Wall mount electric heater

ZINGERLITE wrote:
Does anyone run a wall mount electric heater? What about the ones that look like a glade plug in?

We've got an 18' travel trailer we'd like to keep warm in the spring/fall. The Gas furnace is just too powerful in my opinion. Its either 75/80 degrees inside or off. The campers too small for the gas furnace. It warms it up nice and quick when we want it warm. At 2am we wake up in a sauna.

The last couple seasons ive been using a cheap duraflame heater i picked up for $20 or so at TSC. It works well but its always in the way. Something on the wall would be great as an 18' camper has its own storage issues.

Just curious if anyone else has this problem. Input is appreciated.

It sounds like you have perfect gas furnace heating capacity in your little trailer. In other words - a furnace that is sized generously enough such that it can keep you comfortable in any cold weather situation that you should ever encounter. I'd much rather have this situation in an RV than an under-sized furnace situation.

That being said ... however what you have is a temperature control problem for that great gas furnace. Install, or have installed, a digital thermostat to replace what you probably have -> just a simple slider type "analog" type control that is probably not operating properly or is just plain getting worn out.

For comparison, the digital control in our small Class C turns the furnace ON if it detects an interior temperature one degree BELOW what we have it set for, and turns the furnace OFF if it detects an interior temperature two degrees ABOVE what we have it set for. This is a tight 3 degree temperature band that keeps us real comfortable.

Digital RV gas furnace controls are not expensive. I suggest you try this first before considering other heaters.

My 22 foot TT keeps warm with a portable electric heater set at 750 watts....when I’m plugged in...which is rare.

As someone said those "GLADE PLUG IN" ARE well under 1000 watts. Like 150 watts as i recall) they are OK for RV wiring but not much heat.

I'd not trust RV wiring for anything over 1000 watts by the way. now understand I do not repair RV's for a living but I've seen too many melted outlets.. All from 1500 watt heaters. Those Uni-box outlets are .... Well.. I don't use polite language to describe them.

I have one in the basement family room in my house (the basement is always cold). It is 400 W and works good. It has a small fan and blows directly in the area i need heated. Since it doesn't matter in the rest of the basement, the heater is well matched to the task at hand. In a bigger area such as an RV, you may need 2 or 3 (depending on size) in different areas of the RV. The heater has a thermostat so you can adjust it to whatever temp you desire.

When we had our trailer I bought a ceramic heater and fastened it to the wall by the bed. It looked like a piece of floor tile, about 16"x16", about 3/8" thick. Took the chill out of the BR area. Had always considered buying a couple more to put throughout the trailer, but gave the trailer to daughter. The heater got hot-you could put your hand on it and not get burned-but it was a little uncomfortable. I bet 2 or three of these throughout the camper would make the area comfortable on chilly nights, but you probably couldn't heat it if it were in the 20-30s area. No fan or moving parts, just looks like a piece of floor tile.

ZINGERLITE wrote:
We've got an 18' travel trailer we'd like to keep warm in the spring/fall. The Gas furnace is just too powerful in my opinion. Its either 75/80 degrees inside or off. The campers too small for the gas furnace. It warms it up nice and quick when we want it warm. At 2am we wake up in a sauna.

I think you may have a thermostat issue. Or you need to drop it down another 5-10 degrees for sleeping. Location of the thermostat could be an issue.

Make sure any digital thermostat has a battery. I had some plug in ones that every time the power was off required resetting. The default setting was "off".

I prefer small oil filled heaters.

ken56 wrote:
One of the small Pelonis ceramic disk cube heaters works well. Safer than an exposed flame heat source and no CO. Mine is maybe 8"x8"x8" and I never find it to be in the way. It's easily moved to whatever area you are in. We also have a Vornado heater that heats very well too. They come in a couple sizes. I find we use the Vornado more than anything else when I don't want to turn on the furnace.

OP stated that he has a small Duraflame portable electric hearer and it is always in the way.
I don't like them, because of using the cheap RV outlets with a high draw appliance.

Our toilet room gets cold when it is below 40 outside, I have looked at piping heat from our furnace in there, but would loose basement space. I may get a 600 watt toe kick heater and place under a set of drawers in the toilet room.

Lots of good info already. It sounds like i should ditch the analog thermostat for a digital one and try again.

One of the small Pelonis ceramic disk cube heaters works well. Safer than an exposed flame heat source and no CO. Mine is maybe 8"x8"x8" and I never find it to be in the way. It's easily moved to whatever area you are in. We also have a Vornado heater that heats very well too. They come in a couple sizes. I find we use the Vornado more than anything else when I don't want to turn on the furnace.