Heated water hoses, fresh and waste. Whats your solution?

There were times when I didn't want to have to mess with filling the water tank and draining the hose so I made a heated hose.
Based on local advice in Grand Junction CO where they have a lot of oilfield workers and sell a lot of heat tapes, hoses, etc, I bought a black polyethylene water hose and a heat tape at a True Value hardware store.

Be sure to check the instructions with the tape, because some specify that the tape should not be spiral wrapped, but simply taped along the length of the hose.
I used sections of foam pipe insulation with sticky edges - there is a plastic strip that keeps them from sticking until you are ready - to cover the hose with after installing the heat tape. I covered the butt joints with duct tape.
In CO at my sister in laws place I also had a five gallon bucket with fiberglass insulation in it and a short heat tape on the upright and hose bib.
This served me well for eleven full timing years.
Of course I tried hard to never have to use it, but sometimes you just have to be in a cold place for a while.

Up north those that pump water from the lake to the cabin in winter have good luck with this:

Clicky

I used the Camco heated hose and it worked great. Wasn't sure about making one myself although I probably could have saved some money, but the piece of mind was good and it was well heated and warm to the touch even when freezing outside and the snow never built up over it.
As far as draining it was usually fairly warm water going down a decent grade, and in large enough quantities that I never experienced and freezing of the slinky.

kyle86 wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I use the fresh water tank whether it is hot or cold and dump waste tanks as needed.

No need for all that heated hose, hose insulation wraps, heat tape etc.
Heated hoses are expensive, hose insulation gets torn/worn/as to be replaced, heat tape is PITA
Then you have to store all that stuff. Not worth the hassle. K.I.S.S. is my motto

I really like this idea. If you have exposed tanks and dump valves, how do you keep them from freezing though?

I did this winter '81 in Coronach, Saskatchewan, & '84 in The Pas, Manitoba in a 20' Vanguard TT with exposed waste tanks. A home made heated fresh water hose with the heat tape running down the hydrant to below freeze line ( 6') , insulated with foam.
Left waste valves open, graded, insulated 3" pvc drain. All went well. The trick was to never drain just a little bit of water, minimum a sink full, a shower, 2 full bowl flushes, or not at all.
Me and a couple of other members I know here have lived through winters in rigs in temps as low as - 40f ,c ( some even colder) in rigs not designed for that. It takes proaction and a bit of thought. But it was better to be in my home than in an apartment or a motel.
I bet the thousands working in the Bakken in ND could teach us even more.

The unit I had in my reply above had two grey and one black tank all exposed. When I bought the trailer as part of the deal I had a heat blanket under all three tanks and then encapsulated each tank with foam. Plus mobilehome skirting kept the cold wind out underside.

The down side for me of not using the city water hookup is hearing the pump run plus trying to refill in 45 mph winds at 0 to 13 degrees a couple of times a week wasn't worth the hassle.
I found it was much simpler for the 4-5 months of winter for me was too make my own heated water hose and and a permenant drain line forget about it.
No messing with water hose or a drain hose 4-5 moths of winter....couldn't get any simpler than that.

kyle86 wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I use the fresh water tank whether it is hot or cold and dump waste tanks as needed.

No need for all that heated hose, hose insulation wraps, heat tape etc.
Heated hoses are expensive, hose insulation gets torn/worn/as to be replaced, heat tape is PITA
Then you have to store all that stuff. Not worth the hassle. K.I.S.S. is my motto

I really like this idea. If you have exposed tanks and dump valves, how do you keep them from freezing though?

Heat pads on the tanks, aluminum foil and heat tape over that for the plumbing. I put some extra insulation over my tape and wrapped it with gorilla tape.

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I use the fresh water tank whether it is hot or cold and dump waste tanks as needed.

No need for all that heated hose, hose insulation wraps, heat tape etc.
Heated hoses are expensive, hose insulation gets torn/worn/as to be replaced, heat tape is PITA
Then you have to store all that stuff. Not worth the hassle. K.I.S.S. is my motto

I really like this idea. If you have exposed tanks and dump valves, how do you keep them from freezing though?

