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Our 02 has this stupid system. I've disconnected it. It may have changed in the intervening years since '02, so look at your documentation carefully.
The system on our rig consists of two heating pads on each of the black and grey tanks. There's nothing on the potable tank, presumably because its within the "living area" (in a cupboard under the bedroom wardrobes).
Each heater pad (my rig has two on each tank) has a built-in. non-adjustable thermostat. The heaters are turned on when the t/stat senses 40F, which is reasonable if the tanks are fairly full and the ambient temp is dropping. The dumb thing is they stay on until the tanks contents are heated to 60+. My documentation says 64 F. Who the hell wants to heat their sewage to 64 degrees.
I had expected the system to be similar to the "Frost-stats" you can get for exposed residential pipes, on at 35, off at 39.
They're 12 volts dc powered and each element (my rig has four) draws 7 amps. I have absolutely no interest in drawing 28 amps from my house batteries to heat the sewage to 64 degrees. I can think of a lot of other things to do with that power.
Since we park the rig in mid-October, I've disconnected the dumb system. I can't imagine why anyone who has read the system specs would ever consider it.
BTW, there doesn't seem to be any logic in the control system to determine whether there's anything in the tanks. I'd be concerned that a 3" x 8" heater consuming 84 watts would have the potential to melt the plastic tank.
That's all the "Artic pack (FR's label makers don't know the difference between a British 18 wheeler (an "artic" )and something to do with the frigid northern regions "arctic"). For those not familiar with UK slang, an 18-wheeler is officially an "articulated lorry", abbreviated to "artic".
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Frank and Eileen
No longer RVers or FR owners
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