Heated floors

[Rover1995]

Looking to upgrade to a Tiffin Bus all electric and wondering the pros and cons also heated floors pros and cons. I live in North Idaho and store my RV out doors and how the heated floors are in cold

[pianotuna]

Hi,

There are electric heated carpets that don't have any overlay material. They should be used with a heat proof underlay. The best of these use a carbon "layer" for the heating, so there are no wires to break. They are available as an indoor/outdoor carpet, so they can be taken to a spray wand car wash for a throughout cleaning. They can have holes punched in them for the dinette pedestal tubes.

hipower wrote:
Overall it appears that heated floors are loved by those who have them, envied by those who don't and wonderful when they are trouble free. Just about like everything else in our wonderful coaches.

Normal maintenance is not difficult in nearly all cases, unless the owner is a complete terror with tools or has physical limitations. Repair type work is much more troublesome with water or electric since either medium is covered by flooring material. There just isn't any simple access to any wires or tubes. Those who say continuous tubing can't or won't leak are denying the obvious. It can and does, infrequently, but not unheard of. The highway movement of a coach introduces stresses on components we may have in our stable sticks and bricks homes that are new and different than those same components see when sitting still.

Given the choice, I would always opt for in floor heat, regardless of type. It is just so much more comfortable. Aren't we all trying to enjoy what we worked all of our live for? I know I am.

[hipower]

Overall it appears that heated floors are loved by those who have them, envied by those who don't and wonderful when they are trouble free. Just about like everything else in our wonderful coaches.

Normal maintenance is not difficult in nearly all cases, unless the owner is a complete terror with tools or has physical limitations. Repair type work is much more troublesome with water or electric since either medium is covered by flooring material. There just isn't any simple access to any wires or tubes. Those who say continuous tubing can't or won't leak are denying the obvious. It can and does, infrequently, but not unheard of. The highway movement of a coach introduces stresses on components we may have in our stable sticks and bricks homes that are new and different than those same components see when sitting still.

Given the choice, I would always opt for in floor heat, regardless of type. It is just so much more comfortable. Aren't we all trying to enjoy what we worked all of our live for? I know I am.

[Mile_High]

AlaskaShooter wrote:
In doing research for a future Entegra Coach purchase, kits are available for the Aqua Hot units that contain the necessary new nozzle, filter and seals for the yearly maintenance. Also I believe I read where the units have a tool used to the igniter probes.

Just note the lower end Entegra (used to be Aspire - now Insignia) are LP Aquahots, not diesel. Cleaner to operate, but not as convenient for long term parking.

[AlaskaShooter]

In doing research for a future Entegra Coach purchase, kits are available for the Aqua Hot units that contain the necessary new nozzle, filter and seals for the yearly maintenance. Also I believe I read where the units have a tool used to the igniter probes.

Some complain about access to perform their own servicing on their Aqua Hot equipped coaches. So depending on the coach layout you may be working on the AH from the compartment next to where it lives via an access panel

When I lived in Alaska I installed a diesel fired Beckett burner, diesel tank and plumbed the 3 story house for Hydronic heat, later adding a hot water heater that was an additional zone from the boiler for domestic hot water. Sure did beat the electric baseboard heat the house was built with.

Couple decades ago my X wife and I visited her parents on the shore of Lake Michigan. They had a 2 story rental unit that had radiant ceiling heat. If you sat in the main living area (1st floor) you were cold. To warm up you stood up where all the heat was living. Now that was a joke of a heating system. 80 degs at the ceiling and 65 degs at the floor.

[doxiemom11]

I would LOVE to have heated floors!

[ferndaleflyer]

Seems to be pretty reliable. When we lived in Switzerland our house had heated floor along with radiant heat in the ceilings. Our driveway into the garage was also heated, all from a huge solar water heater.....Been all over the world and never saw anything like it although my uncle had electric radiant ceiling heat in a house he built 60 years ago. My current NC house also has the electric radiant heat in the ceiling. It is expensive to use so I had a heat pump installed. Next DP will have it for sure because this one has wood and tile floors, cold in the winter.

