adding a heat strip

[outnabout]

I have a 2013 Montana and I want to install a heat strip in the AC. Can this be done and does anyone know if it might be pre-wired to the thermostat

[Deano56]

I was considering installing the heat strips in our two duo therms, they say they are prewired for them. I saw them for 53.00 apiece and thought why not try it out. Our MH is sitting in the driveway empty of LP till they fill our house tank up, most likely next month and like to go out there once in a while to have quiet time and watch a little Clint Eastwood shoot up the bad guys. I do wonder about 2 @ 5600 btu's doing a whole lot

[Mile_High]

I think a lot of folks confuse the heat strip with the heat pump.

[MM49]

I experienced a AC with heat strip at the National Quarter Horse Show. It was in a $100k horse trailer with living quarters. It was very nice. For the cost of the option it's a no brainer, I want it!
MM49

[Golden_HVAC]

Installing a heat strip can be done on several model air conditioners and heat pumps. However I would not recommend the $75 heat strip. They are to expensive, probably require you to hire someone to install it at $100 per hour shop labor, it might be really expensive..

You are much better off with a small Wal Mart electric heater with a small fan in it. Portable, you can heat just the bathroom if you are taking a shower or something, and not needing the whole RV warmed up to 75F. Only about $18 - $25. Listen to the fan before buying. If it is not something that you can run while sleeping, it is way to noisy. Make sure it has a thermostat for automatic operation.

Listen carefully to your A/C fan. Is it noisy? I don't like how noisy mine is. I would much rather use a quiet fan.

Don't pay any attention to claims "This electric heater is more efficient than that model." All electric heaters 'can' put out 3,400 Btu's per KW input heat. Some are slightly less efficient, by using a fan to blow around the heat, and might use 10 extra watts to run the fan, not heating the air. Less than 1% of the energy will be used by the fan, and even the fan motor is putting off heat into the air. . .

So the "Amish" heaters that claim to produce heat more efficiently are probably comparing them to say a oil boiler system, where each $4 gallon of fuel oil only provides about 75,000 Btu's of heat into the home. The remainder is lost to heating the boiler, flue gas, excess air lost due to cold air being brought into the area of the heater and sent out the flue stack, and loss through heat exchangers.

You can make 80,000 Btu's with a typical RV furnace by burning 1 gallon of propane (95,000 Btu's) and some is lost to the heat exchanger and flue gas. Or you can run a electric heater and consume about 22 KW, at a typical cost from $2.20 to $3 per 80,000 Btu's of heat. Or run a heat pump and consume as little as 7 KW, while using less than $0.80 in electric. Heat pumps are by far the most efficient way to heat your RV, if the outside air temp is above 40F. Below 40F, most heat pumps revert to the gas furnace.

Good luck!

Fred.

[TXiceman]

I have yett o see an ad on heat strip that was t'stat controlled. Some of the factory model may have the t'stat.

Ken

[Dave2001]

You will need to check your unit to see if the control board and thermostat will control a heat strip. If so they are pretty easy to install.
We have a heat strip on both AC units and run them on the low fan speed. Both units have their own thermostats and 3 speed fans. During the day they keep the 5er at the desired temperature without using the propane furnace. They maintain the inside temperature, when the outside temperature falls into the upper 30's. I set my propane furnace thermostat to come on if the AC heat strips can't keep up. This usually happens at night when the outside temperature drops. If we are running the ceramic heaters, they come on first, then the heat strips, then the furnace. The bedroom area seems to stay warmer than the rest of the 5er so that unit does not run much. My heat strips came from the factory with an in line fuse and overheat device, plus they are fed from the AC through its circuit beaker, so I feel safer using them. We always turn off the ceramic heaters when we are not inside the 5er. I think you will find them a great addition to take the chill out of the air in the spring and fall camping season. To me they feel like the air coming from our heat pump at home. Not warm like gas or oil heat but acceptable.

[KBfiredog]

TXiceman, mine was also thermostat controlled???KB

[KBfiredog]

Heat pump we had on our HitchHiker worked great, wish my current 5ver had it. The best thing about a heat pump is you are using the rv parks electricity. 0 cost to you. What a deal. Heat pump good!!KB
2011 Cameo 37RESLS
2012 Ford F350 Lariet PSD DRW

[GrumpyandGrandm]

TXiceman wrote:
They are not thermostat controlled.

Ken

The two I had ran off the thermostats, both had heat or cool settings. The one in the heat pump would come on when the outside temp dropped below 35 and the heat pump cut off. That thermostat had gas heat and elec heat settings.

[TXiceman]

The heat strips are a waste of time and money. They are not thermostat controlled. The air flow in the A/C is too high and it results in a very low air temperature.

In other words, do not wast your money and just get a ceramic heater.

Ken

[AlabamaTraveler]

kennethwooster wrote:
Always remember need some regular house heat to keep underbelly warm. I've also used a light bulb in underbelly just for insurance.

I've been doing this for years...

[scottykrug]

We installed one and it is one of the best mods we have done. Solved several problems in doing so.

We like having white noise when in busy campgrounds. We usually had a sound generator to drown out the noise of other campers. The constant running fan now achieves this.

We have a bunk house and our daughter would have issues on cold nights in the top bunk with condensation with her breathing. Water on the roof and damp bedding. Again, with the fan constantly running, it circulates fresh air through her bunk removing the condensation for her.

Originally we had issues with the camper overheating. Yeah it is only 1500 watts, but after several hours the inside of the camper would exceed 85*f with us waking up sweating. I tried opening vents and windows but found it was easier to install a thermostat from a electric baseboard heating system. Now I can control the temp independently from the fan. This saves us propane as well. Many of our trips the propane heater never kicks in. Early last spring the temps dipped to the low/mid twenties. The strip ran 24/7 and the propane heater only kicked in on occasion to help it out.

YMMV, but it is invaluable for us an I will do it on our next camper. One add is that I have to clean out the condenser on the roof more often with the fan running on a more continuous basis. Seeds, leaves, cotton, etc builds up and reduces the efficiency of the ac system.

[Tango__AE7UI]

On our Lance truck camper we had the roof top AC with the heat strip.
As posted above, a lot of noise moving a lot of air with little heat content.
The only really warm area was the cab over bed.
Since heat rises, we found better results with the portable 1500 watt heaters.

[Mile_High]

If you only have one AC on that 3402RL and it's prepped for the second AC, I would recommend getting a heat pump for the second and forget trying to incorporate a heat strip.

We have 2 heat pumps and they work fantastic. The heat strip isn't going to do much for you than what you could do with a space heater.