have the "Fulltimer's package, and the Yetti package. We are in Colorado Springs currently experiencing temperatures well below freezing. Temps last night were 9 degrees after a brutal day at 15 degrees. I had everything on, and the furnace cycled about every 20 to 30 minutes. The one problem we had was the cold water in the kitchen freezing. It unfroze about 9 a.m. today when the temp reached 20 degrees. Do you have any ideas? I will get the Styrofoam covers for the "low point" hoses, but did not want to tackle the underbelly to put in heat cable. I'm open for suggestions. Thanks, Jon

 

[jimtoo]

Hi hawkman54,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and family. I'm sure you will get some helpful answers here from some of the other Heartlander's. I am not a cold weather camper so I am not able to help you.

Jim M

 

[danemayer]

Hi Hawkman54,

The water lines to the kitchen and bathroom are not insulated or heated. They're normally protected by the furnace heat going into the underbelly. Freezing at 9 degrees suggests one of two things to me: either the line froze above the water pump where there's no furnace ducting, or not enough hot air is getting into the underbelly.

For the area over the water pump, you need to take down the basement wall by the UDC and hang a 100 or 150W flood lamp in a reflector. Home Depot, Walmart, and most hardware stores have them. Looks like this. Just make sure it's well anchored so it doesn't fall into contact with the floor or water lines or anything else.

Another relatively easy action is to get 3/4" 4'x8' foamboard from Home Depot or Lowes. Cut it to make a box enclosing the 3 feet on the ODS of the underbelly to the ground. Start about 2-3 feet forward of the drop frame and go 2 - 3 feet back. Put it together with duct tape. It'll act as a mini-skirt to control heat loss in the area under the water lines.

A 60W droplight hanging in the UDC will help keep things from freezing there.

If you drop the off-door-side rear corner of the front section of coroplast by removing 3 or 4 bolts on each side near the corner, you can inspect the placement of the 2" duct that pumps air into the underbelly. It may not be placed well, which would make it more likely that the kitchen lines would freeze. It may just take pulling it an inch or two so it feeds the back section of the underbelly. If you have an impact wrench, you'll find it much easier to handle the bolts.

 

[jbeletti]

Just a mention for "jbeletti", I've read quite a bit of this thread and I also have a brand new Landmark. It's a 2013 Landmark San Antonio model built early 2013. If you need the build number, please pm me, and I'll give it to you. I have the "Fulltimer's package, and the Yetti package. We are in Colorado Springs currently experiencing temperatures well below freezing. Temps last night were 9 degrees after a brutal day at 15 degrees. I had everything on, and the furnace cycled about every 20 to 30 minutes. The one problem we had was the cold water in the kitchen freezing. It unfroze about 9 a.m. today when the temp reached 20 degrees. Do you have any ideas? I will get the Styrofoam covers for the "low point" hoses, but did not want to tackle the underbelly to put in heat cable. I'm open for suggestions. Thanks, Jon

Hi Jon,

Sorry but I got nothing in terms of cold weather camping ideas. Dan has given you some great info and his is from experience.

Jim

 

[danemayer]

Another thought. If you build the foam skirt, place another flood lamp inside to keep the area warm. Keep it off the ground so it doesn't get wet.


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