Can personal heating pad be used in a TT ?

[sremsing]

My wife often has back pain and uses a heating pad at home. Can she use it in the TT? We have 30 amp service. Didn't know if we would blow a fuse or cause problems. It's kind of old so don't have a tag showing how many amps it uses.

[travelnutz]

Heating pads work fine and always have running from a 300 watt modified sine wave inverter from a simple 12V DC outlet. My disabled wife has been using them in our RV's and even boats for over 20 years now off either the shore power or off the 12V DC battery power when no hookups. Never have ran even a single battery down to 50% yet being on all day until bed time.

52 years of RV'ing so far. We also use our electric blanket or heated mattress pad all night long off our various sized modified sinewave inverters in the Fall and Winter or Spring in our truck campers or 5th wheels/other RV's and keep the furnace thermostat set lower since the early 1990's and still do and won't be without them. They don't use a lot of amps and less amps than the furnace blower motor and keep you truly toasty warm with virtually NO noise either. The heated pads, heated mattress pads, and electric blankets are all thermostatically controlled and only actually draw current for a small part of each hour and are so efficient.

I've had poor circulation problems for over 50 years now and need true body heat at night. More snug than a bug in a rug and as said, they only warm you and not the air! Wearing warm clothes as needed during the daytime but it really would suck if at night too. No "parka" to bed for us!

[wa8yxm]

Four answsers, 3 of them you will like:

ON shore power: YES
On Generatgor power: YES
Using a True Sine Inverter YES
All the above see note below
On a modified Sine Inverter: Perhaps but I would not suggest it.

Most heating pads are fairly low wattage. I could not find specs but I can not see them being much over 100-200 watts if that much (Less than a coffee pot)

The only concern woudl be if they draw too much power you might have to switch off say the Water Heater or turn the fridge to Gas.

[LarryJM]

DutchmenSport wrote:
My wife uses a heating pad all the time, at home, in the camper, and in the truck. Yes ... in the truck. We have a 400 Watt inverter. Plug it into the cigarette lighter, and plug the heating pad into the inverter. Works like a champ. You'll have no issues running a heating pad, not any more than an electric coffee pot, or a crock pot.

Same here and in the Van ours runs off a 300W inverter plugged into the power port on the dash. AFAIK the vast majority of heating pads are less than about 150 watts so no issues with power.

Larry

[rockhillmanor]

http://www.camping.com/the-rv-lifestyle/rv-maintenance/1762-rv-electric-101

snip-it from website:>>

Amps Draw

""It’s important to note that in an RV you can’t run several appliances at once or you’ll blow your breaker. Here’s the skinny. Your RV has either 30 amp or 50 amp capability. Amperage is the amount of power available to use. Each appliance pulls a specific number of amps. Exceed 30 or 50 amps (depending on your rig’s system) and poof – the power overloads and the breaker trips. Here’s a handy list of some of the typical appliances and the approximate amps required to operate them:

Microwave 12.8 amps
Air Conditioner - 15,000 BTU 12.5 amps
Electric Water Heater – 6 gallon 12.5 amps
Toaster 10 amps
Hair Dryer 10 amps
Electric Frying Pan 10 amps
Electric Coffee Pot 10 amps
TV 2 amps
Crock Pot 1.5 amps
Heating Pad .5 amps

Most electrical products note how many watts or amps it takes to operate them.

If you only see watts divide the watts by 120 (volts) and you’ll have the amps. Reverse that – multiply amps by 120 (volts) and you’ll have the watts.""

disclaimer: just an FYI link found on the internet, I did not verify any of the info.

[Naio]

Heating pads are super low wattage! 15 watts, IIRC. I use mine all the time to keep warm, evenings. Heat the person, not the space.

[nineoaks2004]

We use and electric blanket, and have no problem a lap pad should be no problem as I am sure the Electric blanket uses more watts.

[sremsing]

Thanks for the replys. My wife will be very happy.

[DutchmenSport]

My wife uses a heating pad all the time, at home, in the camper, and in the truck. Yes ... in the truck. We have a 400 Watt inverter. Plug it into the cigarette lighter, and plug the heating pad into the inverter. Works like a champ. You'll have no issues running a heating pad, not any more than an electric coffee pot, or a crock pot.

[RoyB]

We use two low wattage lap blankets all the time even when camping off the battery bank. You shouldn't have any problem being connected to shore power.

If you trip a breaker then turn off the A/C haha

ANother trick you might do if camping with electric hookups is to use the 20A Service side on the pedestal and run an extension cord into the trailer just for the heating pad. This will not draw from your 30A side then...

We do this alot with a portable electric heater when we get tired of listening to the loud furnace blower...

Roy Ken

[2oldman]

it's fine. It's not like it's a water heater or an air conditioner. You can always shop Amazon etal for similar items and find the watts there.

[JW_of_Opechee_S]

It should work fine because you probably have been plugged into a 15 amp circuit in your home.