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deprived's avatar
deprived
Explorer
Jan 03, 2017

recommended fresh-water hose heater?

I've been able to skirt a few freezes by unhooking the water at night and relying on the tank. But soon, even the days are going to get pretty cold and I'll need to either get a heated hose or wrap my existing hose in some kind of heating device.

I've looked on Amazon and various options. None of the items get consistently good review, which surprises me.

Do any of you have any personal recommendations? I'd prefer modifying my existing water hose but I'm not too hung up on that idea. Reliability is the main thing.

THANKS and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

EDITED for bad typing
  • We also used heat tape and foam pipe insulation. The thermostat will turn it on and off automatically based on the temperature. Just be careful not to cross and 2 pieces over each other - single strand only . We also wrapped the water faucet as it was not a frost free faucet.
  • I used the Easy-Heat heat tape on my fresh water hose for 2yrs. I bought it a little long. I started the tape about a foot from the trailer inlet (the thermostat end), went up to the inlet on the trailer, then back to the spigot, wrapping the valve and spigot. I attached it with electrical tape about every foot. I then covered the hose with 1 size too large pipe insulation (to fit the heat tape and not leave a gap at the slit). Some more wraps on the foam pipe insulation to keep it from coming undone.

    I then wrapped the spigot with fiberglass insulation, then 2 heavy duty trash bags.

    I survived 2 winters that experienced -20*F regularly. It was cheap and effective!
  • Yes, I do not wrap the heat tape on the hose. lay straight and cover with pipe insulation.
  • if you buy a heater strip for the hose get one the same length of the house. you do not want to wrap any excess heater strip around the hose. that will create too much heat and you will burn up the hose. people around her use heat stripes for their pump houses and wind up burning the pump house down in the middle of the night
  • Johno02 wrote:
    Lots of options, but when we got caught out one time in really cold weather, I just got a heat tape at Lowes, taped it to my hose, and covered with foam pipe wrap. Heat tape was wrapped from ground to faucet, then wrapped hose. faucet was then all insulation wrapped. Worked for us, but if I were going to do it much, I would invest in a heated hose.


    This worked for me for 3 winters. Inexpensive as well.
  • deprived wrote:
    I've been able to skirt a few freezes by unhooking the water at night and relying on the tank. But soon, even the days are going to get pretty cold and I'll need to either get a heated hose or wrap my existing hose in some kind of heating device.

    I've looked on Amazon and various options. None of the items get consistently good review, which surprises me.

    Do any of you have any personal recommendations? I'd prefer modifying my existing water hose but I'm not too hung up on that idea. Reliability is the main thing.

    THANKS and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

    EDITED for bad typing


    Earth is a pretty general location, can you be more specific?

    Just insulating your hose could be enough. if the ground is warm enough to not freeze the pipes, then keeping that heat in should help.

    If you're camping where the ground freezes, aren't they going to turn the water off?
  • We use the Camco hose (below) which we purchased from Amazon. It has served us well, so far. I only put it into service when the temps are forecast to be below freezing and we're going to be in the same place for more than a night or two. Otherwise, we just keep the tank full and use that. The hose has been hooked up full-time the last four weeks or so since we've been in Maryland with the grandkids for Christmas and saw several months' use last winter.

    Camco hose at Amazon

    Rob
  • Lots of options, but when we got caught out one time in really cold weather, I just got a heat tape at Lowes, taped it to my hose, and covered with foam pipe wrap. Heat tape was wrapped from ground to faucet, then wrapped hose. faucet was then all insulation wrapped. Worked for us, but if I were going to do it much, I would invest in a heated hose.

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