| Author | Message | ||
| airless in Mississippi (Airless_in_mississippi)
Registered Member Username: Airless_in_mississippi Post Number: 154 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 174.150.46.95 Rating: N/A |
Okay I have a 25 foot water hose and it has electric tape on it, how is the best way to heat up the interior lines that are freezing? Also "the tank" and its sewage connect is frozen solid, what do you do to prevent this from happening also? That should be airless in mississippi is now waterless in tennessee (Message edited by airless in mississippi on January 10, 2010) | ||
| Tim Brandt (Timb)
Registered Member Username: Timb Post Number: 481 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 74.244.14.221  Rating: N/A |
In my case my furnace is in the same bay as the tanks which keeps it warm enough. Alternately you can use a space heater in your tank bay to keep everything flowing. I also see people insulate their waterhose with the foam wrap used for home water heater lines | ||
| David Evans (Dmd)
Registered Member Username: Dmd Post Number: 410 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 173.68.141.245  Rating: N/A |
Less, salt in your holding tank will keep it from freezing before it does! If your water lines are next to the outside walls and not properley insulated good luck! park the bus with that side in the sun and have the interior heat on. Our bus was used for runing to Fla every Dec at Christmas time and back to NY in early March we had your problem. We moved the water tank from the bays to the interior under the sink and had to redo the pipeing to stop freezing. We just got back from Fla yesterday and it was COLD!!! Good luck, its supposed to warm up soon! | ||
| Larry & Lynne Dixon (Larry_d)
Registered Member Username: Larry_d Post Number: 245 Registered: 7-2005 Posted From: 66.112.46.226  Rating: N/A |
Our coach has furnace vents in all three bays and we are in Kinder LA, real cold but no frozen pipes as yet. I always use holding tank water and holding tank waste storage then dump when warm also to fill with water. Larry | ||
| Buswarrior (Buswarrior)
Registered Member Username: Buswarrior Post Number: 1779 Registered: 12-2000 Posted From: 76.71.104.249  Rating: N/A |
Salting the waste tank works, and is used by the commercial coach industry to keep the stock outhouse from going solid, but.... The destination for the waste might be a problem? If your dump is a septic system that is near and dear to you, you may want to think of what your salting efforts will do to the helpful flora and fauna down the end of the pipe. As noted, designing for cold weather is the best defense. If nothing else, a layer of plywood under the tanks helps, a bit of insulation is better. All the usual about routing your piping in a way that it can be contained in a space that is heatable, and running electric heat trace cable on stuff that can't be protected otherwise. However, for now, you can get your essentials thawed by way of one or more of those cheap electric cube heaters. Do not aim it at anything that will catch fire or melt! Now you have some trouble, how to get power into the bay? If you have to leave the door open for the cord, forget it. Too much open space for the heat to go right back outside. This would be a good time to install a plug... You must cut off any air infiltration to the bay, if you have venting to the bay, pieces of cardboard cut to fit and taped in place, tape the whole bay door around if your seals are no good. Many busnuts, when under the duress of a sudden cold snap, report using their own hot water tank as a heat dump to both the waste tank via the drain, and the fresh water tank via the shower bypass (to run the water back to the fresh tank instead of down the drain to save water when drawing the hot water up for a shower) Lots of tricks that other tricks give you another redundancy. happy coaching! buswarrior | ||
| R.C.Bishop (Chuckllb)
Registered Member Username: Chuckllb Post Number: 1069 Registered: 7-2006 Posted From: 70.210.253.179 Rating: N/A |
Light bulbs in a bay or other space (with clearance) work wonders-60 watt preferably-- my experience in -25 temps,,,only took a couple of them, but as BW says, watch air... outside air inclusion...fruitless, IMHO. FWIW RCB | ||
| Alex (Doctor_al)
Registered Member Username: Doctor_al Post Number: 14 Registered: 8-2006 Posted From: 75.121.201.56 Rating: N/A |
I had inexpensive electric heated oil heaters in each bay. the ones that look like an old steam radiator. | ||
| FAST FRED (Fast_fred)
Registered Member Username: Fast_fred Post Number: 1057 Registered: 10-2006 Posted From: 66.82.162.10  Rating: N/A |
:As noted, designing for cold weather is the best defense." Since we prefer empty bays in the Sportscar the FW and Black tank is above floor level built into the cabinets. That bottom drawer is EZ to give up , to not have to winterize. The tanks and the water pump and toilet are all behind the door into the toilet. The drill is to light the death trap unvented catalytic heater on low , open the toilet door and hang a blanket to the overhead rack. This blocks the rear section very well so only a small amount of heat is needed , usually in Nov , before heading south. A 1200W electric would work , but our parking spot has no electric . Just another MY WAY , for wannabe converters to think about as a problem solver. FF |