Yes as mentioned above, I would get out my fresh water hose on a 'warm' day and fill the tank once every two weeks. I could drain on a warm day as well. Because I was full timing, I would pick the warmest days of the week to drain and fill the tanks.

When I was living in San Diego CA, the fresh water supply was only 55F, and way to cold to take a long shower. By using a L-5 tankless portable water heater, I could heat the incoming fresh water to about 80F by filling at around 7 liters per minute (it is rated to warm the water by about 50F at 5 liters per minute hence the L5 name). The now heated to 80F tank will give a really long shower time, and that was great.

Warming the water with a 37,000 Btu L5 might help prevent the fresh water tank from freezing, so will putting a electric heater with thermostat near it. I had one set to low heat output - 800 watts, and set the thermostat to about 55F. This also warmed the compartment near the grey and black tanks, and kept my bedroom above the tanks warmed to about 55 all winter when I lived in Portland OR.

The slightly larger L-10 portable heater (also at Amazon.com) can heat more water with it's 55,000 Btu input, and also have a higher temp output at 1.5 GPM due to it's larger heat input. You probably have near freezing incoming water at your campground? Your 6 gallon hot water tank will not last very long under those conditions. If you could rig up a way to move the 140F water from the hot water tank to the fresh water tank, you could also warm that water to about 80F by moving say 12 gallons into a tank with 60 gallons in it.

You will use a LOT of propane in the winter in South Dakota. I hope that you are hooked up to a 100 pound or larger tank near the RV, it can be refilled by a delivery truck. They typically will rent them in your location. It also helps to be able to switch back to one of the factory installed tanks in a emergency, especially if you can not get a delivery during a snowstorm.

Once there is enough snow on the ground to pile it up around the base of the RV, you will be thankful that no more cold air will blow under the RV, and it will effectively insulate the basement a LOT.

I have some Reflectix insulation that I cut for every window in my RV. This helps prevent the heat from leaving the windows.

Good luck, I would not want to spend a winter up there!

Fred.

I use the fresh water tank whether it is hot or cold and dump waste tanks as needed.

No need for all that heated hose, hose insulation wraps, heat tape etc.
Heated hoses are expensive, hose insulation gets torn/worn/as to be replaced, heat tape is PITA
Then you have to store all that stuff. Not worth the hassle. K.I.S.S. is my motto

We lived in our 27' RK 5th wheel trailer for one winter (7 months) with temps down to zero while the house was being built. I had water/30 amp electric set and a 3" sewer connection to my home septic tank.

I don't remember brands or prices as its been 17 years ago. I bought my own heat tape with a thermostat for the 10'-12' water hose. I wrapped the hose with two layers of 1/2" thick fiberglass insulation with a foil backing then added a 1" thick water noodle over it. I then used duct tape from top to bottom to seal out rain. No issues.

This unit had two drain points. A black and grey in front for the bath room and a grey aft behind the wheels under the rear kitchen. I ran 3" pvc pipe angled down to the sewer connection about 8'-10' aft of rear of the trailer. I bought everything from a plumbing/electric supply.
The most expensive part was mobilehome skirting. This did more than anything to keep the cold out.
Draining three tanks was no problem even in subfreezing temps. A single mobilehome skirting panel is easily removed.
I pulled the black tank valve first/then the grey next to it/then the other grey. I had lots of down drain angle so water never froze. Plus in this country it may get to zero but three days later it may be 60 degrees with lots of sunshine ......heating exposed pipes.

I had the 3" rv drain line put in when my sub contractor put the home septic in.
I ran the 110 electric underground for about 175' myself from the the service pole. I also ran about 200' of 1" pvc water line from the well house to a freeze proof hydrant behind the trailer. The wife and I did every thing. No issues with drain or water hose.