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garyemunson's avatar
garyemunson
Explorer II
Feb 12, 2016

Frozen pipes inWinnebago 36Y

What I found regarding pipes freezing in a 2015 Winnebago 36Y Vista may also apply to other models with a 'sideways' rear bed. When camping on a cold (20 degree) night, we had the utility compartment water pipes freeze up. I complained to a Winnebago phone agent but didn't get any useful info other than the compartment was heated to prevent freezing. Obviously it did not work in my case. The agent was unable to explain to me how it was heated. I started looking with my mirror on a stick and wasn't able to see any ductwork for that but saw there is a hole at the top of the utility bay that wiring and pipes pass through. Further examining found that at the base of the nightstand areas, under the edge of the bed on each side is a 6"x6" grille. The one on the left side of the bed is also access to the water heater bypass valve. They lead to a space under the head end of the bed. The grilles are apparently how warm air is supposed to find it's way from the coach to the utility bay. I had both of them off on our next cold weather outing and found that without them on, 20 degrees outside only lowered the utility bay to 40 degrees (remote thermometers are handy for this!). I also noticed the pipe/wire pass through was almost completely filled with wires and pipes. That, along with the air flow restriction of the grilles were enough to allow the freezing of the pipes. My next project will be to make a second hole to allow more warm air to the utility bay. Stay tuned...
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    We do the lightbulb thing around here too... I found these THERMO CUBEs from AMAZON that really work great. These have different models for different turn-on temperatures.



    My OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer sits outside here at the house so I use the 35 DEGREE models which turns on at 35 degrees and then turns off when the temp gets up to 45 degrees...

    Also for my OFF-ROAD POPUP setup I run into alot of quick setups in the winter in very low temps alot. I found that things inside my popup would freeze up pretty easy behind the cabinet areas. My trailer does not have remote heat strips anywhere... What I did to solve this problem was to install these small 3-inch round vents (LOWES) inside all of the interconnecting cabinets that literally wraps around the inside of my POPUP trailer from the front tent bed area all the way around to the entrance door on the front side. The small round vents are just glued in place. These small vents allows air flow all the way around the closed cabinet areas. Next to the door area I mounted a thermostat controlled DC axial fan panel that will pull air all the way through the closed cabinets.


    This worked out great for these cold nights getting warm air inside all of the cabinet/storage areas... ADDED NOTE: I got this idea from Don a few years back... PIANOTUNA



    Roy Ken
  • You can also get a thermostat controlled light socket that automatically turns the bulb on if it gets below 40 degrees.
  • If it were me I would drop into a dealer and ask someone to explain how the compartment is heated and have them take a quick look. Some rigs aren't inspected very well and sometimes they forget to hook things up - not sure how your rigs heating system is suppose to work but having someone look doesn't cost anything. Just my 02
  • Keep in mind that the larger the holes to allow air in to the wet bay, the more cold air you are allowing to get up in to your coach. A lot of people just put a 100 watt incandescent light bulb in the wet bay that is controlled by a thermostat to come on when temps get low enough. This has worked on our coach at 5 below zero and may work lower.