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Old 10-19-2015, 12:58 PM   #1
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Arctic Pak 12V or 120V?

We were dry camping with no hookups in our fairly new Forester 2401R and we turned the Arctic Pak switch on because it was supposed to go down to 28 degrees at night. However, it didn't light up so there was no way to tell if it was working. But when we turned on the generator, the switch did light up. We checked with the ThermaHeat manufacturer and they said the pads should be 12V, so why do we have to run the generator to turn them on? Or does the switch lighting up have nothing to do with whether the heaters are really on or not? No info forthcoming directly from Forest River unfortunately and nothing we can find in the manuals. Has this happened to anyone else?
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Old 10-19-2015, 01:06 PM   #2
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I've not seen 12v tank heaters, they may exist but to put out the heat they would need to put out your battery would be dead in no time at all.

If the light lit up upon turning on gennie then they are 110v.

You'd need a pretty hefty battery bank to run 12v tank heaters all night.

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Old 10-19-2015, 01:17 PM   #3
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My tank heaters are 12 v in my Rockwood.
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Old 10-19-2015, 01:18 PM   #4
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My tank heaters are 12 v in my Rockwood.
Tank heaters or the pipe tape?

My flagstaff the pipe heaters were 12v but the tank heaters were 110v

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Old 10-19-2015, 01:28 PM   #5
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Mine are on the 12 V panel. They do make both or dual voltage versions. Quite possible the OP has 120 v like you have had two trailers ago.


http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...nel-30760.html

FE Damp mentioned 160 watts each for 12 V. That will kill the battery in no time.
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Old 10-19-2015, 01:34 PM   #6
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Mine are on the 12 V panel. They do make both or dual voltage versions. Quite possible the OP has 120 v like you have had two trailers ago.


http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...nel-30760.html

FE Damp mentioned 160 watts each for 12 V. That will kill the battery in no time.
Of course now that I'm thinking about it if the battery was "dead" the light wouldn't have came on till shore power was present.



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Old 10-19-2015, 01:49 PM   #7
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My tank heaters are 12 v in my Rockwood.
Mine are 12v also and will suck your battery faster then your furnace. If your plugged in use your tank heaters and electric heater. If your boondocking just use the furnace if you have a duct in the basement. Rockwoods have a 2" duct for the basement. One or the other, 12v only on both your batteries will be dead in the AM....
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Old 10-19-2015, 01:56 PM   #8
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Of course now that I'm thinking about it if the battery was "dead" the light wouldn't have came on till shore power was present.



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Yes I believe so..dead battery for sure!

"Now if we had a heat loop from the hot water heater that ran down and around the tanks that would be more efficient on battery power. Just a little pump." pat pending...
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Old 10-19-2015, 02:30 PM   #9
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Apparently both 12 volt and 120 volt heaters are available (in fact, there are heaters with both 12 v and 120 v elements!). Suspect FR is supplying either, depending on year and model. Our 2012 Solera has 12 v tank heaters. Draw too much current for boondocking; need converter or alternator supply. Can use while driving (alternator on Motorhome will supply). Advantage of 120 v heaters would be less load on converter when camping with hookups, I would think.
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Old 10-19-2015, 04:31 PM   #10
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Heard back from FR. Apparently the heaters need 13.5v (not 12v or 120v) and when the batteries run down to less than that, they won't work. So when the generator is turned on, they get the 13.5v they need and the switch lights up to show they are working.
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Old 10-19-2015, 04:52 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by Wormturner View Post
Heard back from FR. Apparently the heaters need 13.5v (not 12v or 120v) and when the batteries run down to less than that, they won't work. So when the generator is turned on, they get the 13.5v they need and the switch lights up to show they are working.
Interesting. I have the same Arctic Pak and I'm not sure how much use I would get out of it since the times when I would really want it I wouldn't be hooked to shore power and I'm confident they would drain the coach batteries. Nevertheless with a 13.5v requirement maybe that would help save the batteries by cutting the Arctic Pak off, then again seems like the functionality would be diminished anyway.
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Old 10-19-2015, 05:01 PM   #12
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12 volt heating pads besides being battery killers as already mentioned are also woefully inefficient. The best way to go and the one that makes sense are the enclosed tanks that are heated by a furnace duct that runs directly to them. When it's cold enough to run the furnace it's heating your tanks as well without the addition of another electrical device that can malfunction. And of course to the compartment where the dump valves are located are heated well.
But pads are better than nothing when temps drop to below freezing.
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Old 10-19-2015, 11:38 PM   #13
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I hope everyone keeps in mind that one night of below 32 degrees followed by a day of even a little above freezing temps - especially for plumbing covered from the elements and freezing temps would never require heat packs to be turned on at all.
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Old 10-20-2015, 05:43 AM   #14
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We have the Arctic Pak on our Sunseeker and I don't use it. When it's below freezing we are always using the propane furnace. It heats the tanks, water pump/filter compartment, and sewer connection compartment.

Once we were camping with only a 15 amp hookup when it got to 19 F. We were fully exposed to a 15 mph wind all night. We kept the coach about 70 F. When I checked the compartments the next morning they were about 50 F.

A comment on the reply from FR that the Arctic Paks don't work unless they have 13.5 volts. That's not totally correct. They are simple resistance heaters and the heat output is directly proportional to the voltage they receive. They will put out less heat at 12 volts than 13.5, but will still work.
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Old 10-20-2015, 06:25 AM   #15
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Heat Pads are 12V they work while going down the road if turned on,no Jenny needed! They are needed on units that have Discharge pipes and or valves outside the heated confines of the unit. Snowmobiles have had Heated grips and thumb warmers for Many years all run off of 12V! Youroo!!
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