Adding Heat Strips
What's the chances of being able to add heat strips to a B57915.711C0 with a control box of 3107541.009. Having a hard time locating anything on it.
Forum Discussion
Loganhorse,
Every time this comes up we always get the same range of responses, which at first seems to be unhelpful.
For those who say they don't notice ANY difference when their heatstrips are "on", I wonder if they ever checked their system to make sure they were actually wired up correctly. Even from the factory, the techs could mess up and not plug in the heater element. I just don't see how you can have roughly 1200 watts of heat added to an air stream and there be NO apparent change in the temperature. Something is amiss somewhere.
My experience. We have a 36' motorhome and we have two A/C's, and we ordered it so that both units had heat strips. I've used my heatstrips EXTENSIVELY over the years.
They work very well for taking a slight chill out of the air, but they DO work slowly. Our A/C's are ducted as well, so there's a nice distribution of the air throughout the rig. They have saved me LOTS in propane usage over the years. Floor and space heaters are an option, and we used them to supplement the heat strips, usually at night. We always had kids and dogs in the RV with us, and portable heaters get in the way and tend to be knocked over.
We have even used the furnace (controlled by our forward thermostat) in combination with the heat-strips in our rear A/C unit. With the ducted system, this did a great job of distributing the air while also saving a bit on the propane.
Our rig is pretty well insulated (dual pane windows), and I think the quality of insulation on a rig has a lot to do with it, as well.
I posted a long post several years back relating some of our experience with them. I'll see if I can find that thread and add the link here. On edit: I found these....but not the one I was looking for...maybe it was too long ago! Hopefully these will help.
Thread One...
Thread Two...
Thread Three...
...just found Thread Four.
We use the heat strips while travelling in the motorhome in the late Fall, Winter & early Spring along with the dash heat to keep everyone comfy. Before we pull over for the evening, we'll turn on the rear heat-strips an hour or so before stopping so the entire rig will be comfy and ready for us to get to bed.
I'd recommend that you do it. I think the convenience is well worth it. After you do, though, please come back to this thread and let us know how it worked out for you. :)
~Rick
Every time this comes up we always get the same range of responses, which at first seems to be unhelpful.
For those who say they don't notice ANY difference when their heatstrips are "on", I wonder if they ever checked their system to make sure they were actually wired up correctly. Even from the factory, the techs could mess up and not plug in the heater element. I just don't see how you can have roughly 1200 watts of heat added to an air stream and there be NO apparent change in the temperature. Something is amiss somewhere.
My experience. We have a 36' motorhome and we have two A/C's, and we ordered it so that both units had heat strips. I've used my heatstrips EXTENSIVELY over the years.
They work very well for taking a slight chill out of the air, but they DO work slowly. Our A/C's are ducted as well, so there's a nice distribution of the air throughout the rig. They have saved me LOTS in propane usage over the years. Floor and space heaters are an option, and we used them to supplement the heat strips, usually at night. We always had kids and dogs in the RV with us, and portable heaters get in the way and tend to be knocked over.
We have even used the furnace (controlled by our forward thermostat) in combination with the heat-strips in our rear A/C unit. With the ducted system, this did a great job of distributing the air while also saving a bit on the propane.
Our rig is pretty well insulated (dual pane windows), and I think the quality of insulation on a rig has a lot to do with it, as well.
I posted a long post several years back relating some of our experience with them. I'll see if I can find that thread and add the link here. On edit: I found these....but not the one I was looking for...maybe it was too long ago! Hopefully these will help.
Thread One...
Thread Two...
Thread Three...
...just found Thread Four.
We use the heat strips while travelling in the motorhome in the late Fall, Winter & early Spring along with the dash heat to keep everyone comfy. Before we pull over for the evening, we'll turn on the rear heat-strips an hour or so before stopping so the entire rig will be comfy and ready for us to get to bed.
I'd recommend that you do it. I think the convenience is well worth it. After you do, though, please come back to this thread and let us know how it worked out for you. :)
~Rick
