Insolating Fresh Water Tank??

[D_and_A_plus_6]

I realize the summer camping season has just begun, but thinking about next winter.
Mine Fresh Water Tank hauls down below the membrane not protected by anything. I can enclose it with the insolation board pretty ez. Now how to heat or keep from freezing. I'm afraid a heat pad/devise on the bottom outside would not last because of height. Is their anything like the old oil dipstick heaters I could place down the outside fill hose into the tank.

I have a heated water hose now, but now all places have the water at the site.

Thanks for any info or ideas.

[mobeewan]

My trailer has a hole in the bottom of the heating duct under the floor where it runs over top of the water tank to provide heated air to the tank. Under the trailer it is covered with coroplast. I have hunted in weather that was 30's to 50's in the daytime and 17 to upper 20's at night and been okay. This past winter I had temps here that were 8 degrees to teens for about a week at night and only had a problem with a 1/3 full tank on the last night., but it warmed back up and all was okay. I am thinking if it gets that low again to add a temporary layer of taped on 1/2 inch polystyrene insulation board or permanently adding the poly styrene with another layer of coroplast over it.

[handye9]

Here's a link to Ultra Heat website.

[D_and_A_plus_6]

Like the silicone pad idea, could place a couple of them where the tank doesn't rest on the supports.

[Old-Biscuit]

Insulate around tank/area
Enclose under belly with coroplast sheeting
Run a heat duct down into underbelly area from furnace discharge
Install heat pads-----Ultra Heat

That is how 'heated trailers' do it......black/grey waste tanks, fresh water tank AND drain valves/lines

[Trackrig]

The old dipstick heaters went away because they weren't a good idea. Because there was only a little bit of surface area of the dipstick actually in the oil to provide the heat, it put out a very high concentrated heat that was bad for the oil. If you found one of these and put it in your water tank, it would probably melt a hole in the plastic tank wherever it touched it.

I'd use a silicone heater pad. You can find them in various physical sizes and various wattages. They're simple to install. Clean the bottom of the tank very well and apply a thin coat of high temp silicone from any auto shop. The hardest part is holding the pad up tight against the bottom of the tank while the silicone dries.

Silicone heater pads

Bill