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Old 01-04-2008, 05:51 AM   #1
muddflapp
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Auburn
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M.O.C. #7533
Electric Heaters

We are new to the living in the Monty and starting in Feb. we will be spending most of our time in it. I know some of you have a stand alone electric heater to help keep the Monty warm. I am looking for recomendations on which kind of heater I should be looking for. I know the fireplace puts out some heat but it doesn't help in the kitchen and bedroom area. Any suggestions would be appreciated?
 
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Old 01-04-2008, 06:04 AM   #2
bsmeaton
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We like the small fan driven ceramic heaters that can produce 1,500 watts. Unfortunately, they do not have tip-over protection like the larger more expensive types. These rely on overheat shutdown if they fall over and the airflow gets disrupted.

Remember to let the furnace run every once in a while if it is below freezing outside to prevent freeze of the pipes in the belly.
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Old 01-04-2008, 06:06 AM   #3
BB_TX
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M.O.C. #6433
We have one of these
http://www.laskoproducts.com/heaters/model_5900.html
at home in our bathroom. Quiet amd blows heated air in what ever direction you point it. Have not used it in the Monty yet as we have not been out when it has been that cold. But I believe I can set it in the living area and point it into the bedroom and keep a circulation going to keep most of the camper warm and minimize furnace usage.
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Old 01-04-2008, 06:48 AM   #4
ols1932
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We use the Cube Heaters sold by Camping World. They put out the most heat of any heater we've ever had.

Orv
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Old 01-04-2008, 07:29 AM   #5
OntMont
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We also use a small ceramic fan heater, (present one was from Home Depot). Remember, 1500W is the same, not matter what unit produces it. Look for a unit that is quiet and compact in design. One fault that I find with many of these small heaters is that the thermostat is mounted on the unit close to the source of heat and they respond more the temperature in the immediate surroundings, than to the temperature in the room as a whole. I wired an electric wall thermostat to an outlet, so that I can set the fan heater high, and let the wall thermostat control the unit. Ours includes both overheat and tip-over protection, (actually I thought those features were required by law). I would just pick something in the mid price range from somewhere that will take it back, and try it out.
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Old 01-04-2008, 08:45 AM   #6
TLightning
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We have two Lasko towers...two heat setting by watts, swivel option, timer option, six thermostat options.
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Old 01-04-2008, 09:40 AM   #7
skypilot
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As Brad reminded above -- you still need to run the furnace as well to maintain heat in the belly; if you don't and the temp is below freezing you will end up with some frozen pipes and holding tanks.
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Old 01-04-2008, 09:58 AM   #8
Icehouse
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We've got 2 Lasko tower heaters. One is in the bedroom/bath area. The other is between the kitchen/living area. The one upstairs will heat you out of the FW. I guess because the area is smaller than downstairs. I'm not real happy with the Lasko tower downstairs. In fact, yesterday we started looking for a different heater to use down here. May have to look on Camping World at the model Orv recommened.
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Old 01-04-2008, 10:40 AM   #9
Steve and Brenda
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The OEM fireplace and two small heaters keep us going. We pop a 30 amp pedestal power breaker when heaters and microwave are running.
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Old 01-04-2008, 11:03 AM   #10
Ozzie
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I've been anxiously awaiting the trial of this unit in our trailer:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JNP7M4

400 watts, 1200 BTU, and no fan. It would make a great supplemental heater for the 'quiet' half...mine will go in front of the shower door.
You'll have to let it run, but this one won't pop your breakers on you.
It's running now at home and is completely silent.
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Old 01-04-2008, 11:06 AM   #11
sreigle
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We have a small cube heater in the bedroom and two larger quartz heaters (around $40 each, so not expensive) in the living room. We don't need any of them to maintain comfort except in the wallet. The furnace can use a lot of propane. Compare your propane cost and electric cost.

We usually set the furnace low at night and the electric heaters' thermostats to come on at just about the same time. That's very hard to modulate and I'm not real good at it but that's what we try to do.

If you are in hard freeze weather, just make sure the furnace runs occasionally. It does not have to run a lot. Just enough to keep things from freezing up in the belly. Your 3400 has insulated water lines, as does ours, and have been tested by Keystone down to zero (with furnace running) without freezing up. We've been down to 5 below without freezing and probably could go lower.