[Mr_Mark1]

I will also vouch for heated floors if it is offered. Our coach has the heat pads under the wood flooring. It is amazingly nice to have the warm touch on your feet in the winter months. Ours are set-up with four zones.

We also have electric toe-kick heaters built into the baseboard (one in the kitchen/living area and one in the rear bath). The diesel fired furnace is used on extremely cold days. I do try and exercise the furnace monthly.

In our previous Dynasty with tile floors, we had a small box heater that I would set between the driver's and passenger seats facing the living area. It kept the floors warm all night (the bedroom had carpet).

Safe travels,
MM.

[gonesouth]

Where I live we put single piece pex tubing in each thermostatically controlled loop and embedded it in a 1.5" layer of concrete. We run a propylene glycol/water mixture, heated by an oil fired furnace. The only problem is that it is still heating the room 24 hours after you shut off the thermostat. But we just set it and forget it. Bedrooms are set cooler than living rooms, bathrooms are set higher so that the air is warm exiting a shower or tub. Once a year I take a sample and try to freeze it in the freezer. If ice forms it needs more antifreeze.
The thermostats are in a row above a manifold which has an adjustable mixing valve feeding it so that in the shoulder seasons the whole living area can be run with less heat. Having had an Aquahot I think it would be a perfect device for the primary heat supply. Overall less maintenance that a traditional furnace and better comfort. You can have it both ways!

[Blaster_Man]

A coach with tile floors should come with heated floors. Unheated tile in the winter make the whole coach cold.

[Passin_Thru]

The only Con for me is they don't cool off very quickly and we want it cold at night. Not a problem because warm floors make you feel warmer.

[Two_Jayhawks]

Ours is electric. The coach is essentially divided in three zones each with it's own controls. It is very nice having warm floors in the coach especially in bedroom & bathrooms. I am a fan of the heated floors.

[older_fossil]

In 2015 when we were looking to order a Tiffin Allegro Bus to fulltime in, we spent time reading comments on the Tiffin Owners forum. The electrically heated tile floors were highly recommended, so we we added them to our order and are extremely glad we did! Often just having the floors on a low setting will keep the coach comfortable when it is not very cold out. It is very nice to get up at night to use the bathroom and the tile is comfortably warm. The biggest issue with electrically heated floors is the need for 120VAC.

[jorbill2or]

Doug , it’s standard full size poly type pipe the same issued in all hydronic heating and as I said there can be no leaks , as it’s s single very long pipe with no connectors Under the floor I suppose a service person could drill 4-5” through the floor into it. Same with electric grid, in fact I’ve heard more problems with failed / broken wires in electric grid as many of the used coaches I shopped for some years ago , the floor electric heat didn’t work . Those who I’ve talked to have it seem to love it , both types.
The nice thing on the hydronic is it doesn’t need 110 to work.

[Mile_High]

dougrainer wrote:

Mile High wrote:

dougrainer wrote:

Mile High wrote:
Tiffen uses electric heated floors. Entegra actually uses the AquaHot to heat the floors.

Either way - I would get them if available! They weren't available for us and those tile floors can get down pretty darn cold in the morning 🙂

There is a difference between HEATED floors and what Aqua Hot does. Aqua hot is NOT a Heated Floor like people think you mean. Aqua Hot just has their floor mounted Radiators with the muffin fans blow hot/warm air ACROSS the floor at the floor level. NOT close to that 14 inch wide radiator and the Floor is NOT warm/heated. True heated floors have a 120 volt heat grid under the Tile floor and radiate the heat evenly thru out the Tile floor. While Entegra advertises they use Aqua Hot to heat the floors, I think that is a misleading statement. I researched this because I thought Entegra was running coolant lines in a grid under the Tiles. NOT a good idea as leaks are bound to happen. I found out they do not, they use the Radiator system to flow the heat across the floors. Doug

I think I am RIGHT and you are NOT. 🙂

And I stated if I am wrong I stand corrected. Doug

PS still not a good system as I explained

I haven't ever heard of issues with them, but at the same time I would tend to agree with you. At the RV shows, I heard more negative discussions because of it than I did any benefit from the rep.