Adding electric heat to coleman Mach3+

Here's an alternative It's silent, safe, and not that expensive. Popular unit used by many Rver's and in my book better than relying on modification to air conditioner units which are loud.

Chris Bryant wrote:

The best would be the toe kick heater- even 2 1000 watt heaters.

A big X2 on that one.
It would be so nice to have that heat blasting across the floor.
Unfortunately my toe-kicks are too puny (height wise) :(

It would be a great system for anyone with room for one though!

I for one would not want to listen to the noise of the fan of either my roof air, or in the case of cheap-heat, the furnace.

I like my quiet small cube heater.

But then I don't have a basement that I need to heat.

My main problem with the a/c heat strip is that even on low, it moves a lot of air, so while it is adding the same ~5600 btu/her heat that a small heater adds, the perception may be of less heat.

The best would be the toe kick heater- even 2 1000 watt heaters.

Tyandkate wrote:
So to reference the electric heater to plug in to the wall. I purchased one plugged it in to a surge protector for the breaker protection. It popped in ten mins the cord was very warm to touch and the prongs were so hot you could barely touch them. Moved it to a gfi plug same results. I returned it. I don’t want to lose my trailer over a heater. I got the idea for the add on heat strip because the service wire to the unit is larger than the wire used to the outlets.

See my above post

So to reference the electric heater to plug in to the wall. I purchased one plugged it in to a surge protector for the breaker protection. It popped in ten mins the cord was very warm to touch and the prongs were so hot you could barely touch them. Moved it to a gfi plug same results. I returned it. I don’t want to lose my trailer over a heater. I got the idea for the add on heat strip because the service wire to the unit is larger than the wire used to the outlets.

rhagfo wrote:

ScottG wrote:
A simple heat strip (5600 btu's) is a nice addition to your other heat sources and is only about $50 rather than the $1k+ the Cheap Heat goes for.
For what it is, the heat strip is a decent value.

I wish mine had it in the main AC (so it would come out the ducts) but the wall stat isn't wired for it.

Scott, seems like you are quoting a DYI price for the heat strip, and a full professional install for the Cheap Heat system.
We have been using our Cheap Heat system for over seven months of use, installed for over a year. We have full timed since June and have no complaints. DYI install cost were about $600 complete including the furnace unit.
The Cheap Heat system has the advantage of heating the basement of a 5er, heat strip doesn’t do.

You're right, it looks like the Cheap Heat is now $587 to $748. That's still a lot more than a heat strip.
Still, if money is no object (and you have room for it on your furnace) or you're going to be using electric heat a lot, the CH might be worth it to some.
If they could get it down to about $250, I would probably go for it.

I agree with Chris that I don't trust the cheap standard outlets to run my small cube heater. What I did was to install two new outlets in my trailer.

One is in the slide out, so it's wired to the outside, with a male plug that I can plug into a good ( yellowjacket ) short extension cord to the 20A outlet at the CG power pedestal. As such, it completely bypasses the trailer wiring system.

The second outlet comes off a newly added breaker in the load center. I use it for times like right now, where I am camped, the CG power ped only has a 30A plug.

I use a small "cube" heater ( 700W/1400W ) and can meet most all my heating needs on the low setting.

MKirkland wrote:
We like our heat strip. It has directional fins that pushes the heat anywhere we want.I'm a light sleeper and it is a constant white noise so I won't be bothered by the people in the next campsite that either stay up way past my bedtime or get up at sunrise and start talking loudly. We have a 22ft trailer so the heat strip is perfect.

similar for us. one thing to be aware of, it is around 1500 Watts/4500BTU so it isn't likely to warm up the trailer, but will keep it warm in many cases. Nice thing for us is it keeps the living AND bedroom warm. It's easy to install.

I have one in my MachIII in the big trailer and one in the polar cub in our smaller trailer.

Why not install one of these?
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=toe+kick+heater&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=241935233960&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5528809510928211272&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032965&hvtargid=kwd-2204360502&ref=pd_sl_7gnodnxipj_e
I'm thinking seriously about installing one under my 1st step in our 5th wheel.