Congratulations on the move into the Montana.
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Old 01-04-2008, 02:28 PM   #12
Army Guy
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We have a couple of the cermic heaters, one in the bedroom and the other in the living room area. This set up works for us most of the time. We keep the bedroom door closed at night and that keeps the heat upstairs better. We also put the bedroom heater on a timer to go off around 30 minutes before we get up to take the chill off the room. Stay warm.
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Old 01-04-2008, 03:00 PM   #13
Driftwoodgal
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We were in our first really cold weather this past weekend. It got around 18 degrees in Kerrville over New Years.

We used two heaters to keep us warm, but had to use the propane heat when it got into the teens.

I would love to know how everyone is managing the amp pull when using other things like coffee pot etc. I know it is hard on the breakers to keep having them pop when you use the electric heaters.

Colleen

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Old 01-04-2008, 03:30 PM   #14
Okie Guy
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I have an older space heater with a fan 1500 watt. I put the thermostat in the middle of the dial and it keeps the trailer warm. This is the perfect setting because the furnace will still kick on a couple of times in the night if the temps are below freezing. Here is a pic of a heater similar to the one I have. They are kind of bulky though so keep that in mind.


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Old 01-04-2008, 04:40 PM   #15
sreigle
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Driftwoodgal

We were in our first really cold weather this past weekend. It got around 18 degrees in Kerrville over New Years.

We used two heaters to keep us warm, but had to use the propane heat when it got into the teens.

I would love to know how everyone is managing the amp pull when using other things like coffee pot etc. I know it is hard on the breakers to keep having them pop when you use the electric heaters.

Colleen
If our electrical connection cannot support more than the three heaters running, then we'll turn one of them off while using the microwave, toaster, coffe pot, electric griddle, etc.

We rarely pop the outside breaker. It's usually the kitchen breaker we pop. It's better than the models a few years ago but there are still too many things on that single circuit. It doesn't take long to figure out what you cannot do. Moving a heater onto a different circuit can help.
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Old 01-04-2008, 06:16 PM   #16
clutch
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We have two small heaters with various settings to 1500 watts. We keep the smallest one in the bed room and set it on 500 watts on cooler nights. With the bedroom door closed the area stays nice and comfortable.
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Old 01-05-2008, 04:13 AM   #17
kjtogo
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We use a electric cube in the living room and an oil filled radiator in the bedroom. The challenge we had was finding circuits that would support the draw. We use the washer/dryer outlet in the bedroom and the same circuit that supports the OEM fireplace in the living room. Our concern with using using the fireplace all the time was replacing it at more cost and effort than a external heater.
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Old 02-01-2008, 04:39 PM   #18
dannyl
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I used a couple of heaters camping last week and several times I poped the breakers even though I wasn't running microwave etc.
Seems like if you use propane only you can drain a tank in just a few days. I'd like to use their electricity instead of my propane.
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Old 02-01-2008, 04:54 PM   #19
Rondo
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We bought a small ceramic heater at Menards this last week to use as supplement in the Monte when we head out early spring or in the fall. We first tried it out in the stick and it nearly drove us out of the room. It is a 1500W three setting fan unit with a fan only and a low and high setting. It has a variable turn knob for the thermostat settings and best of all it has a tipover switch to turn it off on the bottom of the unit incase it does tip over. What's even better is that it only ran about $13.00 this last week on sale. I think the ad runs for another week if anyone is interested in one. The Model# is CZ441 by Comfort Zone. Check them out! I thihk they normally run about $20-$25. You won't believe the little thing and the heat they put out!
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Old 02-02-2008, 12:51 PM   #20
fulltimedreamer
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I just found a wall mounted bathroom heater at Home Depot that is regularly $48.00 on sale for $19.00. It includes a towel bar for heating towels. I purchased two of these and will mount one in the livingroom and one in the bedroom. I removed the towel bars as I did not want them. I especially liked the mounting bar that allows you to remove the haeater to clean it.



They are a Kenwood Wall-mounted Bathroom Heater with towel warming bar. Model# HWB50TK

They are very quiet and will replace a ceramic heater that failed earlier this season and an oil filled radiator. The heater has a thermostat, timer, 750 Watt or 1500 setting and an anti-freeze setting that will come on at 41 degrees. I will use the anti-freeze setting as I drain my lines in the winter but do not use the pink anti-freeze, as we use the coach periodically throughout the winter.
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