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Location: Picayune,MS | OK it is supposed to get down to 30 tonight...... I have not drained my fresh water holding tank yet...it is full 40 gal....I have to use my trailer this weekend and next weekend...will plugging it in and turning on the furnace and running it keep the drains from freezing....... and if so should it be OK to plug it into 120v just to run the furnace??????????
Edited by Turnnburn64 2008-11-21 2:41 PM
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Expert
Posts: 5870
  
Location: western PA | Using a small ceramic heater will provide an adequate amount of heat instead of running your furnace. Open all of your cabinet doors to access any piping runs. Your hot water heater is directly vented to the outside and can freeze. Close your bypass valves and drain the tank. You should be ok at 30 degrees, but as the temps lower, any piping that is inside the floor and covered with insulation is at risk of freezing. Gard |
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Location: Picayune,MS | How do I drain the hot water tank?????? |
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Expert
Posts: 5870
Location: western PA | Depends on the brand and installation you own. Some tanks have a valve with a small handle that you lift, some will have a hex headed plastic plug that you remove, with some brands you have to pull the anode. Other installations include drain valves under the tanks that do the job. Gard |
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Location: Picayune,MS | Thanks gard......I am headed to the store now to buy the heater then to the barn to drain everything! |
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Posts: 2453
Location: Northern Utah | Your trailer will hold some heat overnight. Just because the air temps drop to 30, doesn't mean the temp in the trailer will drop below 32. The water itself is a heat sink that will store some heat. If it is going to be 30* for 8-12 hours, you may have something to be concerned about. If 50* now and will hit 30 for 2 hours just before sun up. The residual heat in the trailer will probably tied you through. As gard suggested a small ceramic heater will probably insure that don't have any problems for the next couple of weeks. |
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 Charter Member
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Location: Holland, Tx | This is probably stupid, but I'm not real educated on this... Is there a difference in small space heaters? If so, why is ceramic preferred? |
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Expert
Posts: 5870
Location: western PA | Both types of heaters put out about the same amount of heat, but the ceramic heaters have a cooler surface temperature. They are less likely to start a fire if they come in contact with a combustible material. A resistance coil can easily ignite a combustible surface. The prices continue to fall on the ceramic heaters; a Walmart two pac now costs about what one did last year. Gard |
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Charter Member
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Location: Holland, Tx | I picked up two small ceramic heaters at Walmart today, $17 each. Those boogers put out some heat. OMG! |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 385
Location: washington | I use one all winter in my LQ trailer... I have it turned low, so it only comes on when the temps get really cold. I also put thick insulation in all the windows and over the top and along the sides of the water tank areas... I have not had a problem with anything freezing in the trailer while the heater is plugged in. I also pour the pink RV anti-freeze in the sink, shower and toilet, and this year am going circulate the antifreeze through the hoses using the water pump. I'll have to read the manual to do that but I think it's a simple thing to do and effective. I was at an endurance ride near Bend Oregon at the end of October and it got down to 13 degrees :( My water pump froze, as did the hose from the horse water tank. The sun came out at 8am and wamred everything up and all was okay - it was sure cold! I was worried there would be damage but it was okay. * |
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Charter Member
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Location: Holland, Tx | Aside from wasting energy, would it be a bad idea to just plug in the trailer and have the water heater on if the temps get & stay really low?? |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 385
Location: washington | My water heater uses propane... if left it on all winter, it would run out of propane. I am not sure what happens if you have it on and it runs out at night when nobody is there. Last month when I was camping my alarm went off at night and I got up wondering what in the world that was. The hot water heater light was going off and on so I turned it off until morning when I could see what was wrong. I have an extra tank that I had to turn on after turning tank #1 off and had propane once again. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 544
Location: Claxton, Ga. | I just left my trailer plugged in and set the thermostat to 50 deg so my heater would cut on. I had a full bottle of propane. I was running all over the place last week for work and didn't have time to winterize it. I got that done last night. So I left it like that for 4 days. No issues at all. |
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Charter Member
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Location: Holland, Tx | My trailer is all electric. I realize this isn't the "norm" but it was a lot easier for me to build & maintain it via that route. |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Florida | Okay you guys are scaring me.... Protect your investment. If you have any questions about winterizing call the company that installed your LQ they are full of the right information. My trailer has a Harmar LQ and I was impressed with their assistance. You can find allot of quality winterizing information on the RV sites. |
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Expert
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Location: Decatur, Texas | Yes, there is a correct way to winterizer a trailer, but the original post wanted to know what to do with the water tank and they use the trailer on a regular bases. That is why everyone is saying "portable heaters"! We use our trailer every weekend and would run out of money re-winterizing it after everytime we use it. I got the idea about the small portable electric heater from a couple of different trailer manufacutres and LQ companies. |
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Charter Member
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Location: Holland, Tx | Originally written by BlazingCreekBar on 2008-11-28 5:49 PM Okay you guys are scaring me.... Protect your investment. If you have any questions about winterizing call the company that installed your LQ they are full of the right information. My trailer has a Harmar LQ and I was impressed with their assistance. You can find allot of quality winterizing information on the RV sites. I don't see what is so "scary" about the questions posted... The original poster said they use their trailer regularly, as do many of the rest of us and rewinterizing repeatedly would be pretty costly. In addition, I live in an area that doesn't freeze often so using a heater is also more convenient than trying to winterize. |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Florida | Very True! I do forget not everyone goes into a deep freeze for the next 5 months like we do. Here in New England it only takes a few hours to ruin the plastic pipes or crack a drain. You are right I over reacted. However, we have been witerized for a month now and have already seen temps at 25 durring the day extended into a week. Guess that is why my wife wants us to go south. Jealous in the NORTH POLE! |
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Location: AL | I winterized mine - once. Took forever to flush that RV antifreeze out! LOL felt I was wasting water all that time run run run ;) We use ours year round so a small ceramic heater, set to keep it just 'decent' inside the trailer is all we need (I'm in AL). I pull the cover off the water tank, prop open the cabinet doors, done. I check on it daily and turn the heater completely off between cold snaps. Go ahead, drool- I said cold snaps  |
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What to do with freash water tank tonight????
