Adding Heat Strips

[Loganhorse]

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.

[Rick_Jay]

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

[PatJ]

I added a heat strip to my 2019 Coleman roof AC and in my opinion it was totally worth it. Was a very simple plug and play install, the wiring was all there already from the factory. If you have a newer rig you don't need to mess with wiring or breakers or any of that, it is a simple plug-and-play to existing wiring/plugs with stupid-simple instructions and will work with your existing thermostat. It does not blow out "hot" air to the touch, but if it runs for a short while your rig will be warmer. If we have hookups, we use it as our only source of heat down to roughly 40f OSA and it easily maintains that temp.

In my opinion it is superior to portable electric heaters (which we carry in case of emergencies) because it is the same heat power yet it works with the existing hard-mount thermostats. Also, we often ran our roof air fan at night for background noise anyway, so adding heat was a no brainer. Just my experience. It works great for us.

[Lynnmor]

An oil filled heater puts out 5120 BTU, my $50 heat strip puts out 6000 BTU.

[Terryallan]

Lynnmor wrote:

way2roll wrote:


But to this point it begs the question - why bother? Given that it's considerably more cost and effort than a few ceramic heaters that produce the same result. Personally I wouldn't want to put the time and effort into a heating system that still leaves me feeling cold. I don't think I've ever read anything on this forum over the years that say that heat strips are awesome. Almost invariably, all posts agree, they marginally work if it's not really cold to begin with.

Because the cost is quite low, they don't need to be stored, they are always ready to go and a thermostat controls them. I have never seen anyone give them a chance to work, only instant gratification comments.

I gave mine lots of time to work. I turned it on, left it on for a few hours, and when I returned. The pup was just as cold as when I left it. NOT worth the time and money. As I said. they put out about the same heat as a hair dryer, only with more air.. a oil filled heater works MUCH better, and less than $50.00

[way2roll]

Lynnmor wrote:

way2roll wrote:


But to this point it begs the question - why bother? Given that it's considerably more cost and effort than a few ceramic heaters that produce the same result. Personally I wouldn't want to put the time and effort into a heating system that still leaves me feeling cold. I don't think I've ever read anything on this forum over the years that say that heat strips are awesome. Almost invariably, all posts agree, they marginally work if it's not really cold to begin with.

Because the cost is quite low, they don't need to be stored, they are always ready to go and a thermostat controls them. I have never seen anyone give them a chance to work, only instant gratification comments.

To each his own I guess. I think heat strips are about $100 when it's all said and done and a small cube heater with the same BTU can be had for about $20. Heat rises, so a portable heater has the advantage of heating from the floor up, as opposed to the heat strips being fan driven with cool air from the top down. I hear you on giving them a chance to work and that makes sense, but when I am cold that's the one time I would prefer instant gratification. I use my LP furnace or fireplace and forget portable units and heat strips altogether. But that's me.

[Lynnmor]

way2roll wrote:


But to this point it begs the question - why bother? Given that it's considerably more cost and effort than a few ceramic heaters that produce the same result. Personally I wouldn't want to put the time and effort into a heating system that still leaves me feeling cold. I don't think I've ever read anything on this forum over the years that say that heat strips are awesome. Almost invariably, all posts agree, they marginally work if it's not really cold to begin with.

Because the cost is quite low, they don't need to be stored, they are always ready to go and a thermostat controls them. I have never seen anyone give them a chance to work, only instant gratification comments.

[way2roll]

Lynnmor wrote:
Since heat strips put out about the same BTUs as a portable heater they will raise the overall temperature about the same. When people complain about little heat from them, they aren't considering the considerable air flow from the air conditioner fan. The air temperature from the ceiling vents will be much less than from a small portable heater but there will be much more air. That flow of air that is only a few degrees above the ambient air temperature may feel cool, but just leave it on. As the temperature rises it won't feel so cool when near normal room temperature.

But to this point it begs the question - why bother? Given that it's considerably more cost and effort than a few ceramic heaters that produce the same result. Personally I wouldn't want to put the time and effort into a heating system that still leaves me feeling cold. I don't think I've ever read anything on this forum over the years that say that heat strips are awesome. Almost invariably, all posts agree, they marginally work if it's not really cold to begin with.

[Lynnmor]

Since heat strips put out about the same BTUs as a portable heater they will raise the overall temperature about the same. When people complain about little heat from them, they aren't considering the considerable air flow from the air conditioner fan. The air temperature from the ceiling vents will be much less than from a small portable heater but there will be much more air. That flow of air that is only a few degrees above the ambient air temperature may feel cool, but just leave it on. As the temperature rises it won't feel so cool when near normal room temperature.

[Terryallan]

Sjm9911 wrote:
I had them in my pop up ac. They basicly said they were more like warmers to make it a tad more confterble then to be able to give off any real heat. And they were right.

Agree. they really aren't worth the effort. In my popup. If it was 60 degrees. The heat strip would warm it right up to 61. Only it would feel colder.

Save your money. Heat strips heat less than a hair dryer.

[mobeewan]

road-runner wrote:

mobeewan wrote:
Some A/C units have plastic parts in the area where the heat strip mounts that may melt.

Dometic makes a kit for the OP's model. I would hope it doesn't melt things.
Dometic heat strip for B57915 ducted system

There's a different kit for non-ducted systems.

Two points from my experience:
1) Don't expect a huge amount of heat. Doug posted the wattage earlier. A space heater can give just as much or more heat.
2) These things stink like heck on the first use of the season. Before you really need it, run it a few minutes with the windows open.

As I said "Some A/C units". That is the warning that I saw someone post on another forum. As I stated the OP should check to make sure that his unit is okay to add it. If Dometic makes a kit then it should be able to be added without issues as long as the installation directions are followed.

[Sjm9911]

I had them in my pop up ac. They basicly said they were more like warmers to make it a tad more confterble then to be able to give off any real heat. And they were right.

[road-runner]

mobeewan wrote:
Some A/C units have plastic parts in the area where the heat strip mounts that may melt.

Dometic makes a kit for the OP's model. I would hope it doesn't melt things.
Dometic heat strip for B57915 ducted system

There's a different kit for non-ducted systems.

Two points from my experience:
1) Don't expect a huge amount of heat. Doug posted the wattage earlier. A space heater can give just as much or more heat.
2) These things stink like heck on the first use of the season. Before you really need it, run it a few minutes with the windows open.

[mobeewan]

Check the manual or check with domestic. Some A/C units have plastic parts in the area where the heat strip mounts that may melt.

[dougrainer]

cavie wrote:
If you add heat strips you must add wire and breaker to carry the extra load of the strips. Also, thermostat to control them. Not a DIY job.

He has a Dometic roof AC. WHY WOULD HE NEED TO CHANGE THE WIRING OR BREAKER????????????. The system is designed for 20 amp max service. The largest Heat Strip is about 12.1 amps. The AC in COOL/Max fan is about 13.2 amps. The heat strips are plug and play. The only requirements are, that for easiest install you have a wall Tstat and you may have to replace the wall tstat if you have NO Heat Strip option, only furnace. You can add a Heat Strip to a Roof mounted control system but you have to replace the Tstat and possibly the ON/Off knob control. Doug