30 amp fuse labeled H.T.

[herk7769]

Originally Posted by windrider

Time to get the "thermal calculator" out again. If you keep the water in the tank at 50 degrees, and the 3 foot long gray water drain pipe is exposed to 20 degrees, Fahrenheit, will it freeze? Will it freeze hard enough to cause a pipe to break? I don't know the answer, but I can say from experience, as long as it makes it above freezing during the day hours, I've never worried about tanks freezing. I have had my fresh water supply line freeze several times, but never worried about tanks. Just my "two cents".

Ditto on the fresh water lines freezing.

I only have one gray water tank so it is not an issue to heat the galley tank plumbing. It is run inside the belly covering, no? The thermal leakage from inside the camper should be enough to keep it warm enough (unless it is extremely cold and who wants to camp there?) not to freeze I would think.

[herk7769]

Originally Posted by yvesm

The pipes upstream (water in them) of the dump are not heated and exposed, on a cold day they would freeze. The cost of the heater bands is low so if I get bored I will add the extra heaters. Forest River put heaters on the tanks and the pipe stub coming out of the tanks, they should have installed heaters all the way to the dump valves. UltraHeat, Inc. - Tank Heaters

If you check the photos of the side by side tanks, you will see that the "stub" is connected directly to the dump valve on both tanks, so there is no issue.

On the galley tank where that is not so, FR does install a pipe heater and a tank heater already.

[The_Stuff]

thinking im just gonna run some 240v self regulating heat tape. wrap around valve area, then around pipe to the tanks. i have quite a distance from tanks to dump valves.

[jimh]

Originally Posted by windrider

Time to get the "thermal calculator" out again. If you keep the water in the tank at 50 degrees, and the 3 foot long gray water drain pipe is exposed to 20 degrees, Fahrenheit, will it freeze? Will it freeze hard enough to cause a pipe to break? I don't know the answer, but I can say from experience, as long as it makes it above freezing during the day hours, I've never worried about tanks freezing. I have had my fresh water supply line freeze several times, but never worried about tanks. Just my "two cents".

i wondered the same thing when i saw the length of unprotected line on my cardnal. a few years ago, Shell in Norco, La had a nipple freeze and break but i don't know what service the main line was in or the temp. (think it was nat gas and it would been around 40 to 50 deg). i know we went around putting steam on some of ours.
i would think it would have to be below freezing for more than a day to freeze the 3" line. then it would depend on the content of the water.

[yvesm]

Originally Posted by herk7769

If you check the photos of the side by side tanks, you will see that the "stub" is connected directly to the dump valve on both tanks, so there is no issue.

On the galley tank where that is not so, FR does install a pipe heater and a tank heater already.

On my 2902SS the 1 1/2'' and 3'' pipes and valves are exposed with no freeze protection, they are located outside of the underbelly

[2manytoyz]

Originally Posted by yvesm

Got heated tanks but exposed elbows and valves with no heaters. Will be fixing that before next year.

The elbows have the heated pads on mine as well.

However, the adhesive they used didn't last long. The pads started falling off the bottom of the tanks, so I used Shoe Goo adhesive to put them back. That was 4 years ago. This stuff works great!

[herk7769]

Originally Posted by yvesm

On my 2902SS the 1 1/2'' and 3'' pipes and valves are exposed with no freeze protection, they are located outside of the underbelly

If they are outside and contain water, I agree, they should have heat pads.

[BubbaBear]

Yes, you are correct.